Within minutes, the words he wanted to speak appeared on a monitor and were spoken aloud by a computer in a voice resembling his own using recordings from videos made before his diagnosis. It brought everyone in the room to tears. “On day two of this use by Casey, he was talking to his daughter for the first time in her memory. That was so gratifying,” says UC Davis Neuroprosthetics Lab co-director Sergey Stavisky.

The approach of Whole Health, a movement led by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, is “Let me understand who you are as a person. … What matters to you as opposed to what’s the matter with you,” says Dr. Michelle Dossett. “I think eventually it’s going to transform what we do in conventional medicine in this country more broadly.”

Food waste recycling is vital to transforming California into a circular economy. City and state organizations are creating mandates to get us there. 

While STEM education incorporates science, technology, engineering and math, STEAM adds arts into the mix. Proponents of STEAM say it develops creativity that bridges the sciences with the development of personal expression, emotional intelligence and social awareness: the human factors that define how we relate to the world. 

As the clean energy movement gains momentum, issues about the accessibility and affordability of clean energy technology — particularly among disadvantaged communities — are taking center stage.

As energy use advances, utilities ecosystems are looking to build the appropriate infrastructure to respond in real time.

Salt is taking center stage in efforts to balance public safety and environmental health in the Sierra Nevada.

The Dry Creek restoration project is revitalizing habitat for chinook salmon and steelhead trout.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order N-82-20 aims to shift the approach toward proactive conservation of entire ecosystems.

Andrew and Krista Abrahams want to rethink the assumptions of traditional dairy production.

The dialogue around regenerative agriculture has evolved over the last decade as agricultural methods that were once practiced by Indigenous communities around the world are reemerging.

Imagine selecting your final resting place where bobcats roam, wildflowers support bees and birds, and trails meander through rolling grasslands, oak savannah and forested settings.

Women founders in the Capital Region are developing groundbreaking technology in biotech and ag-tech, emerging industries where territory is still uncharted.

PODCAST: Listen to a six-part series about Capital Region professionals who found new pursuits after successful careers. 

PODCAST: Pam Marrone, who retired as CEO of Marrone Bio Innovations in 2020, didn’t take a break; she still works 10-12 hour days. This profile is part of The Next Chapter, in which we check in with Capital Region professionals who moved into new pursuits or retirement after successful careers.

Pam Marrone, who retired as CEO of Marrone Bio Innovations in 2020, didn’t take a break; she still works 10-12 hour days.

A 20-year study led by a UC Davis scientist and his colleague at the University of Haifa in Israel was recently recognized by the U.S.-Israel Binational Agricultural Research and Development Fund.

PODCAST: Advancements in the alternative-protein space are igniting in the Sacramento area.

In September, UC Davis was awarded the first federal funding given to a university to research cultivated meat, positioning the Capital Region to serve as a hub of the advancing technology. 

PODCAST: In September, UC Davis was awarded the first federal funding given to a university to research cultivated meat, positioning the Capital Region to serve as a hub of the advancing technology. Efforts to advance the emerging food market using science and technology have ignited worldwide to address the global challenge of food access and proper nutrition for a growing population and the unsustainable environmental and ethical practices of industrial animal agriculture as it barrels toward the planet’s capacity on land and at sea.

In the Capital Region, there’s an emerging market among boutique vineyards and wineries focused on low-intervention farming and production methods.

Ranchers and those in the conservation industry know there’s an inherent value to working lands, such as cattle ranches. But how do they monetize that value?

PODCAST: West Sacramento’s Washington District has transformed in the past decade, due to efforts by the City of West Sacramento, developers and food entrepreneurs.

PODCAST: California Rangeland Trust project places fiscal value on the environmental benefits of ranches.

After the closing of smaller food distribution centers that couldn’t meet COVID-19 required regulations, a grassroots program formed to serve people in need.

People love to hate school lunch, but the Nutrition Services team at Sacramento City Unified School District is out to change that.

Here’s how four businesses are engaging in the Capital Region’s farm-to-fork economy and have adapted to the pandemic so far.

In response to the coronavirus pandemic, consumers flock to Community Supported Agriculture programs as reliable sources of fresh produce, but will they stay once the pandemic has passed?

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.

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. 

When Leo Hickman returned in 2003 from an eight-month tour in Kuwait as a combat engineer in the U.S. Air Force, he wanted a way to spread peace. With no idea how, he set out on a journey of self-discovery and backpacked through 27 countries.

In 2016, when husband-and-wife team Kale Wisnia and Catherine Reon were scouting locations for Kletterwald USA — planned as the Sacramento region’s first tree top adventure park — they immediately fell in love with the undeveloped park, just 10 minutes from downtown Sacramento.

Passmore Ranch invites local chefs to swim for their fish.

We’re highlighting six of the Capital Region’s most influential female leaders who are blazing trails in their respective industries. 

In 2014, Rancho Cordova voters approved Measure H, a half-cent sales tax to fund the Community Enhancement Fund program, which funnels grant money from its general fund to improvement projects submitted by residents, local businesses and other organizations that support the city’s key priority areas: public safety; education; economic development; public works; arts, culture, history, entertain

As California struggles to meet the rising housing demands and address the state’s policy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the Capital Region is positioned to look to the suburbs for answers. This means farewell to the bedroom communities and hello to vibrant communities on the outskirts of the urban core. 

Eight of the world’s 10 largest vegetable seed companies are located near UC Davis, a world leader in plant science and agricultural research. The Capital Region is home to a vast ecosystem at the forefront of advancing food production — here’s how all the pieces come together.

Here in America’s farm-to-fork capital, consumers tend to understand this connection through our region’s rich agricultural heritage and California’s role as the nation’s largest agricultural producer. Local chefs like Brad Cecchi showcase seasonal produce and proteins from local farmers and ranchers who respect the land they farm and animals they raise, through practices intended to keep the land productive for generations to come.

An urban wood movement is growing across the country to reclaim this substantially-untapped natural resource, and efforts are booming in the Sacramento region.

Children at River Oaks Elementary School in Galt are more than just students. They’re scientists in the classroom and they do what scientists do — observe, ask questions, identify problems, gather data, analyze it and apply this knowledge in science, technology, engineering and mathematics to the real world.