By CDFA Secretary Karen Ross

I was pleased to visit Riverside County earlier this week to learn more about two major efforts to protect California agriculture.

The day started with a visit to the joint CDFA/USDA virulent Newcastle disease (VND) incident command center. Nearly 300 employees representing both agencies are doing yeoman’s work to protect commercial and non-commercial poultry, and working with local communities to ensure bio-security to prevent the spread of VND. I was grateful for the opportunity to thank them for their efforts, and I also enjoyed meeting CHP officers who are assisting in the program. We really appreciate their presence. It’s important to note that there hasn’t been a new detection of VND since June 4th, so fingers are crossed that we’re nearing the end of this project.

Following that I went to the Citrus State Historical Park, where three generations of the John Gless family farm the trees and operate a farm stand. The modern-day commercial citrus industry was born in Riverside County in 1873 when Eliza Tibetts planted two small trees of the Washington navel orange. Protecting the county’s commercial groves from huanglongbing, a disease spread by the Asian citrus psyllid, is a federal/state/local/industry partnership. 

The highest value crop in Riverside County today is nursery stock. I had the pleasure of visiting two very impressive nursery operations, Village Nursery and Altman Plants. The capital investment, innovation, and customer-focused passion of these two companies is a hallmark of California agriculture.  I loved seeing every aspect of these impressive operations.  But it was especially fun to observe robots named Tom, Jerry, Batman and Robin as they moved potted plants to precise locations, reducing the strain on human backs!!

I want to thank Riverside County agricultural commissioner Ruben Arroyo for hosting me. Our ag commissioners are tremendous resources for the state and their local communities.  Ruben just finished a term as president of the ag commissioners and sealers association, CACASA. I enjoyed the day with him and his great staff.

By Kaitlin Washburn

The Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Committee (an advisory body to CDFA and citrus growers) has endorsed a set of best practices on how to combat huanglongbing (HLB), a disease that devastates citrus orchards.

The recommendations were developed by growers from throughout California and scientists to thwart the spread of the Asian citrus psyllid, the pest that carries HLB, or citrus greening disease.

“Our state’s citrus industry has held the line against HLB since the first detection seven years ago. We should commend our efforts but must not forget the devastating impact HLB could have on our orchards and our livelihood,” said Jim Gorden, chair of the Citrus Pest and Disease Prevention Program and a Tulare County citrus grower, in a news release from the committee.

HLB has yet to be detected in a commercial grove in California, though the disease is spreading through residential communities in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA).

Citrus greening disease has infected more than 1,400 citrus trees, and 1,003 square miles are under quarantine for HLB, according to the committee’s release. Trees infected with the disease bear small, asymmetrical fruit that are partially green, bitter and unsellable.

The Asian citrus psyllid, a spotted brown insect smaller than a grain of rice, has been found in 28 California counties, including Tulare. Growers can voluntarily follow the practices, which are a supplement to CDFA’s required action plan on targeting HLB and the Asian citrus psyllid.

The practices for combating HLB offer four scenarios a citrus grower might experience. The four possibilities are if a grower’s orchards are outside of an HLB quarantine, between 1 and 5 miles from HLB detection, within 1 mile of HLB but not infected or infected with HLB.

The guidelines vary within each scenario and offer actions a grower can take, such as surveying for Asian citrus psyllid in their orchard, controlling Asian citrus psyllid with insecticides and repellents and providing additional protections for young trees.

HLB wasn’t detected in the Western Hemisphere until 2004 when it was reported in Brazil. In 2005, HLB was detected for the first time in the United States, in Florida. Before that, it was known to occur in Asia, specifically from Japan to southern China, Southeast Asia and from India to Pakistan.

“We know the cost to manage the Asian citrus psyllid is far less than any potential costs or loss to the industry should HLB take hold throughout our state,” said Keith Watkins, chair of the task force that developed the best practices and vice president of farming at Bee Sweet Citrus, in the release.

For the 2016-2017 marketing year, California citrus production valued $3.4 billion. The total economic impact of the citrus industry on California’s economy in 2016-2017 was $7.1 billion.

The Citrus Pest & Disease Prevention Program was established in 2010 to advise the CDFA secretary and agricultural industry about efforts to combat serious citrus pests and diseases.

