Planting Seeds - Food & Farming News from CDFA

Monthly Archives: November 2013

Video – Farm field trip program provides Ag education in Sonoma County

The Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, based in Sebastopol (Sonoma County), sponsors a popular school field trip program to teach children about the origins of food and the need to preserve the resources that help produce it. TEAM 2013 from … Continue reading

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Giving so much more than thanks

Thanksgiving is a uniquely American invention, and I think it must be one of our finest. The celebrations, the food, the parades and pronouncements give us an annual reminder of all that we are so thankful for – and also … Continue reading

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San Jose biogas plant will turn food waste into energy – from the San Jose Mercury News

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_24500983/greenwaste-biogas-san-jose-food-scraps-energy-zero-waste-green?source=rss# By Dana Hull The nation’s largest facility for turning food scraps into biogas is about to go online in north San Jose. The project is a unique partnership between GreenWaste, which collects garbage, recycled materials and compostibles, and Zanker … Continue reading

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Expired food to become cheap meals – from NPR

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/09/21/222082247/trader-joes-ex-president-to-turn-expired-food-into-cheap-meals Here’s some food for thought: One-third of the world’s food goes to waste every year. In the U.S., about 40 percent of our food gets thrown out. It’s happening on the farm, at the grocery store and in our … Continue reading

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Do beer-drinking turkeys taste better? From the Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-turkey-beer-20131108,0,4258790.story#axzz2lDIvUHnY By Ricardo Lopez Turkeys will eat just about anything. Just ask Joe Morette. In 1993, the New Hampshire farmer and his workers popped open a few cans of beer after work one summer day. When one his birds knocked … Continue reading

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Central Valley helps US set record for farm exports – from the Modesto Bee

http://www.modbee.com/2013/11/18/3039532/farm-exports-hit-record.html By John Holland The world’s appetite for what the United States grows has increased again, pushing the nation’s farm exports to an estimated $140.9 billion in the last fiscal year. Soybeans, corn and other Midwest crops played the biggest … Continue reading

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Blue Diamond Growers rings up record $1.2 billion in revenue – from the Modesto Bee

http://www.modbee.com/2013/11/20/3042330/blue-diamond-growers-rings-up.html By Mark Glover California-grown almonds continue to be a red-hot commodity for Blue Diamond Growers, which will report record income of $1.2 billion at its annual meeting in Modesto today. President and CEO Mark Jansen will talk about the … Continue reading

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Water is the value that runs farming – Op-ed from the Modesto Bee

http://www.modbee.com/2013/11/16/3035349/leonard-van-elderen-water-is-the.html   By Leonard Van Elderen, President and Chief Executive Officer of Yosemite Farm Credit   The financing of a farm is tied squarely to the land. The land has value that allows the lender to provide the loans. That … Continue reading

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New smart phone applications for farmers’ markets, public scales and reporting pests

CDFA’s ongoing commitment to outreach through technology has led to the development of three new applications for smart phones. The first is a guide to local farmers’ markets. The new application was developed in collaboration with the State Department of … Continue reading

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Cost of Classic Thanksgiving Dinner Down in 2013 – From the American Farm Bureau Federation

http://www.fb.org/index.php?action=newsroom.news&year=2013&file=nr1114.html The American Farm Bureau Federation’s 28th annual informal price survey of classic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table indicates the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 is $49.04, a 44-cent price decrease from last year’s … Continue reading

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