In 2016 California’s farms and ranches received more than $46 billion for their output. This represents a decrease of about six percent compared to 2015. Despite this decrease, California remains the leading US state for cash farm receipts.

For the 2016 crop year California agricultural exports totaled $20.04 billion. Top commodities for export included almonds, wine, dairy and dairy products, walnuts and pistachios. Export statistics are produced by the University of California, Davis, Agricultural Issues Center.

California’s agricultural abundance includes more than 400 commodities. Over a third of the country’s vegetables and two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California. California’s top-10 valued commodities for the 2016 crop year are:

Dairy Products, Milk — $6.07 billion
Grapes — $5.58 billion
Almonds — $5.16 billion
Cattle and Calves — $2.53 billion
Lettuce — $1.96 billion
Strawberries — $1.83 billion
Pistachios — $1.5 billion
Tomatoes — $1.33 billion
Walnuts — $1.24 billion
Oranges — $826 million

Link to full 2016 report

Note – CDFA receives Cap-and-Trade investments for four programs in its Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation. They are the Dairy Digester Research and Development Program, the State Water Efficiency Enhancement Program (SWEEP), the Healthy Soils Program, and the Alternative Manure Management Program.

A new report details the dramatic growth last year in Cap-and-Trade investments that are reducing greenhouse gas emissions while strengthening local economies and improving public health and the environment across the state, especially in disadvantaged and low-income communities.

More than $720 million in new funding last year went to projects that were either under way or completed across all of California’s 58 counties, a two-thirds increase in implemented investments. From rebates for electric cars to affordable housing units, completed projects totaled 75,000, including doubling the number of home energy efficiency installations and nearly tripling the number of trees planted.

The report tracking the progress of California Climate Investments was released today by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and the California Department of Finance.

Signed by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. in July, Assembly Bill 398 extended and improved the state’s world-leading Cap-and-Trade program to ensure California continues to meet its ambitious climate change goals and that billions of dollars in auction proceeds keep flowing to communities across the state through California Climate Investments.

“The investment of Cap-and-Trade proceeds is an important part of the state’s overall climate efforts, reducing climate-changing gases and improving quality of life especially in the state’s most vulnerable communities,” said CARB Chair Mary D. Nichols. “California communities across the state are reaping the fruit of these investments in better air and improved transit. Governments around the world are looking to California as a model for how protecting the environment can strengthen their economies”

Since 2014, $6.1 billion has been appropriated to 17 state agencies that have distributed $2 billion to projects that are completed or under way. Agencies have awarded more than 80 percent of funds appropriated before September 2017. Additionally, implemented funds (not including the High-Speed Rail Project) have attracted over $8.2 billion from other sources representing an average of nearly $6 leveraged for every dollar invested.

Among the projects:

• A 44-unit affordable housing development in Tulare County with integrated vanpooling service and discount transit passes is among more than 1,600 housing units funded statewide.
• The Cecchini Farm in Contra Costa County, whose fifth-generation owners decided not to sell after they were approved for a conservation easement, is among more than 250,000 acres of land statewide that will be preserved, from coastal watersheds and wetlands to mountain meadows.
• Los Angeles County’s Foothill Transit is purchasing 15 zero-emission electric buses to advance the agency’s goal to go all-electric by 2030 to reduce GHG emissions and improve air quality in the inland communities it serves.

In California’s forests, California Climate Investments are protecting more than 1.4 million acres, funding projects to reduce fire risk, limit loss of life and property damage, and lower the cost of fighting wildfires. More than 14,000 trees have been planted to provide shade and limit the heat island effect in urban areas from Oakland and Stockton to San Bernardino and Los Angeles counties.

Grants to farmers, businesses and individuals for more water-efficient technology will not only cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions but save more than 370 billion gallons of water throughout the state. And more than 150,000 rebates for zero-emission and plug-in hybrid cars are expected to reduce over 5,000 tons of criteria and toxic air pollutants in addition to GHG emissions.

