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By Claire Fleishman

With tight budgets and children to feed, recipients of federal nutrition assistance were rarely seen at farmers markets, where the words “affordable” and “fresh” didn’t often mix.

That is changing, thanks to a state program that is in line to get a big boost in federal support.

More and more recipients are stepping up to market managers’ tables, swiping their card from CalFresh (nationally known as SNAP or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), and getting a bonus good for fresh produce.

Under the Market Match program, CalFresh recipients can get $10 a week in bonus scrip for fruits and vegetables for every $10 they spend at farmers markets. Over 30,000 CalFresh participants have used the scrip at 130 markets statewide, creating more than $1 million in additional income for farmers at these markets.

Locally, the bonuses are available at a number of farmers markets, including Altadena, Long Beach and Canoga Park. A list can be found online at http://ecologycenter.org/fmfinder.

Federal and state officials are trying to expand the bonuses to other farmers markets to help stem an old problem: low-income recipients using federal nutrition assistance to purchase unhealthful products, particularly high-sugar sodas and junk food.

The matching money comes from the California Market Match Consortium, which was founded five years ago by farmers market operators and community organizations. The consortium is funded by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and a variety of private donors. Recently the Los Angeles County agency First 5 LA, which draws on tobacco tax money to help programs benefitting young children, became a partner.

More funding is on the way.

The 2014 Farm Bill allocated $100 million over the next five years for incentive programs. A new California Assembly bill proposes a Market Match Nutrition Incentive Fund of $2.75 million per year for five years, to maximize capture of federal dollars. With these funds, all 854 markets in California could participate.

SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, feeds one in seven people in the nation. It dispenses $8 billion in California. But beneficiaries of the program, especially children, also suffer high rates of obesity and diabetes, which has been linked to cheaper, sugary foods.

California has the most diabetics in the nation, and spending in the state to treat the disease in 2012 approached $28 billion, according to American Diabetes Association data.

New York City tried to ban the use of SNAP funds for buying high-sugar drinks in 2010. Beverage manufacturers and some civil libertarians objected, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which runs SNAP, vetoed the idea.

In lieu of curbing the supply of junk food — a politically unattractive option — public health advocates are working hard to change the demand by making healthful foods cheaper and more attractive.

Carle Brinkman of the Berkeley-based Ecology Center, which assists farmers markets statewide with implementation of electronic benefit transfer programs, said “Instead of being punitive, we like to incentivize (healthful) food choices. We can give customers who wouldn’t normally shop at farmers markets a boost, and at the same time, send additional funds to small- and medium-size farmers.”

The question now is: Will the incentives change decades of entrenched habits?

Initial signs are positive.

In Massachusetts, a USDA Healthy Incentives pilot project followed 55,000 SNAP households for a year; some were credited with 30 cents for every dollar spent on targeted produce. Spending on fruits and vegetables was higher for those receiving incentives at a rate that was both “statistically significant and … nutritionally relevant,” the study concluded.

And a recent survey by the California consortium found that nearly 3 of 4 Market Match shoppers came specifically for the match. They leave with bags of fresh produce and new ideas from nutrition classes frequently held in conjunction with Market Match.

At one market recently, a rapt audience of about 20 women and children absorbed a “Rethink Your Drink” lesson as a dietitian stirred a frosty pitcher of ice water laced with mint and cucumber slices.

Delicious, several women agreed, and even cheaper than soda.

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WASHINGTON, May 8, 2014 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA is making a historic $78 million investment in local and regional food systems, including food hubs, farmers markets, aggregation and processing facilities, distribution services, and other local food business enterprises.

“The 2014 Farm Bill has given USDA new tools, resources and authority to support the rural economy,” Vilsack said. “Consumer demand for locally-produced food is strong and growing, and farmers and ranchers are positioning their businesses to meet that demand. As this sector continues to mature, we see aggregation, processing, and distribution enterprises across the local food supply chain growing rapidly. These historic USDA investments in support of local food give farmers and ranchers more market opportunities, provide consumers with more choices, and create jobs in both rural and urban communities.”

Vilsack said that $48 million in loan guarantees for local food projects is now available through USDA ‘s Rural Development’s Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program, and $30 million is available through competitive grants via the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) Farmers Market and Local Foods Promotion Program.

