Throughout the country, those who grow our food are grappling with water in changing climate.
By Page Buono
Water connects us across generations, cultures, geographies. And, though we may often forget, water also connects us across tables. We need water. Food, needs water. The production of one apple requires 18 gallons. A 1/3-pound hamburger is 660 gallons of water in the making. One slice of bread takes 11. (Source) Trace those vital drops back to the store, the trucks, the fields. Trace them back far enough and, almost inevitably, you will wind up at a river.
Throughout the country, producers of our food are grappling with the impacts of warming temperatures, back-to-back drought, and increasing demand on over-allocated resources, squaring up against the harsh reality that land is worthless without water.
But as is often the case, scarcity in this way also drives innovation. People who do the hard and beautiful work of growing food for their communities, and for the world, are some of the first to imagine what a new relationship to our food, and the water and rivers we need to grow it, might look like.
Water is life. And bread is a living food. In the Sonoran Desert of Tucson, Arizona, third-generation farmer Brian Wong and Don Guerra of Barrio Bread work closely with the director of Tucson Water to imagine, and realize, a sustainable circle for growing heritage, heat-tolerant wheat; producing, selling, and educating local communities about their food; and using a model of recharge and recovery to improve the long-term sustainability of a thriving city in the Sonoran desert.
People who grow food for the nation rely deeply on water from the Lower Colorado River to fuel and feed their faith, their families, and the livelihoods they build cultivating the country’s primary source of salad. The future of America’s Most Endangered River® of 2017 is also the future of the people who live and work in Yuma, Arizona, and the need to protect it is imminent.
In Milwaukee, Venice Williams works through a community garden to reconcile a complicated relationship with the Milwaukee River. The 2-acre farm where Williams works is called Alice’s Garden, and it was a critical stop for the underground railroad. Though the Milwaukee River once provided refuge and life and nourishment, disguising the scent of freedom seekers on the run and quenching thirst, it has also been a place of segregation and divide, welcoming people with means on river paths and excluding others. Using food and the water it needs to educate and connect people, Williams builds bridges back to a tradition of growing food, and to a future where the river is as vital, and as shared, as ever.
WALT
For decades, Walt Shubin has tracked the weather, rainfall, and the level of his well on his raisin farm near Fresno, California. Between 2005 and 2014, that well has dropped 19 feet. In the final nine months of 2014, it dropped another 19 feet. Walking the dry river banks of the once “mighty San Joaquin”, Walt contemplates a future of farming without the aquifer, and the free-flowing river so critical to its existence.
A RIVER’S RECKONING
Paul Bruchez was guiding a fishing trip when the river literally dropped before his eyes. And while his clients were on his mind, it was his families’ 5th generation roots in agriculture and their dependence on the river, that came into sharp focus. Water weaves its way through the Bruchez family, and the Upper Colorado River they rely on is the pulse and breath of the valley they call home. But changes in conservation weren’t happening fast enough, and the problem of water shortages isn’t one that the Bruchez family could solve alone—it spanned the miles-long reach of the river. This realization spawns a unique coming together of producers working to redefine the relationship between the river, and the food families living along its banks work to produce.
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Through these and other films, American Rivers works to find and share the stories that dissolve barriers and bring us together to break bread, if we’re lucky, at the river’s edge.
Page Buono is a creative writer working with the Colorado Basin team to tell important stories about rivers across the Southwest. She has a B.A. in Environmental Journalism and Spanish from Western Washington University and an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Arizona.
See the original blog post on the American Rivers site here.
Secretary Karen Ross joins headquarters staff in the lobby to look back at 2019 – and forward to 2020, “the year of clarity.”
2019 was a year of celebration and reflection at CDFA, as we observed our centennial and looked back at 100 years of accomplishments and milestones. As CDFA Secretary Karen Ross and her senior staff made the rounds to Sacramento-area offices and facilities this week, they passed on personal wishes for the season as well as simple, sincere “thanks” for all of the hard work the department has done this past year for California’s farmers and ranchers, and for the broader agricultural community.
Secretary Ross also looked forward to 2020 as “a year of clarity” (get it? 20-20?) and further accomplishment for CDFA and the industry it promotes and protects.
May your holidays be filled with family and friends, may your table be filled with all that California’s bounty has to offer, and may your hearts be filled with anticipation for the coming year.
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross goes over the naughty/nice list with the VIPs
CDFA’s Division of Measurement Standards
CDFA’s Marketing Division
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross thanks the scientists and staff at the Plant Pest Diagnostics Center
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross and Center for Analytical Chemistry Branch Chief Barzin Moradi get a few pointers from “Safety Santa”
Getting into the spirit: CDFA Secretary Karen Ross with Environmental Scientist Dinesh Chand at the Center for Analytical Chemistry
CDFA’s Plant Pest Diagnostics Center
CDFA Undersecretary Jenny Lester Moffitt shares a story with headquarters staff
California State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones has granted a 24-hour permit clearing all brand inspection and health requirements for nine reindeer scheduled to visit California on the evening of December 24 and in the early morning hours of December 25.
