With the holiday season bringing reminders of the food insecurity faced by an alarming number of needy Californians, CDFA offers an encore presentation of a video from the award-winning Growing California series: “Farm to Family,” spotlighting efforts to feed the hungry in Fresno County
Note: In the video, CDFA secretary Karen Ross mentioned a goal to double farm contributions in this program. That goal has been met.
A new video PSA from Visit California features Governor Brown, Governor-elect Newsom, and a number of celebrities expressing their concern for victims of the recent wildfires in northern and southern California and encouraging viewers to donate what they can to the Red Cross.
A field day for healthy soils last week in Meridian, CA
By Ruby Larson
Soil health and research on using cover crops were discussed by farmers, researchers and others at the University of California Cooperative Extension’s Soil Health and Cover Crop Field Day on Dec. 6.
Dozens gathered for a presentation on the Healthy Soils Project, which the local UCCE is participating in. The project focuses on managing soil health, changes in soil carbon and reducing greenhouse gases.
Several farmers attended the field day to learn more about cover cropping and improving soil health.
Pete Deen, agronomist with Syngenta, an agriculture supply company, said he attended because he’s interested in expanding his knowledge and “seeing what people in the industry are doing to improve soil.”
Jack Welch, seed market representative with Simplot Grower Solutions, said the retailer has been making a push toward cover crop sales as the industry looks at sustainable growing solutions.
So, he said, he attended to try and stay up to date and learn more about cover crops and soil health.
Topics included in the presentation were managing winter cover crops in annual rotation, soil health demonstrations and managing soil carbon based on management practices.
Cover crops are planted to enrich and protect the soil.
Amber Vinchesi, vegetable crops adviser for UCCE Sutter-Yuba, began the presentation by giving background on the research project.
Vinchesi said part of the goal of the three-year project is to improve public and environmental health. During the course of the project, they will be sampling soil and measuring greenhouse gasses after events, such as rain and tillage.
The site in Meridian will be implementing winter cover crops and will have three treatments, one with low seeded rate, high seeded rate and a control with no cover crop, she said during the presentation.
Vinchesi and Sarah Light, agronomy adviser for UCCE Sutter-Yuba, gave a demonstration on how they would test for greenhouse gasses during the course of the project.
Light said cover crop benefits can include things like increasing organic matter in the fields, improving soil structure, reducing the risk of erosion or compaction and suppressing weeds.
Light said during the research, they are looking at three plant families – grasses, brassica and legumes.
Valerie Bullard, agronomist at the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Plant Materials Center, said her organization has been working on a number of trials with different species of cover crops.
They’ve looked at things like fixation, weed suppression, different management and warm season cover crops, Bullard said.
The right cover crop can depend on what the needs of the grower are, what time of year they have to grow something, what kind of plant they want to grow, height or pest concerns along with other factors, she said.
UCCE’s research is being done on a portion of Vincent Andreotti’s field near Meridian.
During the presentation, Andreotti talked about field management of the winter cover crops, including what’s grown there and how the crops would be planted.
He said they had planned to plant the cover crops earlier in the season, but the rain delayed them.
The statewide healthy soils project is supported by the California Department of Food and Agriculture and funded by California Climate Investments.
A diversified farmer from Tulare County and a farm couple from Glenn County have earned awards for achievement and excellence among young farmers and ranchers in California. They received the awards during the 100th California Farm Bureau Federation Annual Meeting in San Diego.
Zack Stuller of Exeter received the Young Farmers and Ranchers Achievement Award, which recognizes accomplishments in production agriculture and leadership activity.
Shannon and Kelly Douglass of Orland received the Excellence in Agriculture Award, presented to young agricultural professionals who contribute through involvement in agriculture, leadership activities and Farm Bureau.