The report features profiles that highlight the impact these investments are having on individuals and communities, particularly those in California’s most disadvantaged communities.

Benefits to Disadvantaged Communities

Fifty-one percent of the $2 billion in implemented projects ($1 billion) is providing benefits to disadvantaged communities, including 31 percent ($615 million) going to projects located within these communities. This exceeds the requirement under SB 535 (De León) that at least 25 percent of investments are allocated to projects that benefit disadvantaged communities.

The report also found that projects are underway in 98 percent of the 2,000 census tracts in the state that the California Environmental Protection Agency designated as disadvantaged. And state agencies are actively working to make investment opportunities more accessible to disadvantaged communities through technical assistance grants and increased outreach.

In 2016, Governor Brown signed AB 1550 establishing new investment minimums for disadvantaged communities, and low-income communities and households. The Legislature directed the 2019 Investment Plan to allocate funding in accordance with AB 1550. In 2017, CARB released guidance to help administering agencies to begin implementing AB 1550.  Future reports will include AB 1550 outcomes as agencies implement more funding.

Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Projects funded to date are expected to reduce GHG emissions by more than 23 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), roughly the equivalent of taking four million cars off the road for a year. In addition, the High Speed Rail Project is estimated to reduce GHG emissions by almost 59 million metric tons of CO2e over its operating life.

The report includes detailed information on cost-effectiveness and metrics for evaluating program effectiveness. It also includes new statistics and information on co-benefits quantified to date and an update on plans for more comprehensive future reporting.

Accompanying the report is an updated interactive map that allows users to track where Cap-and-Trade funds are being invested across in the state. Users can view the locations of individual projects and aggregate them by program and by the state’s 120 legislative districts and 58 counties.

Project-level data for all projects included in the 2018 Annual Report and featured on the interactive map is available on the California Climate Investments website, including project locations, GHG reductions and benefits to disadvantaged communities.

The 2018 Annual Report to the Legislature on California Climate Investments Using Cap-and-Trade Auction Proceeds can be found here.

California Climate Investments Website

2018 California Climate Investments Annual Report

Interactive Map of California Climate Investments Statewide

2018 Project Profiles

Desert Fresh, Inc, a farm  located in the Coachella Valley,  in Riverside County, received a $53,000 grant from CDFA’s State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) to install climate-smart technology. Desert Fresh grows grapes, lemons, and row crops in some of California’s most arid lands and is doing this while using less water and reducing carbon emissions from the farm.

With SWEEP funding, Desert Fresh installed climate smart technology that reduces irrigation water use by approximately 15 percent while producing the same yield. “How?” you ask. By using precision agriculture technology such as in-field weather stations to monitor wind speed, humidity, temperature, precipitation and evapotranspiration (the transfer of moisture from the Earth’s surface to the atmosphere).

The system utilizes soil moisture-sensing technology to ensure that the plants are getting the exact amount of water they need when they need it. These monitoring technologies identify when the crop is thirsty and know exactly how much water to apply, taking the guesswork out of irrigation.

The SWEEP grant also helped finance a new state of-the-art water filtration system at Desert Fresh to reduce drip-emitter clogging and maintain water distribution uniformity, all while reducing system maintenance. This new filtration system uses a self-cleaning screen filter as opposed to a traditional sand media filtration system. To put this into perspective, a sand media filtration system takes 24 minutes to backflush debris and the installed state-of-the-art filtration system takes 20 seconds to self-clean.  This results in much less water required for system maintenance and less energy used by the pump to perform this task. Less pumping results in a reduction in emissions.

When asked about the benefits of the project, the grant recipient, Blaine Carian, stated, “The new filtration station eliminates our drip system’s downtime when cleaning the filter. Technology like this will help ensure that the water pumped into the system is used for irrigation and not system maintenance.”

With this modest investment, California will see almost 23 million gallons of water savings every year and 2.64 metric tons of CO2e reduction per year! That’s the same as driving 6,500 miles less each year!  Technology like this will help California meet its climate change goals and adapt to climate change impacts such as water shortage.

