California Department of Food and Agriculture

As the weather warms up and mosquitoes become more prevalent, California horse owners are advised to consult their veterinarian to ensure their horse’s vaccination status is current for maximum protection against West Nile Virus.

Even though the disease peaked in California a number of years ago, it remains a risk. In 2017 it was confirmed in 21 California horses, eight of which died or were euthanized. According to California’s West Nile Virus website there were 553 human cases of the disease in the state last year.

“Outbreaks of West Nile Virus are still a risk for horses,” said California State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones. “Horse owners should contact their veterinarians as soon as possible to make sure their animals’ vaccination status is current. Vaccination will provide optimal protection against the disease.”

Signs of West Nile Virus include stumbling, staggering, wobbling, weakness, muscle twitching and inability to stand. Horses contract the disease from carrier mosquitoes and are not contagious to other horses or people.

The best way to minimize the threat of West Nile Virus is to control mosquito populations and prevent exposure to them:
• Reduce or eliminate sources of stagnant or standing water that can serve as a breeding ground for mosquitoes, including old tires, buckets, wading pools and other containers.
• Stall horses during peak mosquito periods (i.e., dawn and dusk);
• Use equine-approved mosquito repellants and/or protective horse gear such as fly sheets, masks, and leg wraps;
• Place fans inside barns and stalls to maintain air movement, as mosquitoes cannot fly well in wind.

CDFA is working with the California Department of Public Health to detect and respond to the disease in California. Horses provide an additional sentinel for West Nile Virus detection. For more information click here.

Know of a Golden State landowner who’s a conservation leader in your community? Or, maybe you’re that leader! Nominate a friend, colleague, or yourself for the 2018 California Leopold Conservation Award.

Over 50 percent of all land in California is privately owned, and how people manage this land has a dramatic effect on our environment – helping to combat climate change, boost clean air and water, and protect wildlife.

Dedicated to the spirit of world-renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the Award celebrates the extraordinary efforts of California farmers and ranchers to protect and restore the natural resources they preside over, and aims to inspire other would-be conservationists by promoting a better understanding among the public about the Nominations must be postmarked by July 13, 2018.

The award recipient receives an Aldo Leopold crystal and $10,000. Learn more.

The award is co-sponsored by Sustainable Conservation, Sand County Foundation, and the California Farm Bureau Federation.

By Anne Stych

If you think frozen vegetables are only good as a makeshift ice pack, think again.

Putting those peas and carrots in your stomach instead of on your swollen knee will give you a nutritional boost almost equal to eating fresh veggies, research finds.

Although 85 percent of people say they know they should eat more vegetables, only one in 10 adults actually meet federal fruit and vegetable intake guidelines, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

But new frozen vegetable varieties are making it easier and more fun to up your veggie intake.

Cauliflower as a substitute for potatoes has been the darling of low-carb dieters for years, and a riced version of the vegetable is available in the frozen food section, right next to Green Giant’s veggie tots, made with broccoli, not potatoes.

In January, Green Giant introduced frozen spiral veggie noodles, a pasta alternative made from zucchini, carrots, butternut squash, and beets, which have just 15 to 50 calories per serving.

Millennials are increasingly purchasing frozen foods, and fruits and vegetables experienced the most growth in the space in 2017 at 4 percent, and growth in the frozen food sector “is accelerating as consumers begin to see freezing as a way to preserve food with fewer negatives,” according to a report from RBC Capital Markets.

Frozen foods, which have a longer shelf life than fresh, help cut back on waste, a potential savings of $1,500 a year, per NPR.

A study at the University of California – Davis tested eight fresh fruits and vegetables for flavor and nutrient content after flash-freezing half and storing the other half according to industry standards. The researchers found that good frozen produce is about equal with fresh produce.

Link to article

CDFA and the USDA are continuing their joint project to eradicate a recent outbreak of virulent Newcastle disease (VND) in Southern California. Detections have occurred at a small number of properties in Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.

The project includes extensive outreach to bird owners and feed stores with tips on signs of the disease.

