Planting Seeds - Food & Farming News from CDFA

Author Archives: Office of Public Affairs

Spinach Dinosaurs To Sugar Diamonds: 3-D Printers Hit The Kitchen – from NPR

A mathematician’s sweet dream: For about $10,000, you can print out rainbow sugar dodecahedrons and interlocking cubes.   i If you can design a shape on the computer, than you can print it with sugar or chocolate. From cool casts for a … Continue reading

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Inheriting the farm – carry on or sell? From the Sacramento Bee

By Claudia Buck It’s a love for the land that sinks as deep as a taproot. Or not. For agricultural families, whether it’s a pear orchard, a wine vineyard or a tomato-processing plant, there’s no handbook for knowing when – … Continue reading

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CDFA introduces drought information web page

This blog post may also be read in Spanish. CDFA has developed a drought resources web page, which is intended to be a central location for information about the drought in California and assistance programs available to farmers, ranchers and farmworkers. The web … Continue reading

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Final State Water Action Plan Released: Outlines California’s Near- and Long-Term Water Priorities – News Release

http://resources.ca.gov/docs/Final_Water_Action_Plan_Press_Release_1-27-14.pdf SACRAMENTO, Calif. – As California experiences one of the driest winters on record, the California Natural Resources Agency, the California Environmental Protection Agency, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture released the final California Water Action Plan, laying … Continue reading

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USDA Crop Insurance Deadlines for California Fast Approaching

USDA’s Risk Management Agency (RMA) reminds producers that the sales closing dates for several crop insurance programs are almost here. Producers need to make sure to sign up, review, or change their crop policies before these dates have passed. January … Continue reading

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New virus linked to Colony Collapse Disorder – from the Los Angeles Times

By Geoffrey Mohan A rapidly mutating virus has leaped from plants to honeybees, where it is reproducing and contributing to the collapse of colonies vital to the multibillion-dollar agricultural industry, according to a new study. Tobacco ringspot virus, a pollen-borne pathogen … Continue reading

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Is reclaimed sewage water a viable water supply option? From NBC News

Andre Casasola / Orange County Water District Purified water from Southern California’s Groundwater Replenishment System exceeds state and federal drinking water standards. The water seen here is fresh from the facility.   After touring a plant that turns sewage into … Continue reading

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Governor Brown Declares Drought State of Emergency

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross (far left) appears with Governor Brown today in San Francisco as he declares a drought state of emergency in California. A link to the Governor’s news release may be found here: http://www.gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=18368   Secretary Ross with KNBC-TV reporter … Continue reading

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National Recognition for Center for Land-Based Learning – From the Sacramento Bee

By Cathie Anderson Mai Yang Vang, only 28 years old, has already come full circle in her life. She’s now a board member at the nonprofit that inspired her passion for environmental justice as a teenage student at Sacramento High School. … Continue reading

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Most students get food and beverage marketing at school, study says – from the Los Angeles Times

By Mary MacVean Most students are exposed in school to efforts by food and beverage companies to sell food or gain brand loyalty, despite a decline in some kinds of commercial enterprises, including in soda machine contracts, researchers reported Monday. … Continue reading

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