California’s floriculture crop leads the nation with a value of $1.13 billion in sales, according to a new report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). In 2013, California producers increased their sales from $1.10 billion to $1.13 billion, an increase of 3 percent, giving California 26.6 percent of the total U.S. wholesale value.

California cut flower production accounts for 78.2 percent of the total cut flower wholesale value. The $327 million value was down 2.7 percent from the 2012 value of $337 million.

California leads the nation in potted flowering plant values for 2013 with a total value of $297 million, a 17 percent increase in value from $253 million in 2012. California potted flowering production accounted for 38 percent of the 15-state wholesale value.

The top cut flowers in California are lilies, daisies, roses, chrysanthemums and snapdragons. The top potted flowers are orchids, roses, poinsettias, spring bulbs and chrysanthemums. The top garden plants are vegetable varieties, pansies/violas, petunias, impatiens and marigolds.

As a drought-stricken California moves further into a hot summer, Save Our Water – a partnership between the Association of California Water Agencies(ACWA) and the California Department of Water Resources(DWR) – is launching Don’t Waste Summer, a campaign devoted to providing daily tips and news to help Californians find ways to conserve at home and at work every day.

Don’t Waste Summer kicks off this week with the official start of summer. Tips will range from simple ideas such as shutting water off as you brush your teeth, to checking for and fixing leaks, to helpful ways businesses big and small can do their part in saving water during the drought. The campaign will also showcase the efforts of Save Our Water partners to conserve this summer.

A encore presentation from the Growing California video series – “Farmers’ Markets.”

This video content is no longer available.

By Edward Ortiz

GLENN COUNTY — Olive farmer Dan Kennedy scores a pellet-size olive with his fingernail. The scoring offers a burst of clear liquid. It’s a telling mix of oil and water.

For Kennedy, the oozing oil portends the olive’s promising future; the water is a testament to the olive as a drought-resistant crop.

In the midst of one of California’s worst droughts, that’s no small matter in the vast agricultural expanse of the Central Valley.

Farmers like Kennedy have taken notice. “We can produce (an olive) crop with 1 acre-foot of water per acre,” he said.

Typically, high-value crops such as almonds and rice demand – at minimum – twice as much water, if not much more.

In the Sacramento Valley, where water districts have been shrinking water allocations, the gritty olive tree, with its gnarly bark and thin, dusty-looking leaves, has become a go-to crop.

“Olives are a crop adaptable to warm and dry conditions. Most of the olives grown in the world are not irrigated,” said Dan Flynn, executive director of the Olive Center at the University of California, Davis.

Flynn holds up the olive tree as a model of a sustainable crop. “Olives, generally, are low-impact from the standpoint that they take less water than permanent tree crops, and they do not require the use of many pesticides and fungicides,” he said.

The California Olive Council, a statewide advocacy group, estimates that an increase in the planting of olive trees is a long-term trend, with 3,500 new acres expected to be planted each year in California through 2020. Most of the olive trees planted in the state have been put in within the last 15 years.

Currently, more than 35,000 acres of olive trees have been planted in the state. Most of the olives grown in Sacramento and San Joaquin counties are used to produce extra virgin olive oil. It is olives grown for olive oil that is the growth industry. Olives destined for oil usage accounted for 4 percent of the olive crop in the 1990s. That percentage rose to 46 percent in 2012, according to data.

Kennedy, who farms olives and other crops near the sleepy town of Artois in Glenn County, started with 125 acres of olives in 2006. He now farms 500 acres, with most of his crop sold to olive mills for crushing into oil.

Pressures from the drought pushed Kennedy to swap 250 acres of rice for olives. Olives began to look good when the Orland-Artois Water District cut his water allocations down to zero earlier this year, he said.

However, Kennedy must deal with another problem borne from drought: the difficulty of accessing plunging groundwater levels. Kennedy is pumping groundwater from nine wells to water his trees. The water is parsed out with a drip irrigation system.

Recently, Kennedy had to dig 50 feet deeper on three of his wells to reach groundwater. If thewater table continues to drop, he said, he will be forced to fallow some of his land.

Luckily, the olive tree is hardy. Unlike other crops, if olive trees are not watered, they will survive – and produce olives in subsequent years when water is available.