Link to article

By Jules Bernstein, UCR

UC Riverside scientists have decoded the genome of black-eyed peas, offering hope for feeding Earth’s expanding population, especially as the climate changes. 

Understanding the genes responsible for the peas’ drought and heat tolerance eventually could help make other crops tougher too.

Black-eyed peas are small beans with dark midsections. They’ve been a global dietary staple for centuries due to their environmental toughness and exceptional nutritional qualities, such as high protein and low fat. In sub-Saharan Africa they remain the number one source of protein in the human diet.  

A genome is the full collection of genetic codes that determine characteristics like color, height, and predisposition to diseases. All genomes contain highly repetitive sequences of DNA that UCR Professor of Computer Science and project co-leader Stefano Lonardi likens to “hundreds of thousands of identical jigsaw puzzle pieces.”

Lonardi described the process of figuring out how the jigsaw puzzle sequences fit together as “computationally challenging.” In order to do so, Lonardi’s team assembled the genome many times with different software tools and parameters. Then they created new software capable of merging these various genome solutions into a single, complete picture.

With the success of this project, the black-eyed pea joins only a handful of other major crops whose genomes have been fully sequenced. The team’s work on the project was published in the June issue of The Plant Journal, where it was featured as the cover story, and Lonardi’s free software can be downloaded online.

Research on black-eyed peas, a legume also known as cowpea, started at UC Riverside more than 40 years ago. But cowpeas’ presence in Riverside predates the university by about 200 years.

“The cowpea has been here supporting people since early colonial times,” said project co-leader Timothy Close, a UCR professor of botany and plant sciences. ‘It’s nice that we’ve brought this plant with so much local history up to state of the art for scientific research.”

This is the first high-quality reference genome for the cowpea. Work on it began three years ago, made possible mainly by a $1.6 million grant from the National Science Foundation, or NSF. An additional $500,000 NSF grant also supported the computational efforts. 

A clue to the complexity of the project is the size of the research team. In addition to Close and Lonardi, the many other UCR scientists on the team included María Muñoz-Amatrían, Qihua Liang, Steve Wanamaker, Sassoum Lo, Hind Alhakami, Rachid Ounit, Philip Roberts, Jansen Santos, Arsenio Ndeve, and Abid Md. Hasan. Additional team members inside the U.S. came from UC Davis, the Department of Energy’s Joint Genome Institute in California, the National Center for Genome Resources in New Mexico, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Iowa. International team members came from Finland, France, Brazil, and the Czech Republic.

As with humans, there are differences between individual cowpeas. Knowing which genes are responsible for qualities in individuals such as color, size, or pathogen resistance will help breeders develop new varieties even better able to withstand external challenges. 

“Having the genome sequence helps scientists make decisions about the choice of parent plants to crossbreed in order to produce their desired progeny,” Close said. 

One of the cowpea traits that scientists are now trying to understand is its remarkable ability to recover from drought stress. 

“We’re trying to figure out why cowpeas are so resilient to harsh conditions,” said Close. “As we move into a world with less water available to agriculture, it will be important to capitalize on this ability and expand on it, taking the lead from cowpeas to guide improvements in other crops that are vulnerable to climate change.”

Link to UC Riverside news release
 

The California Department of Food and Agriculture is celebrating its 100^th anniversary as a state agency in 2019. Throughout the year this blog will feature a number of items to commemorate this milestone. Today we continue with the Centennial Reflections video series, featuring CDFA employees remembering their histories, and the agency’s.

CDFA undersecretary Jenny Lester Moffitt and Department of Pesticide Regulation acting director Val Dolcini recently traveled to Riverside County to join a tour of several projects being utilized in the Asian citrus psyllid/huanglongbing eradication program, with an emphasis on integrated pest management approaches that reduce the need for pesticide usage.

The tour, which was coordinated by California Citrus Mutual, began at the new California Citrus Research Foundation Laboratory in Riverside. This lab will perform research for solutions to huanglongbing. The group then moved to CDFA’s Mt. Rubidoux Field Station for a tour of the Tamarixia radiata rearing facility. Tamarixia radiata is a parasitic wasp that helps to eradicate and control Asian citrus psyllids.

