California is the leading agricultural state in the country and we are proud of the products that are grown and produced here. The laws and regulations that are in place protect consumers, producers, handlers, processors, and retailers by establishing standards for agricultural products and foods that are labeled and/or sold as organic.

CDFA’s State Organic Program (SOP) is always seeking effective and efficient ways to protect and promote growth of the organic industry. That means continuously reviewing regulations to ensure they align with the requirements of the SOP, while protecting the organic industry.

The SOP is responsible for enforcing the California Organic Food and Farming Act (COFFA) (AB 1826), formerly the California Organic Products Act of 2003.

The program works closely with local county agricultural commissioners as partners, as well as organic certifiers and industry leaders through the California Organic Products Advisory Committee (COPAC).

When AB 1826 was enacted on January 1, 2017, it actually reduced the amount of information the SOP could collect from organic operations for registration. The program has since discovered that limits its ability to enforce organic regulations.

As a result, the SOP and COPAC came together and worked for several regulatory changes to allow the SOP to conduct more effective enforcement.

Here is a brief summary of the changes, which are effective April 1, 2018:

• An expansion of the minimum information required for organic registration. This will increase the number of commodity categories from 6 to 29 and include a requirement to list specific the commodities at the time of registration.
• The SOP will collect information on aggregate commodity gross sales information; acreage by commodity; and locations where products are produced, handled, or processed.

These amendments will allow the SOP to obtain specific information to conduct enforcement and investigation activities in a more efficient and thorough manner that will be a benefit to the organic industry.

The program’s priorities are to protect the integrity of organic products sold in California and enhance outreach to organic stakeholders. The SOP works to ensure that the organic product supply chain is free of fraud, deception, and mislabeling, so that consumer confidence may continue to build in the organic industry.

Read the full regulation report on the CDFA Inspection Services Laws & Regulations website: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/regulations.html. If you have any questions, send an email to CDFA_Organic@cdfa.ca.gov or visit https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/i_&_c/organic.html

By Henry Fountain, Jugal K. Patel and Nadja Popovich
Earth’s long-term warming trend continued in 2017, government scientists reported Thursday, with average surface temperatures only slightly below the record heat of the previous year. But unlike 2016, last year’s warmth was not aided by El Niño, the Pacific weather pattern that is usually linked to record-setting heat.

NASA ranked 2017 as the second-warmest year, after 2016. Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who use a different analytical method, ranked it third, behind 2016 and 2015. Though 2015 was not technically an El Niño year, the phenomenon contributed to heat records that year and in 2016.

By both analyses, 17 of the 18 warmest years since modern record keeping began in 1880 have occurred since 2001. Overall, fueled by emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, temperatures have increased more than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) since the late 19th century.

In order to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, scientists say global temperatures must not increase more than 2 degrees Celsius.

“Individual ranking of years is not necessarily the most important thing,” Gavin A. Schmidt, director of the Goddard Institute for Space Studies, the NASA group that conducted the analysis, said in an interview. “What we’re seeing is an increasing string of years of temperatures more than 1 degree above the pre-industrial era. And we’re not going to go back.”

The warming trend continued as President Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the 2015 Paris climate accord and repeal the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era measure designed to reduce emissions from power plants.

But more than statements from politicians or data from scientists, events last year reminded the world that the climate is changing.

Temperatures in the Arctic, which is warming about twice as fast as other parts of the planet, soared again during parts of 2017, and the region continued to lose sea ice and permafrost.

Much of the eastern half of the United States had an abnormally warm February, an occurrence that scientists said was made more likely by climate change. Scientists found the fingerprints of warming in many other weather events as well, including a June heat wave that led to wildfires in southern Europe and extreme heat in Australia’s summer.

In other cases the links to climate change were not as conclusive, but a series of catastrophes – including widespread hurricane damage from Texas to the Caribbean and lethal wildfires in California – seemed to indicate that such disasters were part of a new normal.

Researchers had expected that 2017 would end a string of three consecutive years with record temperatures. That string was exacerbated by a strong El Niño that began in 2015 ended in the second half of 2016.

Normally, trade winds around the tropical Pacific blow from east to west, moving warmer water away from the South American coast and piling it up around Asia and Australia. In an El Niño those trade winds weaken or even reverse, allowing the typically colder parts of the ocean to warm. This extra heat at the ocean’s surface releases energy into the atmosphere, increasing global temperatures.

