By CDFA Secretary Karen Ross

Wherever you will be this week and next, my wish for all of you is that you’ll be with family.  While my husband, Barry, and I won’t be with family in the Midwest, we will be with our “family of friends” here in Sacramento.  For many of us, this time of year brings back a lifetime of memories about holiday traditions, the place where we came from, and the family we grew up with – for me that place is a farm in western Nebraska.  As you can tell from this picture of me with my three younger brothers, Dan, Steve and Ben, that was quite a while ago!! 

I believe the concept of family extends far beyond blood relatives. In my eight years at CDFA I have come to regard the agency and its employees as family. I have deep admiration for the work we do together to facilitate the modern miracle that is California agriculture.

This agency is blessed with hundreds of talented, dedicated professionals committed to programs like Asian Citrus Psyllid/Huanglongbing (ACP/HLB), Virulent Newcastle Disease, the Food Safety Modernization Act’s Produce Safety Rule, and many others. 

Each and every holiday season I have had an opportunity to visit CDFA offices (see photo gallery below) to view decorations and learn more about our employees’ support for the many worthy causes in our region. I came away this year feeling like I always do – in awe of their compassion and commitment, and very, very proud of them – proud like family.   

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As part of the 2018 State Employees Food Drive and the continued spirit of giving, a team from CDFA’s Division of Inspection Services volunteered at the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services on December 20. The group helped with bagging fresh produce and sorting non-perishable food items.

CDFA chairs the annual Food Drive, which is showing strong momentum as it aims for a goal of 800,000 pounds of food for needy Californians. CDFA employees are demonstrating the Department’s commitment this season through a series of events.

Each year CDFA joins other agencies in placing barrels in common office spaces for donations, and each year the agency hosts “Coffee with the Secretary” to help fill those barrels. This year’s event, bringing CDFA employees together with Secretary Ross in a casual holiday atmosphere, resulted in generous donations of food and cash.

Prior to Thanksgiving CDFA employees donated more than 1,600 pounds of turkey to support the annual Turkey Drive. Turkeys were distributed by the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services and helped provide Thanksgiving dinner for many in the region.

The need for food in California is substantial. According to the California Association of Food Banks, 4.6 million Californians contend with food insecurity, which is defined as the occasional or constant lack of access to the food one needs for a healthy, active life. More than 1.7 million of those people are children. That need is what motivates California state employees to commit to this effort each and every year.

California State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones has granted a 24-hour permit clearing all brand inspection and health requirements for nine reindeer scheduled to visit California on the evening of December 24 and in the early morning hours of December 25.

The permit application was filed in person by a rotund, jolly man with a red suit, a white beard, and a pocketful of candy canes to share with CDFA staff. The signature on the paperwork reads “K. Kringle.”

Brand inspections and health requirements help veterinarians prevent the spread of animal disease. The law also mandates that all animals entering California be individually identified. The nine reindeer named on the permit are: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen and Rudolph.

The permit was granted with two conditions: the nine reindeer may not co-mingle with other reindeer in the State of California, and the visiting reindeer may not be used for breeding purposes while in the state. They are, however, invited to partake of the Golden State’s famous and varied agricultural bounty if they need to refuel.

“We consider it an honor to issue this permit to Mr. Kringle and do our part to ensure another successful trip,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “We wish him safe travels and plenty of milk and cookies as he and his reindeer make deliveries to the good children of California.”

Corn is one of the world’s most important crops. We don’t just pop it and munch it on the cob; corn can be turned into flour and syrup, it is fed to livestock, it is transformed into ethanol and it can even be used to make plastic. Between 2016 and 2017, about a billion tons of corn were produced around the globe, and corn yields more than six percent of all food calories for humans.

The story of this humble yet handy starch begins thousands of years ago in Mexico, with the domestication of an ancient grass called teosinte. But according to a new study published in Science, the trajectory of teosinte’s evolution into the golden grain we know today may be more complex than scientists previously thought.

Maize domestication, the commonly accepted theory goes, happened in the Balsas River Valley of south-central Mexico. Around 9,000 years ago, early farmers in this region began selecting for favorable traits of teosinte, which looks very different to modern corn and is not particularly palatable; its cob is small and its few kernels are surrounded by a tough casing. But with human intervention, teosinte evolved into tasty, tender corn, which was subsequently carried to other parts of the Americas. By the time of European colonization in the 15th century, corn was a major food source throughout many parts of the region.

Logan Kistler, the new study’s lead author and curator of archaeobotany and archaeogenomics at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, says that according to this theory, gene flow from wild teosinte was still happening in some domesticated corn, but “in a major, evolutionarily important way, gene flow more or less stopped in the common ancestor of all maize.”