Riverside County agricultural commissioner Ruben Arroyo joined the group at lunch, helping to underscore that an essential piece of the partnership that works to protect California citrus is comprised of agricultural commissioners, growers, the research community, and UC Cooperative Extension.

The tour concluded with a stop at a nearby citrus grove owned by the Gless family, and then a visit to a previous huanglongbing detection site for a demonstration of survey and trapping techniques.

Link to more information about Asian citrus psyllid/huanglongbing

Statement from California State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones

Thanks to cooperation from Southern California residents in very difficult circumstances, and a tremendous commitment from emergency response teams, the joint CDFA/USDA Virulent Newcastle Disease Project has found no new positive detections of the disease since June 4, 2019.

While this potentially moves us closer to eradication, we must emphasize that any subsequent detections would represent a significant setback.

This is an extremely critical time. It is imperative that bird owners continue to work together to ensure that previously-infected areas remain free from disease, and it is vital that all bird owners within the regional quarantine area of Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino counties continue practicing enhanced biosecurity and do not move birds. 

The VND project team will now survey and test in areas where disease has previously existed to make sure there are no remaining residual pockets of virus in poultry. However, it is important to recognize that the virus will remain in the environment for several more months, and that the risk of infection remains. If additional birds test positive, those birds and any exposed birds on adjacent properties will be euthanized. 

Remember – we’re all in this together, and we must continue working together until virulent Newcastle disease is eradicated in California. 

Link to CDFA’s Virulent Newcastle Disease page

The California Department of Food and Agriculture is celebrating its 100^th anniversary as a state agency in 2019. Throughout the year this blog will feature a number of items to commemorate this milestone. Today we continue with the Centennial Reflections video series, featuring CDFA employees remembering their histories, and the agency’s.

By Julia Mitric

As a generation of farmers in California enters retirement age, these growers and ranchers face difficult choices about what to do with their farms and how to support themselves as they age.

There is no “cookie-cutter formula” for farmers navigating this chapter, said Rod Carter, an expert in land succession planning who has advised California farmers for several decades.

“The only thing I can tell you (is that) out of 300-plus families I’ve worked with here in California on this particular topic, none of them are the same,” Carter said.

In 2017, the average age of California farmers rose to 59, according to the most recent USDA Census of Agriculture. The national average is 57.5 years old, up from 56.3 years old in 2012. More than a third of U.S. farmers are 65 or older.

While each case is unique, there are common factors at play, such as personal health; the type, scale and viability of the business; the market; and the multi-generational needs of the family, Carter said.

In the case of Riverhill Farm in Nevada County, business succession plans didn’t involve younger family members.

Until about a year ago, Alan Haight and Jo McProud, both 62, were still actively planting and tending organic produce on seven acres of flattish land nestled below a ridge in the Sierra Nevada foothills. Farm succession was on Haight’s mind from the very beginning, he said.

“I started [the farm] with the intention that it would survive my ability to farm,” Haight said. “Farms aren’t common in this area, and so when someone undertakes to build a farm, that’s a tremendous investment of time and effort. There’s a lot at stake for community in that farm surviving.”

The couple came to farming in their early 40s as a second career. Haight left a San Francisco law firm as a paralegal and later married McProud, who was a landscape architect.

At a time when there wasn’t a local food movement to speak of in Nevada City, they built a successful business selling organic produce. Haight said they sold 85% of their produce within 10 miles of Riverhill Farm and the other 15% went to the Tahoe Food Hub in Alpine Meadows, which buys produce from regional growers and distributes it in the Lake Tahoe area.

It was common for Haight to work 10 to 12 hour days, seven days a week, he said. That’s the time it took him and McProud to plant, weed, trim and harvest, even with the help of a farm crew of three or more people on weekdays. Beyond growing and tending vegetables, there’s the work of developing customers, buying materials, paying bills, fixing equipment and irrigation lines, running the weekend farmers market, and hosting a pick-your-own berry patch in the summer.

Unsurprisingly, the most frenetic pace came at the height of summer, when Haight, McProud and their farm laborers were working in the fields as temperatures pushed into the mid-90s.