A first-generation farmer, Stuller became interested in agriculture while growing up in Northern California, eventually earning agricultural degrees from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. After working for several years as a farm manager in the San Joaquin Valley, he started his own operation last year, farming and managing citrus fruit, kiwifruit and walnuts. His company also helps develop farmland for permanent crops. Stuller serves as treasurer of the Tulare County Farm Bureau and has taken a particular interest in water policy, serving on the county water commission and on the stakeholder committees for two local groundwater-sustainability agencies.
Shannon Douglass operates an agricultural recruitment business. She was elected last year as CFBF first vice president and also serves as a member of the Glenn County Farm Bureau board. Her husband Kelly is a seed sales representative. Together, the couple raise beef cattle and grow sunflowers, watermelons, squash, pumpkins, corn and hay.
Asked to name three important issues facing agriculture, the Douglasses cited regulation, the shortage of qualified agricultural employees, and the need to increase awareness of agriculture among non-farm residents. As farmers, they said, “we feel the pain of each and every regulation with which we must comply,” noting that paperwork becomes “a heavy burden and daunting task” for people trying to start a farming operation.
As winners of their respective awards, Stuller and the Douglasses each earned a $4,000 cash prize sponsored by Farm Credit, Kubota and K·Coe Isom. Stuller also earned 250 hours’ use of a Kubota tractor, furnished by Kubota Tractor Corp.
The winners will represent California in national competitions to be held next month at the American Farm Bureau Federation Annual Convention in New Orleans.
From the UC’s Water Security and Sustainability Research Initiative
There are only two ways to reduce groundwater overdraft: decrease pumping or increase recharge.
While addressing California’s overdraft will certainly require both actions, we convened a meeting of water management experts around groundwater recharge. The goal of the “Recharge Roundtable” was to address California’s severe groundwater overdraft problem through actions that would produce substantial increases in recharge in the next five years.
As a collaboration between the Groundwater Resources Association of California and the University of California Water Security and Sustainability Research Initiative (UCWSSRI), we aimed to motivate focused actions that effect large quantities of recharge and produce regional benefits. The Recharge Roundtable participants and organizers produced a call to action, organized around six key questions and related action steps:
It is increasingly obvious that tantalizing possibilities for increasing recharge to California’s aquifers exist, yet state and local water agencies and stakeholders are not sufficiently prepared to capitalize on those possibilities. This call to action is intended to help our state prepare.
Dr. Kent Fowler was honored this month in San Francisco.
From a news release
Dr. Kent Fowler, a CDFA veterinarian and chief of the agency’s Animal Health Branch, has been recognized with a Distinguished Service Award from the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP).
The Distinguished Service Award honors exemplary service to the AAEP or a similar organization to the benefit of the horse, horse industry or profession of equine veterinary medicine. Dr. Fowler was honored Dec. 4 during the President’s Luncheon at the AAEP’s 64th Annual Convention in San Francisco.
Dr. Fowler received his veterinary degree in 1977 from the University of California, Davis. Before joining CDFA in 2004, he practiced large animal medicine on the central coast of California.
As host of the monthly National Equine Conference Call, Dr. Fowler facilitates ongoing communication about pertinent veterinary topics between the American Horse Council, AAEP, National Assembly of State Animal Health Officials, United States Department of Agriculture and industry. In addition, he works with state animal health officials and the USDA to develop acceptable protocols for treatment and subsequent testing of horses for equine piroplasmosis, a tick-borne disease that can be fatal. Since the initial discussions of this treatment option, multiple horses have been treated successfully.
Dr. Jamie Peyton, chief of the Integrative Medicine Service with the UC Davis Veterinary Medical Teaching Hospital, is assisting veterinarians in the Chico-area by using sterilized tilapia skins to treat burns on dogs and cats injured in the Camp Fire.
Peyton first used the procedure on two bears and a mountain lion burned in the Thomas Fire in Ventura County in 2017. She also treated a bear cub burned in this year’s Carr Fire in the Redding-area.
“We’re trying to change burn care for animals,” said Peyton. “Tilapia skins act as a dermal substitute that provides pain relief and protection and helps these wounds heal better.”
