New research published in the Journal of Dairy Science finds the climate footprint of milk production in California has been significantly reduced over the past 50 years (1964 to 2014). The amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced per unit of milk was reduced by more than 45 percent. Scientists at the University of California, Davis conducted a life cycle environmental assessment (cradle to farm gate) of California dairy farm production, using the latest scientific models and international research standards.

“The study documents the productivity, efficiency, and overall sustainability of milk production in California and the critical role dairy cows play in regenerative agricultural practices and sustainable food systems,” said Dr. Ermias Kebreab, Professor at UC Davis and Sesnon Endowed Chair, who led graduate student Anna Naranjo in completing the research project.

The study’s key findings are as follows:

• The amount of greenhouse gas emissions per each unit of milk (e.g. glass or gallon) produced has decreased more than 45 percent, due to increased milk production efficiency, including improved reproductive efficiency, nutrition, comfort, and overall management.
  
  
• The amount of water used per unit of milk produced has decreased more than 88 percent, primarily due to improved feed crop production and water use efficiency.
  
  
• Dramatically improved feed crop production and utilization of agricultural byproducts have led to significant reductions in the amount of natural resources used to produce each unit of milk, including, land, water, fossil fuels, and energy.  

“The study shows we are producing milk more efficiently and sustainably, minimizing our climate footprint in the process,” said Richard Wagner, a San Joaquin Valley dairy farmer and chairman of the California Dairy Research Foundation (CDRF). “While there is always more work to be done, the findings show a significant overall improvement in environmental performance, producing more wholesome, nutritious milk and dairy products with fewer natural resources, less water, less energy, and fewer fossil fuels.”

Over the past 50 years, California dairy production has undergone significant advancements, from animal feeding and housing practices to overall animal and crop production efficiency. The researchers expect that as milk production per cow continues to increase through improved feed formulations, reproductive efficiency, and management techniques, it will lead to further improvements in dairy farming’s environmental footprint.  

As the study documents, more than 40 percent of dairy feed ingredients in California are byproducts of other agricultural and food production processes, such as almond hulls, citrus and tomato pulp, culled carrots and other similar products that are not suited for human consumption but make healthy, nutritious feed for cattle. As a result, nearly half of the feed needed to produce California milk—which represents about 20 percent of all U.S. milk—is being provided without a single drop of additional water. Dairy cows are efficient recyclers, making use of food and agricultural byproducts that are either indigestible or undesirable for humans and avoiding the need to landfill or otherwise dispose of these materials.  

“Cows are natural bioprocessors and upcyclers of nutrients,” said Dr. Kevin Comerford, Chief Science Officer for CDRF. “As a result, cows will continue to play essential roles in healthy and sustainable food systems all over the world. This study demonstrates the environmental benefits in California, where dairy farmers have been especially successful in recycling and repurposing resources.”

While the analysis demonstrates significant reductions in greenhouse gas emissions intensity (more than 45 percent), these estimates can be considered conservative, and more progress toward climate-smart practices continues to be made. The research does not factor in the implementation of large solar panel arrays, which has occurred on more than 150 dairy farms in California and represents a significant shift toward renewable energy. The California Department of Food and Agriculture has also reported that through the implementation of dairy methane reduction projects, California’s dairy farms will soon be more than halfway to achieving the state’s world-leading target (a 40 percent reduction in manure methane emissions), equating to millions of metric tons of greenhouse gas reductions each year. 

“California dairy farms have made major improvements in environmental performance over the past 50 years,” said Denise Mullinax, Executive Director of CDRF. “We know our farms are continually increasing their overall efficiency. This study advances our understanding of the environmental benefits and verifies that farmers are on a path toward continued improvement.”

This research was supported by California Dairy Research Foundation and the Sesnon Endowment fund of University of California, Davis.

Link to news release

By Karen Ross, Secretary
California Department of Food and Agriculture

As I walked the (enormous) grounds of the World Ag Expo in Tulare earlier this week, I was impressed by how well this event truly shows how big – and yet how intricately connected – agriculture is.

It is a SYSTEM that starts with farmers and ranchers and employees, and then it extends into so many other titles and job descriptions and varieties of expertise before that raw agricultural commodity gets to its ultimate consumer and satisfies its purpose.