The 2014 Farm Bill requires USDA to set aside at least five percent of Business and Industry (B&I) program loan guarantees for projects that focus on local food business enterprises. Details on how to apply for local food funding through the B&I program are available on the Rural Development website. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis. The B&I program has the authority to fund local food infrastructure in urban areas as long as the project supports farm and ranch income and expands healthy food access in underserved communities.

Rural Development’s B&I program provides financial backing for rural business development in partnership with private-sector lenders. It is one of several USDA programs that help finance local foods projects. In 2013, Rural Development supported more than 170 local food infrastructure projects – from food hubs, to scale-appropriate processing facilities, to cold storage and distribution networks. Entities eligible for B&I loan guarantees include cooperatives, non-profit organizations, corporations, partnerships or other legal entities, Indian tribes, public bodies or individuals.

The 2014 Farm Bill tripled funding for marketing and promotion support for local food enterprises by creating the Farmers Market and Local Foods Promotion Program, administered by the Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS). This new program makes $30 million available annually to farmers markets, other direct producer-to-consumer venues, and other businesses in the local food supply chain. Under this program, $15 million is now available for marketing and promotional support specifically for local food businesses, including food hubs, delivery and aggregation businesses, and processing and storage facilities along the local food supply chain, while $15 million is for marketing support for farmers markets and other direct to consumer outlets. Since 2009, AMS, which administers this program, has funded nearly 450 projects totaling $27 million to support direct marketing efforts for local food. More information about how to apply is available on the AMS website. Applications are due June 20, 2014.

These funding opportunities are cornerstones of the USDA’s commitment to support local and regional food systems. USDA’s Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Initiative coordinates the Department’s policy, resources, and outreach efforts related to local and regional food systems The Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Compass maps nearly 3,000 local and regional food projects supported by USDA and eleven other federal agencies. Secretary Vilsack has identified strengthening local food systems as one of the four pillars of USDA’s commitment to rural economic development, along with production agriculture (including expanding export markets and improving research), promoting conservation and outdoor recreation opportunities, and growing the biobased economy.

Link to news release

Many decades ago, now-urban Los Angeles County was agrarian. In fact, it was once the largest Ag county in California. In that more pastoral time, North Hollywood High School had a 100-acre farm. Since then, it has seen its footprint shrink to eight acres and is now surrounded by apartment buildings and other developments. However, that smaller plot of land is still very productive! I had a chance to see it for myself recently.

Ag students at North Hollywood High, including FFA members, work hard to maintain a farm that serves the community – including a flourishing community garden. The students raise money for the farm, themselves, without funding assistance from the school district. When I visited, they had just completed their annual petting zoo fundraiser, which is widely supported by the community.  It was a special treat to see twins born earlier that morning to a pygmy goat!

As usual, I was impressed by the poised, confident, articulate students who are proud representatives of FFA.  I love spending time with them because they represent the promise of a future bright with possibilities.  Whether they go on to have careers in agriculture or not, they certainly will be better citizens and well informed consumers, which make for healthier communities!  There is no doubt in my mind that that North Hollywood FFA officers, Nicholas, Thomas, Jocelyn, Casey, Josh and Letitia have benefited from their FFA experience. Our future is in good hands with young people like them.

 

Link to article

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — There are few rules in racing, but one that is considered inviolable is never to turn down a suitcase full of cash. Steve Coburn and Perry Martin understood that, but two months ago, when one of the sport’s far wealthier owners offered them $6 million for 51 percent of the first horse they had bred, the offer just did not sit well.

They certainly could have used the money: Coburn works for a company in Nevada that makes the magnetic tape for credit cards and hotel keys; Martin owns a California laboratory that tests air bags and landing gear. They work five days a week and do not skip work for rounds of golf or for cocktails at the yacht club.

They scraped together $10,000 to breed California Chrome, and it was not pocket change to them. Retirement savings were tapped. Mortgages were leveraged.

Now here was a potentially life-changing windfall. It would mean moving their beloved Chrome out of the barn of Art Sherman, the horse’s 77-year-old trainer. It would mean fading into the background.

But what hurt worse was that the offer had come from someone who, as the cowboy-hat-wearing Coburn put it, “never put on a pair of boots” to go to work and thought he could buy someone else’s hard work. It did not take them long to decide: The answer was an emphatic no.

So when Victor Espinoza edged California Chrome into the starting gate for the 140th running of the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, not only had Coburn and Martin put their money where their mouths were, they were also doubling down on something that had no price.

“We knew within our souls what kind of horse we had,” Coburn said.