This project was supported by the “California Climate Investments” program.

Click here to learn more about accomplishments of the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program

 

 

News release from the Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research

The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research, a nonprofit established through bipartisan congressional support in the 2014 Farm Bill, has announced 16 grants totaling $7 million for research to address declining pollinator health, an ongoing threat to agricultural productivity in the United States. The FFAR awards are matched by more than 50 companies, universities, organizations and individuals for a total investment of $14.3 million toward research and technology development.

Insect pollinators support crop yields and agricultural ecosystems and contribute an estimated 24 billion dollars to the United States economy annually. New technology, knowledge and best practice guidance tailored to specific regions and land uses has potential to accelerate efforts to improve pollinator health across the United States. Researchers funded through the Pollinator Health Fund are working to address social and economic challenges faced by beekeepers, farmers, home owners and other land managers across the United States.

“Declines in native and managed insect pollinator populations threaten both the agricultural systems that sustain us and the ecosystems that surround us,” said Sally Rockey, Ph.D., executive director of FFAR. “The Foundation for Food and Agriculture Research is pleased to support these 16 research teams who will bring new scientific rigor, best practices and technology to current efforts toward improving pollinator health in the United States.”

The following Principle Investigators are leading research projects supported by the Pollinator Health Fund. Grants were awarded to successful applications to a competitive call for proposals in which applicants were required to secure funding to match the FFAR grant.

• Kristen Baum, Ph.D., Oklahoma State University, is working with collaborators to investigate how floral choice, nutrition, and agrochemicals influence the health of native bees and honey bees across land uses in the Southern Great Plains witha $233,708 FFAR grant.
• Steven Cook, Ph.D., U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Research Service, is collaborating with multiple stakeholder groups to develop and test novel controls for the parasitic mite Varroa destructor, an ongoing threat to honey bee colonies, with a $ 475,559 FFAR grant.
• Margaret Couvillon, Ph.D., Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, is examiningpollinator behavior in different landscapes to determine where and when planting supplemental forage could have the most positive effect on pollinator nutrition with a $614,067 FFAR grant.
• Sandra DeBano, Ph.D., Oregon State University, is researching the impact of livestock grazing, invasive weeds and the fires used to control those weeds on native bees inhabiting range and pasturelands with a $321,127 FFAR grant.
• Deborah Finke, Ph.D, University of Missouri, is developing best seed planting practices to improve bumble bee and monarch habitat and collaborating with the Missouri Department of Conservation and other state organizations to share guidance with homeowners, landowners, farmers and agricultural consultants with a $353,044 FFAR grant.
• Timothy Gibb, Ph.D., Purdue University, is developing public school curricula and training high school students and teachers to catalyze pollinator protection action in their communities with a $297,499 FFAR grant.
• Christina Gorzinger, Ph.D., The Pennsylvania State University, is leading a team of researchers from Penn State, University of Minnesota, University of California, Davis, and Dickinson College to develop online decision support tools to help beekeepers, growers, plant producers, land managers and gardeners better select and manage diverse landscapes to promote healthy managed and wild bee populations with a $1,177,137 FFAR grant.
• Andony Melathopoulos, Ph.D., Oregon State University, is conducting research and outreach to develop, implement and evaluate crop-specific best practices that meet the unique agronomic challenges for managing pollinator populations in the Pacific Northwest with a $544,929 FFAR grant.
• Lisa Schulte Moore, Ph.D., Iowa State University of Science and Technology, is leading an interdisciplinary research team to study whether integrating strips of prairie habitat in crop fields might improve managed and native pollinator health with a $503,028 FFAR grant.
• Lauren Ponisio, Ph.D., University of California, Riverside, is measuring the effectiveness of recommended almond orchard management practices in reducing the negative impacts of pesticides, parasites and inadequate nutrition on crop pollinators with a $490,355 FFAR grant.
• Sandra Rehan, Ph.D., University of New Hampshire, is training scientists and developing new educational resources for identification of New England wild bees and region-specific habitat planting recommendations with a $546,511 FFAR grant.
• Clare Rittschof, Ph.D., University of Kentucky, is researching whethercover cropping practices that allow for winter weed growth can enhance pollinator habitat on agricultural land with a $120,900 FFAR grant.
• Arathi Seshadri, Ph.D., Colorado State University, is working to arm Colorado beekeepers with new knowledge to support pollinator health by studying the impact of phytochemicals, nutritional diversity and metabolic capacity on honeybee health with a $488,000 FFAR grant.
• Barbara Sharanowski, Ph.D., University of Central Florida, is engaging citizens across the country to plant native wildflowers in their yards and collect pollinator population data using a mobile app with a $338,613 FFAR grant.
• David Tarpy, Ph.D., North Carolina State University, is investigating the impact of pesticide exposure on honeybee colony disease prevalence and reproductive potential with a $217,000 FFAR grant.
• Geoffrey Williams, Ph.D., Auburn University, is studying the interactions between pesticides and Varroa mites, and whether beekeepers can take advantage of honey bee mating behavior to improve resistance to pesticides, with a $283,000 FFAR grant.

