New Associate Editors Take Over in Busy Areas

 

Two busy subject areas—Pomology, Viticulture, and Subtropical Horticulture and Vegetable Crops—have new ANR Associate Editors managing peer reviews of materials submitted for publication.

 

Tim Hartz, Vegetable Crops Specialist, agreed to serve as the subject area’s Associate Editor, taking over for Wayne Shrader. Hartz was a suburban boy who discovered early on that a career outdoors was for him. He received his PhD in horticulture from Virginia Tech in 1981, and his first job was an Extension vegetable specialist at Texas A&M. After a stint in private industry, Hartz joined UC in 1989, first at UC Riverside, then UC Davis. The workgroups he is active in include individual commodities and warm- and cool-season vegetables. He anticipates working more on water quality as well in the next few years.

 

Another upcoming task for Hartz focuses on existing ANR vegetable crops publications. The vegetable crops authors were some of the first to embrace online publications. Since 1996, they have written nearly 40 short production guides on everything from artichokes to watermelons. Hartz aims to have most those electronic vegetable publications updated with new varieties and production statistics during his tenure as Associate Editor.

 

Hartz can be reached at hartz@vegmail.ucdavis.edu.

 

Ventura County/Santa Barbara advisor Ben Faber stepped forward to become ANR Associate Editor for Pomology, Viticulture, and Subtropical Horticulture when former AE Joe Grant became AE chair. The idea of being an Associate Editor appealed to Faber as a way to fulfill University service and also as a “way to stay in touch with advisors across the state.”

 

Faber’s background includes an MA in international agricultural development, which he then utilized as a Peace Corps volunteer in Togo, a PhD from UC Davis in soil fertility, and three years as lecturer in the campus’s Land, Air, and Water Resources department. In 1990 he was appointed advisor for soils, water, and subtropical crops for Ventura/Santa Barbara Counties. He is chair of the avocado pest and disease workgroup and is a member of the waste management, irrigation, and subtropical horticulture workgroups.

 

Right now Faber is managing the peer review of the book-length manuscript “Growing Deciduous Fruit and Nut Trees in the Home Garden” and anticipating the arrival of an organic strawberry manual and a citrus production manual. He believes that ANR peer review “legitimizes what we at the University do.” The University’s objectivity in its outreach information is critical, particularly when, Faber says, “growers are surrounded by people trying to get them to buy things.”

 

The growth in popularity in electronic publications is echoed by both Hartz and Faber. “Increasingly we’re seeing that access to and utilizing web material is growing among out clientele,” says Hartz. “In a few years only glossy books will need to be printed.”

 

Faber agrees. “Last year there was a sea change in electronic information. I think people are just surfing the Web looking for answers. Hard copy publications are good for reference, but my opinion is that everything we produce should be available both hard copy and online in viewable format.” He believes people will always buy the printed book, which is cheaper and better quality in the long run.

 

Faber can be reached at bafaber@ucdavis.edu.