There should have been little doubt that they had a good one. California Chrome had run away with his last four stakes races by more than 24 lengths combined. In doing so, he had displayed an extra gear in the final eighth of a mile of a race.

But skeptics remained, especially in the bluegrass of Kentucky.

No California-bred horse had won the Derby since Decidedly in 1962. There was no way these West Coast cowboys were stealing out of Kentucky with the local breeders’ hardware and birthright. When Sherman and California Chrome hit Churchill Downs last week, the whispers started: The colt looked stiff in the mornings. The old man had pushed him too hard.

There was no way an $8,000 mare (Love the Chase) and a $2,500 heretofore undistinguished stallion (Lucky Pulpit) could have produced a horse swift and gritty enough to hold off a blue-blooded herd for the entire length of the track’s foreboding stretch.

The majority of bettors, however, apparently disagreed: California Chrome burst out of the gate with the bulk of their money as the 5-to-2 favorite.

The colt’s rider, Espinoza, thought the price should have been even shorter. He had won the Derby in 2002 aboard War Emblem, and only a stumbled start in the Belmont Stakes prevented them from sweeping the Triple Crown races.

He knew Chrome was better.

In the winners’ circle, none of them were thinking about that suitcase full of money. They had just taken home a $1.2 million check for first place, plumping their bargain-basement colt’s bankroll to well over $2 million, for an easy mile-and-a-quarter romp in 2 minutes 3.66 seconds.

Forget the money. Coburn promised that he and his horse were after history. They were on to Maryland and the Preakness.

“He’ll fly first class,” Coburn said of Chrome, “and me and the wife will fly coach again.”

Then, Coburn promised, they were headed to New York to claim the Triple Crown at the Belmont.

“Do you nonbelievers believe this horse now?” Coburn said.

The answer should be clear.

Link to the full New York Times article

WASHINGTON, May 2, 2014 –There are now 3.2 million farmers operating 2.1 million farms on 914.5 million acres of farmland across the United States, according to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, released today by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agriculture census presents more than 6 million pieces of information, which provide a detailed look at the U.S. farm sector at the national, state and county levels.

“Once every five years, farmers, ranchers and growers have the unique opportunity to let the world know how U.S. agriculture is changing, what is staying the same, what’s working and what we can do differently,” said Dr. Cynthia Clark, the retiring head of USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service, which administered the survey. “Today, we can start to delve into the details.”

Census data provide valuable insight into the U.S. farmer demographics, economics and production practices. Some of the key findings include:

-Both sales and production expenses reached record highs in 2012. U.S. producers sold $394.6 billion worth of agricultural products, but it cost them $328.9 billion to produce these products.

-Three quarters of all farms had sales of less than $50,000, producing only 3 percent of the total value of farm products sold while those with sales of more than $1 million – 4 percent of all farms – produced 66 percent.

-Much of the increased farm income was concentrated geographically or by farm categories.

-California led the nation with 9 of the 10 top counties for value of sales. Fresno County was number one in the United States with nearly $5 billion in sales in 2012, which is greater than that of 23 states. Weld County, Colorado ranked 9th in the top 10 U.S. counties.

-The top 5 states for agricultural sales were California ($42.6 billion); Iowa ($30.8 billion); Texas ($25.4 billion); Nebraska ($23.1 billion); and Minnesota ($21.3 billion).

-Eighty-seven percent of all U.S. farms are operated by families or individuals.

-Principal operators were on average 58.3 years old and were predominantly male; second operators were slightly younger and most likely to be female; and third operators were younger still.

-Young, beginning principal operators who reported their primary occupation as farming increased 11.3 percent from 36,396 to 40,499 between 2007 and 2012.

-All categories of minority-operated farms increased between 2007 and 2012; the Hispanic-operated farms had a significant 21 percent increase.

-144,530 farm operators reported selling products directly to consumers. In 2012, these sales totaled more than $1.3 billion (up 8.1 percent from 2007).

-Organic sales were growing, but accounted for just 0.8 percent of the total value of U.S. agricultural production. Organic farmers reported $3.12 billion in sales in 2012, up from $1.7 billion in 2007.

-Farms with Internet access rose from 56.5 percent in 2007 to 69.6 percent in 2012.

-57,299 farms produced on-farm renewable energy, more than double the 23,451 in 2007.

-474,028 farms covering 173.1 million acres were farmed with conservation tillage or no-till practices.

-Corn and soybean acres topped 50 percent of all harvested acres for the first time.