Kennedy grows his trees with what is called a “super high density” method – a vineyard-like approach where trees are tightly packed and kept short, usually under 12 feet. That approach, introduced in California in 1999, is seen as deeply economical because it allows the olives to be harvested completely by machine. Initially, the method was spurred by agricultural investors who saw high profitability in the approach.

High density groves are a far cry from the traditional image of an olive orchard, where trees are lightly, almost randomly spaced, and do not look pruned. The high density approach allows Kennedy to fit 559 trees into 1 acre. Traditional olive growing typically will assemble around 100 trees on an acre.

The rise in olive cultivation is also occurring nationwide. A U.S. International Trade Commission report last year established that production of olive oil has increased 50 percent annually, on average, since 2008. Olives are now grown in states like Georgia and Texas, and in Florida, where farmers are looking to the crop to replace citrus groves that have been ravaged by citrus greening disease. However, by far, the biggest olive grower is California, which produces 98 percent of domestically grown olives.

Brady Whitlow, president of Corto Olive in Lodi, said his company has gone from producing a few thousands gallons of olive oil in 2003 to a million gallons this year.

“This is a crop that has been around for a long time, but up until now it’s always been a boutique business,” he said.

Whitlow said he sees a great potential for the region’s olive oil producers. Presently, 97 percent of the olive oil consumed in the United States is imported. Most of it comes from Europe, especially Spain.

But scandal has rocked the European olive oil industry, where it has been established that much of the oil sold as extra virgin olive oil is actually low-quality or adulterated oil.

“Our biggest opportunity will come when consumers begin to understand that a lot of imported olive oil is not what it says it is,” Whitlow said. “Extra virgin olive oil that comes from Italy? It’s labeled extra virgin olive oil, but for the most part, it’s not. Americans are being deceived.”

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SAN DIEGO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today signed a balanced, on-time state budget that pays down debt, shores up the teachers’ retirement system, builds a solid Rainy Day Fund and directs additional funding for local schools and health care.

“This on-time budget provides for today and saves for the future,” said Governor Brown. “We’re paying off the state’s credit card, saving for the next rainy day and fixing the broken teachers’ retirement system.”

The budget includes a plan of shared responsibility among the state, school districts and teachers to shore up the State Teachers’ Retirement System (STRS). The first year’s contributions from all three entities total approximately $276 million, growing in subsequent years to more than $5 billion annually. This is projected to eliminate the unfunded liability in the system by 2046.

The budget also directs $1.6 billion into the state Rainy Day Fund – the first deposit into the fund since 2007. The fund is expected to grow to $4.6 billion by 2017-18, if voters approve of the measure on the November ballot that was proposed by the Governor and passed by the Legislature.

When Governor Brown took office, the state faced a massive $26.6 billion budget deficit and estimated annual shortfalls of roughly $20 billion. These deficits, built up over a decade, have now been eliminated by a combination of budget cuts, temporary taxes approved by voters and the recovering economy.

Significant details of the 2014-15 Budget:

Paying Down Debts and Liabilities
The budget reduces the Wall of Debt by more than $10 billion by paying down $5 billion in deferred payments to schools, paying off the Economic Recovery Bonds one year ahead of schedule, repaying various special fund loans and reimbursing $100 million in mandate claims that have been owed to local governments since at least 2004. Under the budget plan, the Wall of Debt would be completely eliminated by 2017-18.

Investing in Education and Health Care
The budget continues the state’s reinvestment in local schools, providing more than $10 billion this year alone in new Proposition 98 funding. This includes $4.7 billion for the second year of implementation for the Local Control Funding Formula, which directs new education revenues to districts serving English language learners, students from low-income families and foster youth. The budget also expands the number of low-income preschool students served, increases the rates paid to preschool providers and provides grants to improve the quality of these programs.

In health care, last year the state adopted the optional expansion of Medi-Cal under the Affordable Care Act, providing millions of Californians with affordable health coverage. Enrollment is now expected to rise from 7.9 million in 2012-13 to 11.5 million in 2014-15, for a total cost increase of $2.4 billion.

Addressing Climate Change
The budget includes $872 million of Cap-and-Trade auction proceeds – authorized by AB 32 – for greenhouse gas reduction, with an emphasis on assisting disadvantaged communities. The plan will modernize the state’s rail system, including high-speed rail and public transit, and encourage local communities to develop in a sustainable manner. It will also increase energy, water and agricultural efficiency, restore forests in both urban and rural settings and create incentives for improved recycling. The budget permanently allocates 60 percent of future auction proceeds to sustainable communities, public transit and high-speed rail. The remaining proceeds will be allocated in future budgets.