Recent revelations, however, prompted Kistler and his colleagues to rethink this idea. In 2016, two independent research groups analyzed the DNA of 5,000-year-old maize cobs from a cave in Mexico, and found that the ancient corn was still in the midst of the domestication process. The cobs had some genes associated with teosinte, dictating things like seed dispersal and starch production, and other genes characteristic of domesticated corn, like variants responsible for eliminating teosinte’s hard outer casing.

These findings, according to Kistler, were surprising. By the time the cobs ended up on the floor of the ancient cave, maize had already travelled far beyond Mexico, and had been cultivated in the southwest Amazon for around 1,500 years. The grain’s evolutionary story, in other words, appeared to have forked into two different paths.

“You have this paradox, this mismatch, where you already have maize being continuously cultivated in parts of the Amazon for thousands of years, and then it’s still not even finished being domesticated in the center of origin,” Kistler explains. “In order to reconcile the archaeology and the genetics … we had to think about a new domestication model.”

So, Kistler and his fellow researchers decided to take a closer look at corn DNA—and what they found suggests that while the domestication of teosinte did indeed begin in Mexico, we shouldn’t think of maize domestication as a discrete event. Instead, the grain’s evolution was a long and convoluted process, with the final stages of its domestication occurring more than once, in more than one place.

Full article: “Reconsidering the history of corn” from Smithsonian.com

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has a new web site to provide people with important information about which agricultural items are safe to enter the United States – and which ones are best left behind this holiday season. This helps protect the health of our country’s plants, animals and natural resources, ensuring many happy holidays to come.

Food products and other agricultural-based items (plants, seeds, and gifts made from wood or plants) from other countries can carry pests and diseases not found here in the United States. For these reasons, certain items are not allowed to be carried in by travelers. Other items may be allowed with specific documentation. The USDA’s new site helps everyone thinking about bringing an agricultural gift from overseas understand what is okay to bring to the US. 

So whether you are selecting a holiday gift for this season – or just planning ahead for next summer’s vacation souvenirs – please check out the site. 

Visit the site here: https://www.aphis.usda.gov/travel

Learn more at www.dontpackapest.com

From Morning Ag Clips 

 If you’re cooking for friends and family this holiday season, it’s important to make sure you’re not spreading bacteria that can cause harmful foodborne illnesses.

A recent study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and North Carolina State University found that Americans are practicing some disturbing food handling behaviors when it comes to preparing food at home.

The study found that in the control group, 66 percent of participants did not use a thermometer to check the temperature of the ground turkey burgers. Even when participants did use a food thermometer, only 54 percent of turkey burgers reached the safe internal cooking temperature of 165°F.

Participants also spread potentially harmful bacteria from raw meat and poultry onto other surfaces or food items in the kitchen. The study found that participants contaminated 48 percent of the spice containers, 11 percent of refrigerator door handles, 11 percent of water faucet handles and five percent of chef salads during the meal preparation.

These statistics are concerning when you consider that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that millions of Americans are sickened with foodborne illnesses (also known as food poisoning) each year, resulting in roughly 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. Children, older adults and those with compromised immune systems are especially at risk.

Make sure you’re protecting your family by not falling into bad food preparation habits. Always follow the four steps to food safety:

• Clean your hands thoroughly for a full 20 seconds with soapy water. Always serve food on clean plates and avoid reusing plates that previously held raw meat and poultry.
• Separate raw meat, poultry and egg products from ready-to-eat foods.
• Cook, using a food thermometer to make sure food reaches a safe minimum internal temperature:
  • Beef, pork, lamb and veal (steaks, chops and roasts): 145°F with a three minute rest.
  • Ground beef, pork, lamb and veal: 160°F.
  • Poultry (whole or ground): 165°F.
• Chill leftovers within two hours of cooking. Keep track of how long items have been sitting on the buffet table and discard anything that has been out longer than two hours.

If you are transporting food items to a holiday party, keep hot foods hot (140°F or above) and cold foods cold (40°F or below). Use separate, insulated containers for hot and cold foods, and make sure that cold foods are packed with cold sources, such as ice or frozen gel packs. The best way to ensure that food is being held at a safe temperature while you are traveling is to place an appliance thermometer in the cooler.

Whether you’re wondering how to cook your holiday ham, or debating whether it’s time to throw out those party leftovers, USDA has resources to help. The FoodKeeper app, available for both Android and iOS devices, is a quick and easy resource you can download and use at home to check storage times and preparation tips for more than 500 food items.

For more information, visit Foodsafety.gov

Link to article

 

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.

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.

Link to article

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.

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