Planting Seeds - Food & Farming News from CDFA

Monthly Archives: August 2013

Growing California video series – From Service to Harvest

The latest segment in the Growing California video series, a partnership with California Grown, is “From Service to Harvest,” a story of veterans turning to farming after their service is complete.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Tails wag as parcel inspection dogs retire from California Dog Teams

There has been a changing of the guard this summer among the California Dog Teams – comprised of specially trained dogs that sniff parcels and are part of the state’s first line of defense against invasive species. Three veteran dogs … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Hackers, food access and government – an unlikely partnership – from the Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/local/columnone/la-me-c1-code-for-america-20130826-dto,0,400145.htmlstory On a recent day at work in a San Francisco loft, Moncef Belyamani was sporting a hipster “LOVE” T-shirt and riffing, with obsessive detail, on the evolution of vinyl record production. The Android coder and sometime dance-club DJ wrapped … Continue reading

Posted in Food Access | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Video – Sacramento stakes its claim as America’s farm-to-fork capital

The Sacramento Visitors and Convention Bureau has produced a video outlining why the Sacramento-area can stake a claim as America’s farm-to-fork capital. CDFA Secretary Karen Ross appears at the 10:30 and 12:55 marks.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Video – Public Service Announcement About California Cheese

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Bountiful Crops in the Valley Yet Stomachs Empty – From the Ceres Courier

http://beta.cerescourier.com/section/11/article/1166/ Despite being the breadbasket of America, many residents in the Central Valley remain hungry in what is a very ironic and unfortunate truth. An estimated 67,000 of the area’s residents in the Valley go hungry every day. Last week, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Cover Crops and Conservation – a video from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service

Cover Crops and Conservation is one of a series of videos on conservation from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. The series is called, “There’s a Plan for That.”

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Tons of Ag Plastic to Get a New Life – From the Salinas Californian

http://www.thecalifornian.com/article/20130817/BUSINESS/308170022/Tons-ag-plastic-get-new-life?nclick_check=1 An agricultural plastics recycling center that will easily dwarf the Salinas Wal-Mart in size is slated to begin operations this fall in the Firestone Business Park, eventually employing up to 500 workers. The deal, brokered by Cassidy Turley Commercial Real Estate … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

UCLA student researchers find urban agriculture thriving in Los Angeles County

A group of graduate students in urban planning at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs has created the first comprehensive picture of urban agriculture in Los Angeles County. While farming has long been the domain of rural landscapes, increasing … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Protecting the Promise of California Agriculture – a report

View the report here. In turbulent economic times, assessing a government agency’s effectiveness can be a trying task. Our nation’s and indeed the world’s recent financial history did more than force government to cut budgets; it forced many great industries … Continue reading

Posted in AG Vision, Agricultural Education, Integrated Pest Management (IPM), Invasive Species | Tagged , | Leave a comment