-The largest category of operations was beef cattle with 619,172 or 29 percent of all farms and ranches in 2012 specializing in cattle.

“This information is critical to understanding the conditions of U.S. agriculture and determining future policy,” said incoming NASS Administrator Dr. Joseph T. Reilly. “Today’s data release is the culmination of years’ worth of planning and work that NASS has made openly available for public use.”

Conducted since 1840, the Census of Agriculture accounts for all U.S. farms and ranches and the people who operate them. The Census tells a story of how American agriculture is changing and lays the groundwork for new programs and policies that will invest in rural America; promote innovation and productivity; build the rural economy; and support our next generation of farmers and ranchers.

For access to the complete data series and tools to analyze this information, visit www.agcensus.usda.gov. A link to census data will also be available on the USDA Open Data portal, www.usda.gov/data.

With cherry season coming around again in California, CDFA presents an encore post from the Growing California video series – Cherries Galore:

By Scott Martindale

COSTA MESA – State agricultural inspectors are canvassing a residential neighborhood near the Santa Ana River this week after finding a colony of an aggressive ant species in someone’s front yard, the first documented sighting of the pest in its natural environment in California.

The colony of big-headed ants was discovered in Costa Mesa’s Mesa Verde neighborhood earlier this month by an amateur entomologist, who collected a sample and sent it to Los Angeles County officials for identification, said Mike Bennett, Orange County’s agricultural commissioner.

On April 14, L.A. County agricultural officials confirmed the presence of the Pheidole megacephala species in the Costa Mesa home’s front yard, at Europa and Kornat drives, Bennett said.

“This is the first time we’ve seen it in California other than in a shipment of plants or flowers,” Bennett said. “It’s nothing to be alarmed about – we just want to check the spread of it so we can figure out what to do.”

Big-headed ants can bite humans, but their bite is painless and not harmful. Native to Africa, they travel in plants and via mailed packages to other parts of the world.

Bennett said a team of about 10 agricultural inspectors and UC Riverside scientists began going door to door this week asking Mesa Verde residents to inspect their front and back yards.

So far, the team has found only the one ant colony, Bennett said, although officials plan to survey other neighborhoods within a one-mile radius of the colony.

“It is an invasive species, and we have an obligation to try to prevent invasive species,” said Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Even if state and county agricultural inspectors find more of the ants, it’s unclear what, if anything, will be done.

The species discovered last month isn’t the only variety of big-headed ant documented in California, Bennett said.

Authorities, though, are wary of these soil-nesting ants because they’re considered an agricultural pest and one of the world’s most invasive insects. Not only do they tend to invade homes in large numbers in search of food and water, but they also displace other ants and eat beneficial insects, officials say.

The neighborhood canvassing in Costa Mesa is expected to wrap up this week, and then authorities will decide whether to exterminate and/or continue monitoring the colony, Bennett said.

Residents who wish to report a possible sighting can call the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s hotline at 800-491-1899. However, Bennett said, big-headed ants look similar to other common varieties of ants, especially to an untrained eye.

Link to story

Ranch hand Ricardo Madrigal feeds cattle on the Van Vleck Ranch in Rancho Murieta, CA

Credit – Reuters:Max Whittaker/Files

By PJ Huffstutter and Tom Polansek

For decades, ranchers from the east have brought their livestock to California, where mild winters and lush natural pastures created prime conditions for fattening beef cattle.

No more. In the midst of the worst California drought in decades, the grass is stunted and some creeks are dry. Ranchers in the Golden State are loading tens of thousands of heifers and steers onto trucks and hauling them eastward to Nevada, Texas, Nebraska and beyond.

“If there’s no water and no feed, you move the cows,” said Gaylord Wright, 65, owner of California Fats and Feeders Inc. “You move them or they die.”

The exact headcount for livestock on this cattle drive is not known. But a Reuters review of state agriculture department records filed when livestock cross state borders indicates that up to 100,000 California cattle have left the state in the past four months alone.

California has shipped out cattle before, but the current migration is far bigger and includes more of the state’s breeding stock, which give birth to new calves and keep operations running year after year, said Jack Cowley, a rancher and past president of the California Beef Cattle Improvement Association.

That could be doing outsized damage to the nation’s 18th-largest cattle herd, since California ranchers will have difficulty rebuilding once the drought breaks, said cattle ranchers and area livestock auctioneers.