Please remember that there is no cure for VND. It is important that all commercial and non-commercial poultry owners maintain effective barriers to protect against the risk of the disease. Biosecurity tips for backyard and non-commercial poultry owners can be found here. For commercial poultry owners, biosecurity tips can be found here.

Two video public service announcements have been produced to share information about the disease, in English and Spanish.

Map of the project.

By Matt Weiser

Wastewater recycling doesn’t have to be a fancy affair. Sometimes it can be as simple as building a pipeline.

That is more or less the full description of the North Valley Regional Recycled Water Project. Only a year after starting construction, at a cost of around $90 million, the project is already delivering recycled urban wastewater to farms and wildlife refuges in California’s San Joaquin Valley, providing a reliable new water supply to a drought-plagued region.

“Everything seems to be working great,” said Anthea Hansen, general manager of Del Puerto Water District, the farm irrigation agency that receives most of the recycled water. “We knew the benefits would be incredible, and we’re seeing it already.”

The project, which began delivering water in December, provides farmers in Hansen’s district with about 10,000 acre-feet of water. That’s roughly a 25 percent increase over what they were allocated this year by the federal Central Valley Project (CVP).

And since the source is a steady stream of urban wastewater, it’s an irrigation supply that won’t change much from year to year. In comparison, allocations of federal CVP water, managed by the U.S.Bureau of Reclamation, vary enormously depending on drought conditions, environmental issues and other factors.

“Because it’s not subject to pumping restrictions or measurements of snowpack or water in storage, the supply should be very constant,” Hansen said. “So it’s very meaningful.”

The water comes from the city of Modesto, population 213,000. The city was under regulatory pressure to upgrade its wastewater treatment to a so-called “tertiary” level, because its discharges to the San Joaquin River posed a threat to water quality and wildlife.

Hansen’s agency piggybacked on this need by offering to buy some of the newly refined wastewater for the district’s 200 or so farmers, who irrigate almonds, walnuts, peaches, pistachios and other crops. This offer helped Modesto finance the treatment plant upgrades. All Del Puerto had to do was build a pipeline 7 miles from Modesto’s treatment plant to the Delta-Mendota Canal, the federal ditch from which Del Puerto already diverts its federal irrigation water.

Building the pipeline didn’t take long, but the deal didn’t happen overnight. Del Puerto signed an initial agreement with Modesto in 2010 to cooperate on the project. Then there were regulatory hoops to jump through. Construction started on the pipeline in summer 2016 and took only a year to build.

Modesto’s initial recycled water deliveries to the project are expected to be about 15,000 acre-feet annually. Del Puerto farmers get about two-thirds of this water, which satisfies California’s Title 22, the state law that ensures treated wastewater is fit for landscaping and crops.

Some of the recycled wastewater is also going to state, federal and private wildlife refuges in the valley, thanks to a federal law known as the Central Valley Project Improvement Act. The law, passed in 1992, requires the United States Bureau of Reclamation to buy additional water supplies to benefit wildlife impacted by operation of the CVP irrigation system.

Reclamation has fallen far behind its obligations under the law, partly because of inadequate funding and scarce water supplies available for purchase. The availability of Modesto’s recycled water was a unique opportunity to acquire a firm new water supply.

“This is substantial,” said Ric Ortega, general manager of Grassland Water District, which delivers CVP water to a number of public and private wildlife refuges in the northern San Joaquin Valley. “This is a large quantity of water at a fraction of the cost of water on the open market. I would say less than half the cost.”

Ortega said he expects to get about 5,000 acre-feet of recycled water this year. This will benefit the private landowners in his district, including a number of duck club owners. It will also go to government wetland areas in the San Joaquin Valley such as the state-managed Grasslands Wildlife Area and Kern National Wildlife Refuge, which have suffered water shortages for decades due to the diversions caused by the Central Valley Project.

“We’re not meeting the dietary demands of shorebirds in the Central Valley in the spring,” Ortega said. “This will make huge strides as it relates to shorebirds.”

