Jessica Bryant, a former personal trainer who was raised on a cattle ranch, started Corn Poppy Produce in 2019 to promote healthier living in the Stockton community.

State regulations present an opportunity to shift the way we think about what an eco-friendly landscape can do when we move beyond compliance toward practices that conserve all natural resources and maximize water efficiency.

Almond trees and grapevines will die if deprived of irrigation for a year or less in a dry place like the San Joaquin Valley, but pistachios can survive for years with almost no water. That means, in crisis-level droughts, the trees might persist where virtually all other crops die.

In the face of climate change, environmental stress and population growth, advanced technology can lead to enhanced weather forecasting, which could make a huge impact in preventing floods and keeping reservoirs full.

Professor Jennifer Harder is the co-director of the Water & Environmental Law program at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento. Comstock’s spoke with Harder about water issues affecting the Capital Region and California.

For decades, the California water debate revolved around one metric: unimpeded flow, which is the amount of water in the river and streams. While flow is still without doubt the key issue, it is no longer the only one. 

Solar Cookers International, the world’s leading organization on solar cooking, has been based in Sacramento since 1987. SCI’s work to reduce dependency on fuelwood could have far-reaching global economic impacts.

Comstock’s spoke with Paul Towers, executive director of Community Alliance with Family Farmers, a Davis-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting family farmers and community-based agriculture, to find out how small farmers in the Capital Region are faring during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Face masks have flown off the shelves around the United States amid the coronavirus outbreak, even though experts have advised people against wearing them unless they are sick. That has triggered a shortage for farmworkers, who wear masks to avoid inhaling pesticides or field dust.

Even the special interests that helped kill a California Senate bill aimed at reforming beverage bottle recycling say the state needs to fix its broken system. And one lawmaker who voted no on the bill says he might just introduce his own.