News

Grape Seeds, Stems and Skins in Feed Can Reduce Dairy Cattle Emissions

California’s wine industry could play a role in reducing methane emissions from dairy cattle.

Researchers at University of California, Davis, added fresh grape pomace left over from winemaking operations to alfalfa-based feed for dairy cows and found that methane emissions were reduced by 10% to 11%. 

The preliminary findings could offer a low-cost sustainable pathway for vineyards to reduce waste while helping dairy operations maintain quality while cutting back on emissions of methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas.

Eco-tip: Pilot programs preview potential progress for recycling food waste

Breakthrough technologies and innovative programs often start as pilot projects. When the project serves a public purpose, public agencies sometimes provide incentives.

Two upcoming events, coordinated by the Ventura County Recycling Market Development Zone, provide examples and show public agency support on the city, county, state and federal levels.

Crump aims to improve food in rural markets

 

People in rural regions like mountainous Nepal produce plenty of food. But before it can get to local markets and into people’s homes, much of it spoils. What’s left often has lost much of its nutritional value. Now, Amanda Crump and team are working on a way to get more nutritious food into the homes of Nepalese people

Using Yeast to Convert Almond Hulls to Animal Feed

Yeast grown on almond hulls could be a new, sustainable route to produce high-protein animal feed from an agricultural waste product, according to research from UC Davis published Nov. 15 in PLOS One.

Raising animals for meat requires livestock feed that is high in protein, especially essential amino acids that animals need to grow. That makes feed the most expensive input in meat production.

Farms to Fungi to Food: Growing the Next Generation of Alternative Protein

A solution to world hunger might start with boba and caviar.

Using an innovative process, engineers at UC Davis are growing “myco-foods” — small balls of edible fungi that can be processed into products like boba and lab-grown caviar with a wide range of textures, colors and flavors. These myco-foods, grown from the nutrients of agricultural byproducts like coffee grounds and almond hulls, provide an important new source of protein to feed the world.

 

Ned Spang featured in AP story on SB1383, CA Composting Law

FST Associate Professor Ned Spang is featured in the story (and embedded video) "California pushes composting to lower food waste emissions", by Kathleen Ronayne/AP News on December 9, 2021, speaking about the impact of California's SB1383, the bill passed in 2016 that becomes effective in January 2022.  The bill is designed to reduce methane emission from food waste that ends up in landfills, with the goal - by 2025 - of compost