Monthly Archives: October 2018

Brownie Girl Scout Troop 2367 from Dixon, CA had a special guest at a recent troop meeting.  Dr. Marc Epstein, a Senior Insect Biosystematist and Lepidopterist at CDFA’s Plant Pest Diagnostics Lab in Sacramento, made a special visit to help teach the girls about insects. During his visit, Dr. Epstein shared with the girls how he became interested in insects …

By Jackie Flynn Mogensen Over the past decade, the honeybee story has been the stuff of science fiction. Back in 2006, beekeepers first noticed their honeybees were mysteriously dying off in huge numbers, with no clear cause. For some, a whopping 30 to 90 percent of their colonies were disappearing, especially on the East Coast. Worker bees were abandoning their queens and leaving …

  A report issued last week by a consortium of environmental groups on antibiotics in the meat supply chain highlights the importance of work being undertaken by California Department of Food and Agriculture as the first state in the nation to regulate the use of antibiotics in livestock. The report touched on CDFA’s efforts but it is important to clearly …

By Jonathan Kauffman Angus doesn’t look like your normal farmer. He’s more of a giant, docile rectangle, built to lift 800-pound containers filled with water and seedlings and wheel them over to his partner robot, which looks like a giant arm with twin cameras set next to its gripping fingers. It has taken a San Carlos company named Iron Ox …