This is why, ordinarily, El Niño years tend to be the warmest years on record.

In a La Niña year, the oceanic pendulum tends to swing the other way, with the east-to-west trade winds becoming unusually strong, strengthening the process by which cold waters emerge from the ocean. That leads to cooler than normal ocean temperatures and, as a result, cooler atmospheric temperatures.

The world is now experiencing a weak La Niña, with ocean temperatures in the Pacific slightly below normal, said Anthony Barnston, chief forecaster with the International Research Institute for Climate and Society at Columbia University.

“That will probably hold back the average mean temperatures from breaking records again,” Dr. Barnston said.

The NOAA and NASA analyses use temperature measurements from weather stations on land and at sea. The analyses differ largely in how they treat the Arctic. In NASA’s method, the region has more of an influence on the overall average.

An analysis by a private independent group, Berkeley Earth, was similar to NASA’s. The Berkeley Earth researchers also ranked 2017 as the second-hottest year on record and ranked it as the warmest on record without an El Niño.

Zeke Hausfather, a researcher with the group, said that despite the weak La Niña, “It doesn’t seem like there’s any evidence things are cooling down.”

“My guess is that 2018 will be pretty similar to 2017,” he said.

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Link to CDFA Climate Smart Ag programs

Governor Brown’s proposed budget of $488 million for the California Department of Food and Agriculture for 2018-2019 reflects his emphasis on steady growth while maintaining a sufficient rainy day fund. Some key CDFA proposals are as follows:

1. Use of Antimicrobial Drugs on Livestock – The budget proposes $2.668 million to address the full implementation of SB-27, which introduces limits on antibiotic use in livestock and stewardship practices to reduce antimicrobial resistance; and it provides antimicrobial availability through licensed retail stores and/or new regulations.
2. Citrus Pest Disease and Prevention – The budget would provide $5 million ($2.5 million General Fund and $2.5 million Ag Fund) to enhance Asian citrus psyllid and huanglongbing suppression activities.
3. Bee Safe Program – $1.853 million is proposed to develop a program to promote and protect a safe and healthy food supply through the protection of bees, providing funds for local enforcement of existing laws that promote and protect California’s beekeeping industry.
4. Safe and Affordable Drinking Water – CDFA would establish and collect a dairy and livestock safe drinking water fee and a fertilizer safe drinking water fee and transfer the funds collected to the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Fund. The proposed amount for those activities at CDFA is $1.41 million, which would be advanced from the Fund to support the initial startup costs.
5. Development of Pesticide Alternatives – The budget proposes $529,000 for CDFA’s Office of Pesticide Consultation and Analysis to support the scientific development and testing of alternatives for pesticides being considered for restriction in California. This includes biocontrol efforts.
6. Pet Lover’s Specialized License Plates – This proposal would provide $440,000 (special fund) to implement the provisions of SB 673, to utilize funding from specialized license plates to award grants to qualifying spay and neuter facilities that offer low-cost or no-cost animal sterilization services.
7. State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) and Healthy Soils Program – Bond funding (SB 5) would provide $27.4 million for two of CDFA’s climate smart agriculture programs – $17.8 million for ongoing SWEEP grants and $8.6 million in grants from the Healthy Soils Program.

The budget notes that $1.25 billion in Cap and Trade funding (which has been the funding source for CDFA’s climate smart agriculture programs) will be available for appropriation in 2018-19. The plan for these funds will be announced later in January as part of the Governor’s annual State of the State Address.

The entire proposed state budget may be found here.

By Ellie Krieger

Healthy isn’t what it used to be. I don’t mean that in the whiplash-inducing way all the clickbait headlines out there would have you think. Despite the seeming back and forth, there is remarkable consistency in core dietary advice. You could comfortably hang your resolution hat on two of the biggest: eat more vegetables and less added sugar.

But there have been exciting shifts in what it means to eat well, shaped both by modern culinary style and bona fide nutritional science. They’ve been building for years but now have a definite form. This is a change that is real, compelling and refreshing.

Healthy eating has emerged rebranded from a stodgy, finger-wagging “should” to a cool, on-trend “want to.” Harnessing the momentum of this fashionable, new healthy could re-energize your efforts to eat better in the new year and beyond, inspiring a way of eating that’s good for you with — yes, more vegetables and less sugar — but also a fresh, updated perspective, one that’s as hip and appealing as it is good for you. Here are 10 facets of what’s healthy now and how to make the most of them.