To learn more about the FFAR Pollinator Health Fund and these research projects, please visit foundationfar.org/pollinator-health-fund/.

###

CDFA has filed an appeal of a recent Superior Court decision invalidating portions of CDFA’s Programmatic Environmental Impact Report for Pest Prevention and Management. The appeal, filed in the Third District Court of Appeal for California, seeks to overturn the lower court order. CDFA will also request that the court lift an injunction on certain CDFA activities. Going forward, the Department is committed to fulfilling its legislative mandate to prevent the spread of harmful pests while complying with the California Environmental Quality Act to ensure the protection of agriculture, the environment and other natural resources.

The final numbers for 2017 State Employees Food Drive are in and we are very pleased to note an increase in food donations compared to 2016!

CDFA and its Office of Farm to Fork coordinated the food drive from late September to early February, along with their partners at the Sacramento Food Bank and Family Services and 108 different assistance agencies statewide.

We set an ambitious goal for the year–800,000 pounds–and almost got there. The 2017 total was 783,683 pounds, the equivalent of 648,000 meals to needy families! It’s an amazing accomplishment and on behalf of Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services, I want to thank all state employees for making this possible.

The need for food in California is substantial. According to the California Association of Food Banks, 5.4 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 two-million of those people are children. That need is what motivates California state employees to commit to this effort each and every year!

 

– The 2017 crush totaled 4,239,836 tons, up 0.5 percent from the 2016 crush of 4,217,154 tons. Red wine varieties accounted for the largest share of all grapes crushed, at 2,248,260 tons, down 1.4 percent from 2016. The 2017 white wine variety crush totaled 1,765,424 tons, up 0.8 percent from 2016. Tons crushed of raisin type varieties totaled 94,268, up 4.6 percent from 2016, and tons crushed of table type varieties totaled 131,884, up 38.2 percent from 2016.

The 2017 average price of all varieties was $777.90, up 1.9 percent from 2016. Average prices for the 2017 crop by type were as follows: red wine grapes, $965.54, up 5.1 percent from 2016; white wine grapes, $587.73, down 1.8 percent from 2016; raisin grapes, $252.86, up 18.4 percent; and table grapes, $178.37, up 16.5 percent.

In 2017, Chardonnay continued to account for the largest percentage of the total crush volume with 14.5 percent. Cabernet Sauvignon accounted for the second leading percentage of crush with 14.2 percent. Thompson Seedless, the leading raisin grape variety crushed for 2017, was only 1.8 percent of the total crush.

District 13, (Madera, Fresno, Alpine, Mono, Inyo Counties; and Kings and Tulare Counties north of Nevada Avenue (Avenue 192)), had the largest share of the State’s crush, at 1,403,145 tons.  The average price per ton in District 13 was $304.47.