Visiting the exhibits and booths at the expo, I was reminded of the full range of vendors and partners and suppliers and value-adders out there, working every day with our farmers and ranchers on so many facets and functions of agriculture. Bankers and managers. Students and teachers. Scientists and engineers. Processors and entrepreneurs.

Even with all of this help, the modern farmer has to know a lot about a lot of things. They are planters, and waterers, and harvesters. They are investors and borrowers and employers. They are fence-fixers and on-the-spot inventors of tools. They are self-taught recyclers and reducers and reusers. Mathematicians and prognosticators of weather.

Put simply, they are wearers of hats – many hats. They do what the day requires.

And all of you who call “agriculture” – job, whether you work on a farm or not, are also consumers; that may be easy for folks to overlook, but the farmers and ranchers and everyone who works with them are all eaters and wearers and users of the crops and commodities that they produce, just like the rest of us. They appreciate a good meal – and a good deal – just as much as the next person.

There was a lot to take in at the World Ag Expo this week, from shiny tractors and futuristic innovations to feed, fertilizer and everything in between. But most of all, there were farmers and there were ranchers, and there were thousands of people who share the calling that is “agriculture.”

So this Valentine is for all of you. Every job you do and every title you hold contributes to the food we eat and the clothes we wear and the futures we build every day. And to the special occasions – the meals we eat with loved ones, and even the flowers we send on Valentine’s Day.

You remembered, right? Because a farmer grew those for you.

Happy Valentine’s Day.

Located in the heart of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, Staten Island has 8,500 acres of farmland where the Nature Conservancy is researching wildlife-friendly agriculture and irrigation techniques that promote bird conservation in this essential habitat.

About 25 percent of the western populations of greater and lesser sandhill cranes call this area home every winter, as do other migratory birds in this important corridor on the Pacific Flyway.

A US Environmental Protection Agency News Release

SANTA YNEZ, Calif. – Today, in Santa Ynez, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) met with federal and state agencies and leaders from the region’s agriculture and food production industries to make progress on on-farm composting. Representatives from Central Coast farm and producer organizations joined a roundtable discussion with representatives from EPA, the U.S. Department of Agriculture – Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).

The roundtable focused on enhancing communication with Central Coast growers on healthy soils practices and sharing lessons learned from environmental successes. Participants heard from growers to better understand barriers to implementation of healthy soils practices. The agencies also announced the launch of a new multi-agency work group that will address permitting challenges and create incentives to support on-farm composting.

“Meeting with local farmers is an opportunity for EPA to listen, learn, and develop new approaches to environmental challenges,” said EPA Pacific Southwest Acting Regional Administrator Deborah Jordan. “We are excited to announce the creation of the interagency On-Farm Compost Work Group, which will support California’s farmers, ranchers, and food producers and help bring about more efficient ways to work together as stewards of our natural resources.”

“We are excited to announce the launch of the On-Farm Compost Work Group. This group of 15 federal, state, and regional agencies is committed to supporting California’s agricultural community in their efforts to improve soil health,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “Healthy soil is key to sequestering atmospheric carbon while improving nutrient management, water management and agricultural productivity.”

“Healthy soils are the foundation of a productive agricultural system and a key part of our efforts to fight climate change,” said California Secretary for Environmental Protection Jared Blumenfeld. “California’s EPA looks forward to working with our local and federal colleagues in supporting our state’s farmers and ranchers in adopting carbon farming practices.”

“I am very pleased that we will have stakeholder input from the very beginning,” said NRCS state conservationist in California Carlos Suarez. “Our farmers and ranchers have always been very conservation minded and understand very well the value of good land stewardship”

The On-Farm Compost Work Group, co-led by CDFA, NRCS, California Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. EPA, will include 15 federal, state, and regional agencies. The group will develop a regulatory pathway to address permitting challenges and create incentives for on-farm composting in order to decrease nutrient loading, reduce agricultural burning, and improve soil health.

For more information on the On-Farm Compost Work Group announced today, please visit this link.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is gathering information about farm economics and production practices from farmers and ranchers across California, as the agency conducts the third and final phase of the 2019 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS).

“ARMS is the only survey that measures the current financial well-being of California producers and their households as a whole,” said Gary R. Keough, Director, USDA NASS Pacific Region.. “The results of this survey will help inform decisions on local and federal policies and programs that affect California farms and farm families.”

In an effort to obtain the most accurate data, NASS is reaching out to more than 30,000 producers nationwide, including over 2,500 in California. The survey asks producers to provide in-depth information about their operating revenues, production costs, and household characteristics. The 2019 survey includes versions focused on barley, cotton, and sorghum sector costs and returns.