“We spend a lifetime building the herd the way we want,” said Cowley. Two weeks ago, he sold 18 percent of his breeding herd, or 200 cattle, to an operation in Nevada because he did not have enough water. He expects he will need to sell another 200 cattle.

“Now,” Cowley said, “we’ve lost all that.”

Beef prices already are at record highs, and increased transportation costs and rising uncertainty about where – and how many – future cattle will be raised and processed are adding upward pressure, industry analysts say.

The national cattle herd is at a 63-year low because high grain prices and drought during the past several years have encouraged producers to send animals to slaughter early and to reduce herd sizes.

There are some signs of change. In places where the drought has eased, or where ranchers are willing to gamble that rain will fall, some producers have started holding back breeding heifers and female calves from the slaughterhouses, according to government data released on Friday. But they are buying California cows, too.

The California exodus also underscores a little-noticed development in the U.S. beef industry: the evolution of an increasingly mobile livestock herd, which must travel ever-greater distances to feedlots and slaughterhouses as the industry consolidates.

WRENCHING CONSOLIDATION

The last major slaughterhouse near the California-Mexico border, National Beef Packing Co’s plant in Brawley, California, plans to close on May 23. The drop in available cattle sparked the move, National Beef said, and some ranchers in southern California say they will need to cross state lines in order to reach the next-closest packing house.

The Brawley plant could process 1,900 head of cattle a day, or about 2 percent of U.S. slaughter capacity, according to industry analysts. But with feedlots closing in the region, the plant couldn’t be assured of a steady supply of livestock.

“The fact is, this migration cycle is going to bring about even more consolidation,” said Curt Covington, senior vice president for the Ag and Rural Banking Division at Bank of the West.

“Unless you see Noah come out to California with a boat, you’re not going to see these cattle come back here any time soon,” Covington added.

CROWDED ROADS, HUNGRY BUYERS

State government paperwork provides some insight for tracking cattle trailers as they cross state lines.

The top destination appears to be Texas, long the nation’s largest cattle producing state. Buyers this year have hauled in more than 47,400 California cattle, a 71 percent jump over the previous year’s first quarter, according to state agriculture department data.

“Some of our California cows are going to be Texans. There’s no way around it,” said cow-calf producer Tim Koopman, president of the California Cattlemen’s Association and livestock auctioneers. “The sell-off is not over yet.”

Nebraska, home to more cattle in feedlots than any other state, also has joined in. More than 14,000 California cattle arrived in the first quarter of this year, compared to just 542 cattle that made the trek in the same period of 2013, according to state records.

TROUBLESOME TREK

Many of the cattle crossing state lines are doing so at lighter weights than normal, due to the scarce water and high feed prices.

Wright, the cattle buyer, said he saw one client bring his beef herd back to auction weighing 40 pounds less than when he bought them in January. Yet lighter-weight cattle have a surprising appeal to some out-of-state buyers: more cattle per truckload.

“If your truck can haul 50,000 pounds on the trailer, you can transport 50 cows that weigh 1,000 pounds, or 100 calves that weigh 500 pounds,” Wright said. Once they arrive and are fattened up, the larger number of head can translate into increased profits for the new owners.

Still, the long distances can cause unhealthy stress for the animals. Wright said he lost a newborn calf during a nearly 1,600-mile trek to Texas last winter even though his driver stopped to nestle it in bedding.

“It still froze to death,” Wright said. “I’ll never do that again.”

EVERY COW COUNTS

But the business imperative persists. Bill Brandenberg, owner of the Meloland Cattle Co in El Centro, California, said his company’s survival depends on his ability to move cattle to states where food and water are less expensive.

“We’ve already sent some cattle to Texas,” Brandenberg said. “In two weeks, we’re sending more to Kansas.”

The Texas herd fell 11 percent last year, or 1.4 million head, the biggest decline in nearly 150 years of recorded data, and the influx from California will not be enough to reverse the trend. The shrinking herd prompted Cargill Inc last year to shut its plant in Plainview, Texas, capable of slaughtering 4,500 cattle a day.

Hereford, Texas, which bills itself as the Beef Capital of the World, has seen truckloads of California transplants this year.

The Bar-G Feedyard just outside of town recently took in a 164-head delivery from a customer who wanted to move them before the Brawley slaughterhouse closed, assistant manager Kevin Bunch said.

“He got scared,” Bunch said, and shipped the animals to Texas to ensure he could eventually sell them for slaughter.

Link to article