The Bureau of Reclamation invested about $25 million in the project. The partners also received a $27 million grant from Proposition 1, a 2014 bond measure approved by California voters for water projects. These two sources covered about half the cost to build the pipeline and pump station.

And there is more water to come. The city of Turlock, population 73,000, also plans to deliver recycled water to the new pipeline by linking to the system with a pipeline of its own.

As the two cities grow in the decades to come, their output of recycled water is sure to increase. The project’s current output could eventually more than triple to 48,000 acre-feet.

The share secured for refuges – an estimated 13,000 acre-feet when the project reaches full scale – will be the largest water supply dedicated to wildlife in the San Joaquin Valley in more than 25 years.

“All the pieces in this particular puzzle just seemed to fall into place,” said Hansen. “But I do think other agencies could definitely use it as a model. With creativity and thinking outside the box, it can be done.”

Link to article

The Mediterranean fruit fly, one of many invasive species that threaten California’s environment and food production.

California Invasive Species Action Week  is underway this week and is continuing until Sunday, June 10. CDFA works in partnership with other state and federal agencies to try to prevent invasive species from entering California, and then managing infestations as effectively as possible, with a goal of eradication in most cases.

In focusing on these activities this week, the objectives are to increase public awareness of invasive species and promote public participation in the fight against them.

CDFA works in this area on a number of fronts. In its Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services Division, operations are ongoing for invasive species like the Asian citrus psyllid and the fatal disease of citrus it spreads, huanglongbing, or citrus greening. Other ongoing projects include management of another insect with the potential to spread plant disease, the glassy-winged sharpshooter. Additionally, the division regularly eradicates infestations of invasive fruit flies like the Mediterranean fruit fly (Medfly) and the Oriental fruit fly. The division’s Report A Pest app encourages Californians to take photos of suspected invasive species and send them in for identification and action, if necessary.

California’s Border Inspection Stations, which are managed by CDFA, are on the lookout year-round for boats that may be transporting invasive aquatic mussels like Quagga and Zebra mussels.

Veterinarians and staff in CDFA’s Division of Animal Health and Food Safety Services are currently working to eradicate an invasive species outbreak–virulent Newcastle disease–in Southern California. This disease threatens birds throughout California and is often fatal to chickens.

CDFA serves as co-chair of the Invasive Species Council of California, partnering with the California Resources Agency, the California State Transportation Agency, the California Health and Human Services Agency and the Office of Emergency Services to work with the appointed members of the California Invasive Species Advisory Committee to develop and manage a statewide invasive species action plan.

Invasive species pose a constant threat to California’s uniquely diverse environment and its agricultural production, and they’re also quite costly. Researchers at Cornell University estimate that invasive species cause $120 billion in damage in the US each year.

Click here for more information about California Invasive Species Action Week.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is wrapping up data collection for the 2017 Census of Agriculture.

To stay on track for data release in February 2019, the deadline for submitting the paper questionnaire is June 15, 2018. Farmers and ranchers who have not responded by June 15, 2018 still have until the end of July to complete the Census online through the secure website found on the cover of their Census form. Phone follow-up and personal interviews will also continue through July.

The questionnaire needs to be completed by everyone who received a form – including landowners who lease land to producers, those involved in conservation programs, even those who may have received the Census and do not farm. Every response matters.

“Our mission at NASS is to provide data in service to U.S. agriculture,” said NASS Administrator Hubert Hamer. “We extended the original Census deadline because many producers weren’t counted – and if they aren’t represented in these critical data, they risk being underserved in farm programs, disaster assistance, agricultural research, education, local policies, and business; it is imperative that we hear from everyone.”

Federal law, Title 7 USC 2204(g) Public Law 105-113, requires NASS to keep all information confidential, to use the data only for statistical purposes, and to only publish in aggregate form to prevent disclosing the identity of any individual producer or farm operation.

For more information about the 2017 Census of Agriculture or to respond online, visit www.agcensus.usda.gov. Improved in 2017, the online form is faster and more convenient than ever. For questions about or assistance with filling out the Census, call toll-free (888) 424-7828.

###