We’ve heard a lot about rising fertilizer prices since mid-2020 and various explanations have been offered. UC Davis DeLoach Professor of Agricultural Economics, Aaron Smith, says a confluence of factors have combined to cause the price spike and that, in part due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, prices continue to increase. "Oil and gas prices have surged in the past couple of weeks due to supply uncertainty created by Russian threats to invade Ukraine,” said Smith.

A new award fund has been created to help students interested in the wine industry pursue their degree in the Department of Viticulture and Enology at UC Davis.

The Theopolis Vineyards Diversity Fund will provide one scholarship of up to $10,000 each year to students interested in viticulture and enology and related research or managing a vineyard, with a preference for students who are underrepresented or understand barriers to entering the industry.

A supportive environment can bring out the best in an individual — even for a bird. 

After an E.coli outbreak in 2006 devastated the spinach industry, farmers were pressured to remove natural habitat to keep wildlife — and the foodborne pathogens they can sometimes carry — from visiting crops. A study published today from the University of California, Davis, shows that farms with surrounding natural habitat experience the most benefits from birds, including less crop damage and lower food-safety risks.

UC Davis plant geneticist Pam Ronald has been named the recipient of the 2022 International Wolf Prize in Agriculture, given by the Jerusalem-based Wolf Foundation in recognition of her “pioneering work on disease resistance and environmental stress tolerance in rice.”

Lactic acid bacteria are essential in creating fermented foods like yogurt, cheese and sauerkraut. Certain strains are also used as probiotics to improve human gut health. 

Researchers at the University of California, Davis, and Rice University have discovered that lactic acid bacteria use a previously unknown energy metabolism, which radically changes the scientific understanding of how these bacteria may thrive in their natural environments. 

Wheat products account for roughly 20% of what people eat every day around the globe. As climate changes, wheat crops must adapt to new weather patterns to keep up with demand. 

The University of California, Davis, is leading a five-year, $15 million research project to accelerate wheat breeding to meet those new climate realities, as well as to train a new generation of plant breeders. 

A team of scientists from University of California, Davis, have identified a new gene variant in wheat that can increase the amount of the grain produced, new research published in the journal PLOS Genetics finds.

Wheat is a staple of food diets worldwide and the gene discovery could allow farmers to grow more food without increasing land use. Increased yield could also lower consumer prices, making the crop more accessible.

World-renowned celebrity chef of more than 40 years, host of the public television show “Yan Can Cook” and UC Davis alumnus, Martin Yan ’73, M.S. ’77, and his wife, Susan ’75, recently made a gift to the UC Davis Library Archives and Special Collections to create the Chef Martin Yan Legacy Archive.

We’ve all heard the phrase “You are what you eat,” but can this actually be measured?

Researchers at University of California, Davis, have obtained a $5 million grant to study diet and identify food biomarkers to see how what we eat affects overall health or risk of disease.

Alternatives to meat have recently become a hot area in food research, with major fast-food brands marketing burgers made from plant proteins that attempt to reproduce the texture and flavor of ground beef patties. But beyond these “impossible” products is another prospect: actual flesh grown under lab conditions instead of being harvested from an animal or fish.