Tilapia skin can transfer collagen, a healing protein, to the burned skin. It also reduces the need for frequent bandage changes, which can be quite painful for animals.
See this UC Davis blog post on the practice
CDFA secretary Karen Ross joined the Almond Board of California this week at a meeting to introduce and discuss the board’s sustainability goals for 2025. The goals are:
Secretary Ross participated in a video about these goals.
Farmers, ranchers and agricultural organizations around the globe today are celebrating “World Soil Day,” a day designated by the food and agriculture arm of the United Nations to celebrate soil and its nexus with human well-being, climate stabilization, and vibrant ecosystems.
With a growing population expected to reach 9 billion by 2050, healthy soils enhance agricultural production and are key to food global security. Healthy soils increase water retention, enhance biodiversity, capture atmospheric carbon, and play an important role mitigating climate change.
CDFA is deeply committed to this issue through its Healthy Soils Program, which provides grant funding to farmers and ranchers implementing practices to reduce greenhouse gases and improve soil health. In 2017 and 2018 the agency funded 110 projects covering more than 8,600 acres in California, with $7.5 million in funding from the California Climate Investments fund. CDFA has received $15 million to fund additional on-farm practices in 2019.
In September of this year, Governor Brown signed Executive Order B-55-18, setting a new statewide goal to achieve carbon neutrality by 2045. Soil carbon sequestration–which is facilitated by the Healthy Soils Program–is among the practices identified to achieve this goal and is part of California’s working lands strategy.
At the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco earlier this year, California and France announced the Global Soil Health Challenge. Pictured from left: Paul Luu, 4 per 1,000 Initiative; CDFA Secretary Karen Ross; Murielle Trouillet, France’s Ministry of Agriculture and Food; CDFA Undersecretary Jenny Lester Moffitt
Additionally, CDFA has joined the governments of France, the Netherlands and Baja California to initiate the Global Soil Health Challenge, which calls on governments around the world – both national and sub-national – to include programs that restore soil health under their national plans to meet their targets under the Paris Agreement. The challenge will set the stage for international collaboration between scientists, farmers and financiers on an ongoing basis in efforts to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by capturing more carbon in the planet’s soils.
Note – CDFA routinely works with CalRecycle and the Department of Justice to provide information about used beverage containers entering the state at Border Protection Stations. The agencies have also teamed-up to conduct several interdiction efforts on roads commonly used to bypass the stations.
From a news release from the California Attorney General’s office
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline, in partnership with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, have announced the arrest of three individuals for allegedly defrauding California’s Beverage Container Recycling Program by trying to import beverage containers sold in Arizona into California to be redeemed for their recycling value.
California’s beverage container recycling program, administered by CalRecycle, encourages recycling at privately-owned centers through a 5- to 10-cent return on eligible beverage containers. Recycling centers are responsible for ensuring that only eligible bottles and cans that are sold in California are redeemed.
“California’s recycling program is one of many publicly-funded programs used to incentivize better treatment of our environment and communities. Those who choose to undercut these efforts to protect and improve our community will be apprehended,” said Attorney General Becerra. “My office will continue to work with law enforcement agencies across state lines to detect and stop criminal activity, and hold perpetrators accountable.”
“The cross-border partnership between the California Department of Justice and Arizona’s law enforcement community sends a clear signal that organized criminal groups have no safe space to operate recycling fraud schemes,” said CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline. “CalRecycle and its law enforcement partners will continue to follow these investigations wherever they lead to protect public funds and the integrity of California’s Beverage Container Recycling Program.”
The arrests are the result of a five-month investigation, which led to the seizure of 27,860 pounds of empty beverage containers from California-bound semi-trucks at a collection yard in Phoenix. The seized beverage containers had a potential redemption value of $41,836.80. The defendants operated a company—Bustillos’ Trucking—which the complaint alleges was operated for the sole purpose of defrauding California’s recycling program for a three-year period.