Grapes produced in District 4 (Napa County) received the highest average price of $5,225.04 per ton, up 11.4 percent from 2016. District 3 (Sonoma and Marin counties) received the second highest return of $2,806.07, up 8.3 percent from 2016. The 2017 Chardonnay price of $923.67 was up 4.2 percent from 2016, and the Cabernet Sauvignon price of $1,552.83 was up 5.6 percent from 2016. The 2017 average price for Zinfandel was $591.05, down 2.2 percent from 2016, while the French Colombard average price was up 2.5 percent from 2016 at $267.39 per ton.

The entire Grape Crush Report is available online at www.nass.usda.gov/ca. The 2017 Census of Agriculture, going on now, will provide more data on producers and grapes at the county level when published in 2019.

Dozer the Detector Dog made an appearance at the State Capitol yesterday to encourage legislators and staff to attend California Ag Day at the Capitol March 20, 2018.

Recently retired, Dozer spent his career protecting California and its agriculture from invasive plant pests, diseases and weeds that could otherwise become established our state and result in damaging and expensive infestations and quarantines.

A joint effort between USDA and CDFA, California’s dog teams spend their working hours nosing around package-delivery facilities, detecting parcels that contain fruits, vegetables, plants and other agricultural materials that may not be labeled correctly.

 

 

 

 

Since the program began dog teams have intercepted thousands of mislabeled or otherwise illegal packages, including shipments containing hundreds of actionable insect and weed pests.

Don’t forget to visit us at the Capitol on March 20. Tell ’em Dozer sent you.

March 5-9 is Food Waste Prevention Week

According to the Natural Resources Defense Council, Californians throw out around 5.6 million tons of food every year, accounting for about 18 percent of the state’s waste stream. In fact, an estimated 40 percent of food in the United States goes to waste, the equivalent of tossing $165 billion into landfills each year.

But we are making progress. Governments, non-profits and private industry are working collaboratively to reduce food waste. On the forefront of this charge are California’s farmers and ranchers.  Here are some ways in which the people responsible for growing our food are helping to prevent it from going to waste:

Imperfect Produce

Having grown in popularity in recent years, the imperfect or “ugly” fruit movement continues to develop in supermarkets across the country. The concept is simple. Certain commodities must meet industry cosmetic standards. In the past, food that didn’t make the cut, despite being perfectly edible, was either recycled or tossed. Some estimates suggest that depending on the crop, anywhere from one to 30 percent of food grown by farmers doesn’t make it to the grocery store. But that is changing. Increasingly, growers in California are partnering with companies like the Bay-Area based Imperfect Produce, which aims to sell that food at a discounted price. Founded in 2015, the company now has a presence in both Northern and Southern California, and continues to expand its network by partnering with growers across the state. According to the group, their imperfect produce can cost 30 to 50 percent less than retail price, providing affordable fresh fruits and vegetables to communities’ that typically have limited access to nutritious produce.

Social media

California’s farmers and ranchers are no strangers to social media. They use these platforms to share pictures of their crops, exchange information, and–more recently–to save food.  A few years ago, Bloomfield Organics, an organic farming operation in Sonoma County figured out a way to sell its excess via social media. By sharing the availability of their remaining product with an already robust online community, the farm was able to sell produce that would have otherwise gone to waste.  These efforts ultimately evolved into the site, CropMobster, where growers can help build communities that focus on food waste prevention and resource sharing based on geographical locations.

Value-added use

California’s almond industry is finding innovative ways to make use every part of the tree fruit.  According to a 2017 report by the Almond Board of California, in addition to the 2.1 billion pounds of almonds produced in 2016, trees also produced 4.2 billion pounds of hulls and 1.5 billion pounds of shells.  The hulls and shells, along with the woody biomass of trees, serve as co-products for nutritious cattle feed, livestock bedding, and energy production. Hulls in particular, have become a valuable ingredient for livestock feed.

California’s farmers and ranchers are committed to the fight against food waste. However, the most effective way to save food begins on the individual level.  To learn more about tips and strategies to reduce food waste in your community please visit: https://www.savethefood.com.