The permit application was filed in person by a rotund, jolly man with a red suit, a white beard, and a pocketful of candy canes to share with CDFA staff. The signature on the paperwork reads, “K. Kringle.”
State law mandates that all animals entering California be individually identified. The nine reindeer named on the permit are: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen and Rudolph.
The permit was granted with two conditions: the nine reindeer may not co-mingle with other reindeer in the State of California, and the visiting reindeer may not be used for breeding purposes while in the state. They are, however, invited to partake of the Golden State’s famous and varied agricultural bounty if they need to refuel.
“We are pleased to issue this permit to Mr. Kringle,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “We wish him safe travels and plenty of California milk and cookies as he and his reindeer make deliveries to the good children of our state.”
It’s not quite New Year’s Eve yet, but I’ve already got the kernel of a resolution taking root in my mind for 2020. It’s about stories – stories about people. About farmers and ranchers. About the power their stories hold to illustrate the importance of the policies we create and enact and enforce as public servants.
The heartfelt words of a third- or fourth-generation farmer who shares the joy of being able to know that an easement ensures this family land will be there for the next generation and generations to come to grow food and fiber and care for that place provides a sense of what it means to live and work on the land.
One of my SGC colleagues thanked last week’s group of easement recipients for “feeding us – literally, and our souls with the values you shared with us today.” And I thought to myself, “These folks can tell a good story.”
My story starts with a deep-seated passion for the land where I grew up and the land we steward for agricultural production here in California. It comes from my Dad, who was enthralled with conservation and spent hours with our local soil scientist from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. It comes from my maternal grandmother who often said, “We can’t make more farmland” when she sadly reminisced about having to sell her family farm because of too many failed crops and increasing debt in the fifties.
My story continues and my passion is nurtured on an almost daily basis when I witness the amazing work I see farmers and ranchers doing to provide us so much more than just the crop they harvest utilizing conservation practices to improve air and water quality, open space, pollinator habitat and wildlife corridors in addition to beautiful spaces for agri-tourism!
In this holiday season may you, too, know the joys of what this land produces to feed us and may you be inspired knowing the great care our farmers, ranchers, and conservationists give to this land for future generations.
So, back to my resolution – I’ll do it if you will: As you travel and mingle with friends and friends-to-be over the holidays and throughout 2020, seek out the farmers in whatever room you find yourself in. You might have to draw them out a bit, but I promise it will be worth it. They have such great stories to tell.
A thin layer of compost is applied to grasslands in the Altamont Hills. Photo courtesy of UC Merced
By Lorena Anderson
A thin layer of compost applied to grasslands could help fight climate change by capturing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil, recent research shows.
UC Merced Professor Rebecca Ryals and a team of researchers, ranchers and public agencies will demonstrate this practice for the first time in the East Bay. The project, which began Dec. 3, is funded by a California Department of Food and Agriculture Healthy Soils Demonstration grant.
The collaboration between Ryals, the Alameda County Resource Conservation District and StopWaste (the Alameda County Waste Management Authority) is an example of a partnership that is working to advance the scientific understanding and demonstrate success of ecosystem-based climate solutions in California.
The project began with researchers applying a thin layer of compost on a 10-acre sloped section of rangeland in the Altamont Hills east of Livermore that is owned by StopWaste. Applying compost to rangeland is part of local and statewide efforts to engage agricultural producers in “carbon farming,” practices that help capture greenhouses gases such as carbon dioxide, bolster groundwater recharge, reduce erosion, and increase plant productivity. The state has identified carbon farming as a pillar of its approach to fighting climate change.
The researchers chose the sloping land to measure results and compare them to tests already conducted on flatter areas.
“Most grasslands in California occur in places with highly varied terrain,” Ryals said. “If the results of our study are positive, planners and landowners should feel more confident about applying compost to a wider array of locations, including hillsides, which would greatly expand the applicability of the practice throughout the state.”
“The goal of our project is to demonstrate to ranchers that they can adopt new practices or adapt existing practices to sequester carbon,” Alameda County Resource Conservation District biologist Hillary Sardiñas said. “Many farmers and ranchers already use climate-beneficial practices, but they may not recognize that what they’re doing can help mitigate climate change.”
The Resource Conservation District recently developed a Carbon Farm Plan for StopWaste’s 1,600-acre property. The plan outlines practices — from compost application to riparian restoration — that would sequester carbon while supporting the grazing operation and enhancing wildlife habitat. Spreading compost is viewed as the first phase in several designed to capture carbon.
Over the next three years, Ryals and her lab will measure changes in the amount of carbon stored in the soil and greenhouse gases that are emitted from soil. The team will also measure the co-benefits provided by higher levels of soil carbon, including better water infiltration and forage production.
The partners plan to continue implementing carbon farm practices, measuring the results, and inviting the public, farmers and ranchers to learn how they can get involved.
“This is just the first step,” said Kelly Schoonmaker of StopWaste. “Carbon farming shows a lot of promise in helping to reverse climate change impacts while returning organic matter back to the soil. We’re also excited about the potential for improved forage for the cows, increased water holding capacity in the soil, and being a model for other landowners in the state.”
