Only one year after a freeze that wiped out about 40 percent of the state's orange crop, California orange growers say they believe they'll harvest about 86 million 37.5-pound cartons this season.
That's close to the 88 million cartons they harvested during the 2005-06 season.
For five days beginning Jan. 12, 2007, temperatures dropped into the low 20s in California from the Mexican border to the Sacramento Valley.
Nevertheless, growers used wind machines and irrigation to help save 37 million boxes of fruit that early reports said were nearly a complete loss.
"It really only takes a couple of degrees difference to lose everything," says Joe LoBue of LoBue Brothers in Lindsay, Calif.
The freeze caused about $800 million in losses to the crop still on the trees. During the 2006-07 season, growers only harvested 52,600 cartons of citrus, according to California Agricultural Statistics Service reports.
The Organic Trade Association has launched the nonprofit Organic Agriculture and Products Education Institute to educate growers, processors, consumers, university researchers and other professionals about the attributes and benefits of organic production.
Both groups are based in Greenfield, Mass.
To show support for the new institute, Bruce and Alissa Nierenberg, who own the New York-based B.I.N. Sales, an organic and natural foods sales and marketing firm, became the first donors.
"OTA has enabled the industry to grow, which has enabled me and my companies to thrive," says Bruce Nierenberg. "As a result, I wanted to give back in this way."
For more information about the institute, contact info@organicinstitute.net.
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Weather monitoring network now includes 36 states
The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network will celebrate a decade of weather monitoring by adding 10 states this year.
The program, run out of Colorado State University in Fort Collins, relies on thousands of volunteers to document the size, intensity, duration and patterns of precipitation. The only equipment needed is a cylindrical rain gauge available from the network for $22 plus shipping.
Each volunteer is asked to read the rain gauge each day at the same time and upload the measurement to the Web site.
Data gathered by volunteers provide important daily and long-term decision-making information on drought and water supply for agriculture, recreation, utility providers, resource managers, teachers, scientists and homeowners.
The network has more than 7,500 active volunteer observers in 27 states and plans to add 10 additional states during 2008: New Jersey, South Carolina, Rhode Island, Georgia, Utah, Washington, Michigan, Mississippi, Louisiana and California.
By 2009, network organizers say they hope to have 20,000 observers.
Oregon began the program in December and quickly amassed a volunteer base of 450 observers in less than two months.
"We know that there are many, many decisions made every day that have to do with weather and climate and often with water," says George Taylor, director of Oregon's Climate Service in Corvallis. "In the growing season it might be irrigation, in the wet season it might be the effect of drought, it might be water supply or stream flow forecasts or even floods. And by getting more high-resolution information, we can really improve the database and therefore improve the quality of decisions that are made."
Agencies assisting the network include the National Weather Service, conservation districts, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension, and other state and federal natural resources organizations.
For information on network, visit http://www.cocorahs.org or contact Henry Reges at hreges@atmos.colostate.edu.
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