The new healthy is …

… a way of life

The notion of dieting, with its obsessive calorie counting, weighing and measuring is out, and “lifestyling,” with a focus on overall eating patterns and whole-life wellness, is in. Even longtime diet programs such as Weight Watchers have heeded the call with their new Freestyle program. Crash diets haven’t totally disappeared — they have just been renamed detoxes and cleanses, and I recommend avoiding them — but the overall shift to healthy as a way of life has arrived and is a welcome bandwagon worth jumping on.

… a vegetable celebration

In print, on Instagram feeds and in restaurants from fine to fast-casual, vegetables have graduated from a sidelined afterthought to center stage, and there are more compelling vegan and vegetarian options available than ever before. Vegetables are given luxe treatment with decadent-tasting but good-for-you sauces such as tahini or pesto and spun into comfort foods such as potato nachos, Buffalo cauliflower and zucchini noodles. There has never been a better time to be, or try to become, a vegetable lover.

… not afraid of fat

Counting fat grams has gone the way of the Walkman. There is just no need for it. There is now a body of evidence that fats — especially those from whole foods such as nuts, seeds, avocado and fish and healthy oils — are good for our nutritional well-being, benefiting our heart health, blood sugar and weight, to name a few. Just ignore the rampant butter-is-back headlines. Even if saturated fat is not the demon it was once thought to be, it is still healthier to replace animal fat with that from plants. Hello, avocado toast.

… protein powerful

Protein is practically synonymous with healthy today, a trend that’s inspiring a more balanced plate than that of the bagel-for-breakfast days of yore. Along with the movement toward plant-based foods, this new way of eating has led to a rediscovery of powerfully nutritious beans, lentils, peas, nuts and seeds, as chefs and home cooks interpret them with modern culinary prowess. Take advantage of all that but avoid getting ensnared in the more-is-better mentality and falling prey to marketing tactics that leverage grams of protein for health points. Include some protein at each meal or snack but remember: Protein-fortified cookies are still cookies.

… sweetened smartly

Refined sugar has never been billed as healthy per se, but there is a greater awareness and more scientific evidence than ever of its detrimental health effects. The food community and marketplace have stepped up with exciting savory options where there were once only sweet, such as with energy bars and yogurt flavors. There has also been a tasty, healthier shift to using fiber- and nutrient-rich whole foods such as dried and fresh fruit as sweeteners in baked goods, smoothies and bars. Still, it’s okay to have a little added sugar in your life, but the American Heart Association recommends keeping it to six teaspoons a day for women and nine for men.

… sustainable

The scientists on the 2015 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee included considerations of sustainability and environmental impact in their recommendations to the Department of Agriculture, but although that issue didn’t make the final guidelines, it has steadily gained traction with the public. More and more people understand that their individual health is integrally linked with the health of our planet, and they are taking steps to eat greener by eating more plant-based meals, choosing sustainable fish, poultry and meats, and reducing waste.

… ingredient focused

Healthy today means looking beyond the grams and percentages on the nutrition facts label to the ingredients in a product. People want to know what’s in the food they are buying and how it was produced. Demand for simpler ingredient lists have compelled many manufacturers to remove artificial colors and flavors and other additives that didn’t need to be there in the first place.

… good for your gut

The relatively recent discovery of the microbiome has transformed the way we look at health. We now know that the good bacteria in our guts are key not only to digestive health but to overall wellness, and the foods that support the microbiome are hotter than ever with ancient, probiotic-rich fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt and kefir making a modern comeback. There are more exciting varieties of these “living” foods available in the regular supermarket than ever before.

… rich in heritage

Beyond probiotics, looking back to move forward applies more broadly to today’s approach to healthy eating. Nutrition experts, chefs and the public alike are recognizing that there is more than one path to eating well, and there is wisdom in the global variety of traditional food ways. As we tap into that we are rediscovering heirloom and wild fruits and vegetables, heritage grains such as farro and sorghum, and patterns of eating that nourished our ancestors for generations.

… creatively plated

Healthy today breaks the old-fashioned mold of the divided plate and instead is built up in layers, arranged in bowls, piled into jars or whirred into a to-go cup. It’s packed with produce, compellingly colorful and has a freestyle sensibility. And, of course, to get traction in this Instagram-ready world, it’s ready for a close-up.

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