Additional details on the 2014-15 budget, including line-item vetoes, can be found at www.ebudget.ca.gov.

Link to news release

Note – National Pollinator Week for 2014 is now underway.   

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR

June 16-23, 2014

                                                      California Pollinator Week

Pollinator species such as birds and insects are essential partners to farmers and ranchers in producing much of our food supply. Pollinators also provide significant environmental benefits that are necessary for maintaining biodiversity and healthy ecosystems.

The health of our national forests and grasslands depends on pollination. These open spaces provide forage, fish and wildlife, timber, water, mineral resources and recreational opportunities for our communities and the vital industries that serve them.

The State of California provides producers with conservation assistance to promote wise stewardship of lands and habitats, including the protection and maintenance of pollinators on working lands and wild lands.

As Governor of the state of California, I urge all citizens to recognize the important role that pollination plays in our state’s economy and ecosystems.

Sincerely,
EDMUND G. BROWN JR.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross and State Board of Food and Agriculture member Don Cameron at the Soil Health Symposium on June 17 at UC Davis. Photo credit – Kate Campbell, California Farm Bureau Federation.

A walk through any of California’s 700 certified farmers markets is all it takes to make the point: This state’s farms are something special. Our farmers are innovators —as creative as they are productive, to the tune of $42.6 billion worth of agricultural produce and commodities a year. But they have a lot of help right under their feet: the soil.

The California Museum in Sacramento (10th and O streets) features a new exhibit, sponsored by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and designed by the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, that gives us a unique peek underground. “Dig It! The Secrets of Soil” is a 4,000-square-foot exhibit focused on educating 75,000 kindergartners through eighth-graders each year about the benefits of healthy soils.

We hope to see more and more young minds take an interest in soil, in agriculture and in the environmental sciences. As much as we know about soils and how they help us grow food, we will need a tremendous amount of new research and innovation to meet the nutritional needs of a growing global population.

Sacramento is a perfect place for this “Dig It!” exhibit. We are the “farm-to-fork capital,” and soil is the star of the show when it comes to farming. It’s what lets California farmers grow more than 400 agricultural commodities, from date palms in the high desert to veggies on the central coast, fruit trees in the foothills, wine grapes in Napa, rice up north and darned near everything else in the valleys in between.

In fact, California even has a state soil: San Joaquin soil from the great valley that is recognized as one of the richest agricultural regions in the world. With upper layers of brown loam and a subsoil of clay, this soil is well-suited for the valley’s irrigated crops such as almonds, oranges, grapes, wheat and rice. The great Central Valley boasts more than 500,000 acres of it.

Locals are used to it, but folks who come to California for the first time are awed by the variety, quality and abundance of our agriculture. Even a simple trip through our average supermarket produce section can be a jaw-dropper for someone who isn’t accustomed to our array of nutritious, tasty, healthy choices. Ask Sacramento chefs what makes this the perfect place for their restaurants to thrive, and it’s a sure bet they’ll rave about the long list of seasonal, local ingredients they have to choose from on a year-round basis.

That variety, that abundance are truly built from the ground up. Sandy or silty, loam or clay … our soils are as diverse as the food we grow in and on them. Farmers have always known that healthy soils are essential to produce good crops, but the advancing science of soils is giving us a whole new appreciation of soil diversity and soil health — and that science is giving us new tools to be better stewards of the land.

From irrigation technology that saves water to fertilizer research that protects our natural resources, science allows us to understand not just what we can grow from our soil but also what the soil itself requires to remain healthy and productive.

Soil isn’t just “dirt.” It’s a secret, underground ecosystem teeming with microbial life, nutrients, water. It is as varied and fascinating as California’s above-ground attractions, from its beaches to its mountains, valleys and deserts. It may take a scientist to see the connection, but that’s exactly what we’re hoping to find with the California Museum’s new “Dig It!” exhibit: New scientists who marvel at the magic happening right beneath our feet.

“Dig It!” is open now and will be on display at the California Museum through March 29. For more information, visit the California Museum website at www.californiamuseum.org/dig-it. Hours are Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sundays from noon to 5 p.m. (closed Mondays).

