Comments by UC Davis community members regularly appear in a wide variety of media outlets around the country. Among the recent citings in prominent publications:

Agricultural and resource economics professor Phillip Martin was interviewed on National Public Radio on April 4 about how an illegal immigration crackdown could affect the nation's economy. Martin said the farming industry would adapt to a shortage of workers, just as it did in the 1960s after the "bracero" temporary labor agreement with Mexico ended. Despite predictions at the time that produce prices would skyrocket, "The University of California developed tomatoes that ripened uniformly, a machine to harvest them, and we now produce five times more tomatoes at roughly half the cost that we did back in the 1960s," Martin said. …

Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care director Rich-ard Kravitz also appeared on NPR on March 31, discussing the value of prescription drug advertising. Kravitz said the ads can be beneficial in some cases, but "when conditions are either uncommon or trivial, and when the treatments have significant side effects, then drug advertising can bring with it more harm than good…"

The medical center's Christian Sandrock commented on a new computer model created to predict the spread of avian flu in an April 3 National Geographic News story. The model suggests the United States may not be prepared to contain a fast-spreading virus. But, "nothing is uniform in life as compared to a mathematical model," warned Sandrock, an infectious disease expert. "We have no idea what will come out of the gate when it happens." ...

Viticulture and enology professor Andrew Walker commented on a grape growing technique called biodynamics in a March 29 Associated Press article. Biodynamic farming, which views farming as a living organism that is affected by lunar cycles and planetary alignment, has been successful at some California vineyards. Although Walker was unaware of research showing that biodynamics is effective, he said, "It's a technique to grow grapes that's attendant on very careful attention to your vines, which can't be a bad thing." ...

Wildlife, fish and conservation biology professor Peter Moyle was quoted about river restoration efforts in two newspapers. In the March 30 Los Angeles Times, Moyle said the Klamath River may have trouble recovering from years of mistreatment, even after dams have been removed. "My biggest worry is that expectations about the positive impacts of Klamath dam removal on salmon and steelhead may be raised too high," he said. Moyle was more optimistic in an April 2 San Jose Mercury News story about the removal of a dam to restore the San Joaquin River. "This is a river that has been dried up in long stretches for 60 years," he said. "It can literally be brought back to life again." ...

Center for Consumer Research director Christine Bruhn commented on the increasing popularity of public markets in the April 5 San Francisco Chronicle. The markets, which sell specialty foods and other goods, are widespread in Northern California. Bruhn suggests that part of the appeal of the markets is their perceived hipness. "It's very contemporary," she observed. "People are going to places like Whole Foods and San Francisco's Ferry Building because their friends go. It looks very health-conscious." ...

Education professor Patricia Gandara contributed to an April 4 Los Angeles Times story about Latino students falling through the "educational pipeline." The article said smaller percentages of Latinos graduate from high school, graduate from college and earn advanced degrees than white students. Gandara said part of the problem is the lack of a college-going culture that encourages Latino students to continue their education. "Nobody's preparing these kids for what they need to do because of that absence of a culture," Gandara said. ...

Economist Giovanni Peri was featured in the April 6 issue of the Economist in a review of research on the immigrant impact on the economy. He recently published the paper, "Rethinking the Gains from Immigration: Theory and Evidence from the U.S.," along with Gianmarco Ottaviano at the Univerity of Bologna. Peri said that even within the same skill categories, immigrants and natives need not be perfect substitutes, pointing out that the two groups tend to end up in different jobs.