On the hottest days, Haight said he couldn’t wait to drive the air-conditioned delivery van to Nevada City. Even though it meant loading and unloading thousands of pounds of produce for the farmers market, at least it was a break from the heat, said Haight.

“June and July were…the months of the season when I always thought ‘This is going to be my last season!’” Haight admitted, laughing.

“Pushing through those hard times was doable through our 50s,” McProud explained, “[but] then as we got into our 60s, the lack of sleep, the stress on our joints…you’re not as resilient. Our physical bodies are aging.”

And other changes were happening. The couple welcomed their first grandchild into the world last year, and they wanted to spend more time with family.

“One of the worst outcomes would’ve been that we had to keep going beyond our ability to do it and worked ourselves into the ground, to an early grave,” McProud says.

In order to retire in their 60s, the couple needed a way to leave the fields but still draw income from the successful business they had built. Haight and McProud agreed they needed to find someone who would appreciate their “legacy” of sustainable farming and carry it forward.

That person turned out to be Antonio Garza, who worked as farm manager at Soil Born Farms. The non-profit organization in the Sacramento suburbs offers educational programs for school-age children and farm apprenticeships for rookie farmers. “Finding someone like Antonio is not easy in itself,” Haight said.

The relationship developed slowly over two years after the couple recruited Garza as Riverhill Farm manager. Observing him over that time, Haight and McProud were confident that Garza had the skill and stamina to become the sole farm operator.

The timing of the couple’s retirement hinged on Garza’s readiness to be his own boss. When he first met Haight, he’d already been farming for other people for seven years.

“I was looking for a long-term opportunity … an opportunity to work for myself in a situation that could carry me through the rest of my farming career,” said Garza, who’s now 40. “I was looking for a long-term plan rather than a year-to-year plan.”

He says he had been looking to start his own farming operation in and around Sacramento. But he found “most land [that’s] suitable for farming is priced for residential and commercial development, not agriculture.”

“So, it’s very difficult to afford that [on] a farming income, particularly a starting farming income,” Garza added.

California’s high real estate costs are a major barrier for first generation farmers, according to data collected by the National Young Farmers Coalition.

Garza says the lease at Riverhill Farm offered long-term security at an affordable price. He, Haight and McProud fleshed out the terms of the agreement with guidance from CA FarmLink, a non-profit organization that provides farm loans and connects land owners with farmers in search of land.

Haight knows the benefits of CA FarmLink. He is the organization’s board president.

In 2018, the organization worked with roughly 200 farms with gross sales ranging from $20,000 to $1.5 million, according to Gary Peterson of CA FarmLink.

Garza pays the retired couple monthly on a two-year lease with an understanding that both parties are looking to establish a longer term arrangement. The lease allows Garza to use the land and equipment. He also inherits Haight’s connection to a base of loyal customers and clients who’ve bought vegetables and fruit from Riverhill Farms over the years.

Garza lives on the property with his partner, Daylin Wade, who works part time on the farm.

Meanwhile, Haight and McProud retain ownership of the land and stay in their house overlooking fields, orchards and forest.

Whether a farm has relatively small acreage, like Riverhill, or is a giant dairy collective, designing a farm succession plan is a matter of balancing personal goals and financial reality, said Tim Phlegar, national program director for Nationwide Mutual Insurance Co.’s Land Is Your Legacy program.

For multi-generational farming families, Phlegar said the question at the heart of this transition is “how does the senior generation become independent without being detrimental to the farm itself?”

Haight and McProud have found a way to solve this quandary through a non-family farm succession.

For her part, McProud admits to being happy when she looks out her window in the morning and sees Garza and Wade harvesting cabbages and winter greens, while she stays indoors with a hot cup of coffee.

“There’s not a detachment, but there is a sense of relief,” McProud said. “The timing was just right. We’re ready to turn the reins over, and we appreciate [the farm] going forward without having to do so much of the day-to-day physical and emotional work involved in farming.”

McProud says things could have ended much differently if they had waited too long or failed to find a next generation farmer.

“That’s happened in California, sadly,” she said, “[when] a farmer can’t create a workable succession and they can’t continue physically or financially to keep farming. And so the farm goes out of business.”

Link to story