Link to article

By Eric Holthaus

By Alice Daniel

Beekeeper Chris DePrada wears protective clothing to check the health of the bees for Bradshaw Honey Farm.(Alice Daniel/KQED)

These are hard times for honeybees; colonies are collapsing for reasons ranging from pesticides to parasites. And with this year’s pitiful rainfall in California, bees are facing another plight: There’s a lot less natural forage to make honey.

Second-generation beekeeper David Bradshaw pulls his truck up alongside wooden boxes of beehives on a farm outside the Central Valley town of Visalia. Soon, a loud mechanical sound – some would say a beekeeper’s buzz kill – drowns out the lively drone of bees.

“It’s a pump,” explains Bradshaw. His hungry insects aren’t getting enough natural nectar, so Bradshaw has to feed them. “It sucks the syrup blend out of that tank, and pumps it into that garden hose. Then we go from hive to hive and fill up these little feeders here. They hold about a gallon of syrup.”

Bradshaw will spend about $80,000 on artificial nectar this summer just to keep his colonies from starving.

In a normal year, Bradshaw takes his bees to hills laden with wildflowers. But this year, those hills are bone dry and they look barren. Plants are mostly dormant, and that means the natural nectar production line is shut down.

When wildflowers do bloom, they make nectar from sugar and water. Bees use the nectar to make honey. But a drought means less water, less nectar and less honey.

So Bradshaw is keeping his bees on the valley floor. In addition to the syrup, he’s feeding them a doughy protein supplement: soy flour, brewer’s yeast, vitamins and minerals.

It’s good enough to keep the bees going, but it’s no substitute for the nectar used to make honey. That’s one reason Bradshaw sent 700 of his hives to Kansas, to feast on bee pastures there.

“We just load them up on a semi truck and send them off,” he says.

It’s like sending his kids off to summer camp.

“I worry! If they run into some bad weather where it gets too hot,” Bradshaw says. “You don’t want to be stuck on the side of the road in a broken truck with a bunch of angry bees in there.”

Bradshaw’s been keeping bees for 40 years. His 3,800 hives typically produce about 250 barrels of honey a year. In the past three years, because of the drought and lack of wildflower nectar, his bees have been producing one-tenth of that.

“You can tell the bees are hungry,” Bradshaw says. “They’re all over the truck. If there was nectar available, they wouldn’t even be around the truck. They smell the syrup there so they’re all over it.”

His bees fed, Bradshaw gets back in his truck. As he drives over a bridge spanning an empty riverbed, he says small packers from Santa Cruz to Ojai have called him begging for honey.

“Especially the more exotic honeys like sage honey or buckwheat honey,” he says. “Even alfalfa honey is gonna be in very, very short supply this year.”

Crops like alfalfa and cotton are less abundant this year because there’s not enough water to irrigate them. So beekeepers are leaning heavily on one crop: oranges.

Beekeeper Steve Godlin watches the sticky orange blossom honey move slowly down a chute at his warehouse outside the little town of Exeter, not far from the Sierra foothills.

He points to the production line where the wax gets separated from the honey and the honey gets pumped down to a tank. “That’s where we fill the barrels,” he says.

In wet years, Godlin runs his bees from the Coast Ranges to the Mojave Desert and he can make a million pounds of honey. This year he’ll produce half that much, and with less variety.

“On those wet years, there’s sage, buckwheat, blue curl, tarweed, manzanita, a lot of different plants,” he says.

On dry years, oranges are his best bet. But oranges are a crowded field. Beekeepers come from all over the country to plant their hives amid the sweet-smelling orchards.

“Everybody and their brother wanted to bring their bees to the oranges,” Godlin says. “I do my best to protect my areas but it’s a free country.”

Gene Brandi, vice president of the American Beekeeping Federation, says California is typically a major honey-producing state.

“In years when California receives adequate rainfall and especially in years when California receives above-normal rainfall, like the El Niño years, California is the number one honey-producing state in the nation,” Brandi says. “We’ve done that many times in the past.”

Honey production in the state varies considerably from year to year, but in a drought year it typically gets cut by about half. This year, Brandi says, it might be worse.

“I’ve never seen a year like this when it’s not only dry but the irrigation water is so scarce,” Brandi says. “I think the honey production in California will likely be one of the lowest levels we’ve seen in a long time.”

Meanwhile wholesale honey prices are the highest Brandi has ever seen, averaging $2 a pound. That’s great for beekeepers, he says, if only they had more to sell.

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