“In February, our interviewers will begin reaching out to those farmers who have not yet responded,” said Keough. “We appreciate their time and are here to help them with the questionnaire so that their information will continue supporting sound agricultural decision-making.”

In addition to producing accurate information, NASS has strong safeguards in place to protect the confidentiality of all farmers who respond to its surveys. The agency will only publish data in an aggregate form, ensuring the confidentiality of all responses and that no individual respondent or operation can be identified.        

The expense data gathered in ARMS will be published in the annual Farm Production Expenditures report on July 31, 2020.  That report and others are available at www.nass.usda.gov/Publications. More reports based on ARMS data and more information about ARMS are available at www.ers.usda.gov/arms.

By Governor Gavin Newsom

Water is the lifeblood of our state. It sustains communities, wildlife and our economy—all of which make California the envy of the world.

Reliably securing this vital and limited resource into the future remains a challenge, especially with a warming and changing climate. 

For more than a year, my Administration has worked to find a comprehensive solution for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta—a path to immediately improve the health of these waterways, create certainty for the 35 million Californians who depend on these water sources, and maintain the economic vitality of the Central Valley.

Historically, disputes over water, or what some call “water wars,” have pitted stakeholders against one another: urban vs. rural; agriculture vs. conservation; North vs. South.

Today, my administration is proposing a path forward, one that will move past the old water binaries and set us up for a secure and prosperous water future.

Guided by science, this new framework will provide the foundation for binding voluntary agreements between government agencies and water users with partnership and oversight from environmental groups. 

These agreements will require adaptive, holistic management of enhanced water flows and habitats to protect, restore, and enhance California’s largest rivers and the Delta.

These agreements will be grounded in what is required to achieve scientific and legal adequacy. They will significantly increase the required amount of water flowing through rivers and the Delta. They require a historic addition of 60,000 acres of critical habitat and provide certainty to strengthen the health of our economy and our environment.

If achieved, the voluntary agreements will establish a partnership with environmental conservation groups, water agencies, and governments across jurisdictions. 

The water and funding from these stakeholders will provide an unprecedented pool of resources to support the restoration of critical fish habitat and billions of gallons of flow water in our rivers and through the Delta over the next 15 years. 

Today, I am committing to achieving a doubling of California’s salmon population by 2050. These agreements will be foundational to meeting that goal.

Over the past year, my administration advanced a number of additional actions that are consistent with this new approach. 

Recognizing the urgency of increasing access to clean water, the Legislature last year fast-tracked a bill to my desk that provided emergency relief to communities without access to safe drinking water. 

I was proud that this was one of the first bills I signed as governor, and even prouder to have created with the Legislature a first-of-its-kind fund to support long-term access to safe drinking water.

In April, I signed an executive order directing state agencies to develop a set of recommendations to ensure safe and resilient water supplies across our state, including actions to improve water delivery structures and support regional water security projects.

My administration is also working closely with local communities to sustainably manage our groundwater for the first time in our state’s history, and my budget includes a $4.75 billion climate resilience bond to protect communities and natural habitats from the impacts of climate change, such as drought, flooding, wildfires, heat waves, and sea level rise.

While we are committed to collaborating with the federal government where we can, we have not and will not hesitate to stand up to them when they fall short of their responsibilities.

Stewarding California’s natural resources is a responsibility we share with the federal government, and we will continue to utilize every tool at our disposal, including legal action, to ensure the federal government fulfills its obligation. 

California agencies are working in real-time with the federal government to ensure adequate protections of endangered fish populations from water infrastructure in the Delta.

Inaction, recalcitrance, and adherence to the status-quo puts our water future at risk. The alternative to the voluntary agreements is a contentious regulatory process that will take many years and require adjudicating a thicket of litigation in every direction before restoring river flows. 

Those years will be critical years for salmon populations, which without immediate intervention will further decline. Access to water for tens of millions of Californians will become less reliable, impacting our people and economy. And our communities and businesses will be further threatened by the impacts of climate change. These outcomes are unacceptable.

The world is changing and we have to change with it. Creating a water future our children can be proud of will require us to reject the old binaries of the past. This time of unprecedented challenge demands unprecedented partnership. Let’s work together to meet this moment.

Link to article on CalMatters web site