California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health offers tips for employers and workers to prevent heat-related illness.

Animal health is a year-round part of what farmers and ranchers do, but it’s especially important as we gear up for this late summer heat wave.

First of all, be sure to protect yourself, your family and your employees from the dangers that extreme and prolonged heat can pose when working outdoors. California’s Division of Occupational Safety and Health offers heat illness prevention information for employers here. The US Dept. of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s employer guide is available here.

This long, hot summer has already given our ranchers a lot of practice at protecting their livestock and poultry from overheating. Fall may be just around the corner, but the forecast for this heat wave is as serious as we’ve seen lately.

Check those back-up generators, fans, misters and shade structures. Be sure your waterers are refilled with fresh water to encourage drinking, and do what you can to minimize animal handling during the hottest part of the day.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross (L) at a meeting with the Mexican agriculture agency’s coordinator for international affairs, Raul Urteaga Trani (directly across table).

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross is in Mexico this week with a California Grown trade delegation focusing on expanding opportunities for California specialty crops.

Secretary Ross met with Mr. Raul Urteaga Trani, general coordinator for international affairs with Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Rural Development, Fisheries and Food (SAGARPA).

Mexico is California’s largest trading partner and the fifth-largest export destination for California’s agricultural products, with a value exceeding $1 billion.

The meeting provided an opportunity to share common commitments and values as well as enhance ongoing cooperation on agricultural trade.  California and Mexico share many agricultural issues – this meeting reaffirmed their partnership, and a commitment to farmers, ranchers and agricultural workers who benefit from the longstanding trade ties.

CDFA’s Border Inspection Station on I-15 near Yermo.

By Art Marroquin

Drivers speeding into California along southbound Interstate 15 usually come to an abrupt, but necessary, stop about 100 miles past the Nevada border.

And just like that, a worker usually waves them past a giant, yellow “California Inspection” sign designating the Yermo Border Protection Station.

Big rigs, RVs, livestock haulers and other large vehicles are occasionally pulled aside so that inspectors can determine whether fruit flies, gypsy moths or other potentially dangerous insects are hitching a ride on a vegetable or piece of fruit.

“It’s the first line of defense,” said Steve Lyle, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “The main role of the stations is to prevent invasive species from entering California, helping the department fulfill its mission to protect the food supply and the environment.”

In the next couple of years, motorists leaving Las Vegas can expect to stop and have their produce checked a whole lot sooner.

Construction could start as soon as fall on a $47 million agricultural inspection station about 7 miles south of the Nevada border, aimed at keeping scofflaws from taking bypass roads to avoid the current facility, Lyle said.

Plus, the old facility, built in 1963, “has become antiquated and is deteriorating,” Lyle said.

An opening date was not disclosed, but the Yermo station’s staff of 22 permanent employees and 10 seasonal workers are expected to be transferred to the new facility.

More than 600,000 vehicles got an up-close physical inspection last year at the Yermo station, Lyle said, with 245 commercial shipments and 637 items from private vehicles rejected for failing to meet California’s stringent standards.

Link to article 

Please see this video about California’s Border Inspection Stations.

By Chelsea Harvey

Agriculture has historically released almost as much carbon into the atmosphere as deforestation, a new study suggests — and that’s saying something.

In a paper published this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers found that land use changes associated with planting crops and grazing livestock have caused a loss of 133 billion tons of carbon from soil worldwide over the last 12,000 years, amounting to about 13 years of global emissions at their current levels. And at least half of those losses have probably occurred in the last few centuries.

“Historically, I think we’ve underestimated the amount of emissions from soils due to land use change,” said lead study author Jonathan Sanderman, an associate scientist with the Woods Hole Research Center, a climate change research organization based in Massachusetts.

Workers hoe baby lettuce at Star Route Farms in Bolinas, the oldest continuously operating organic farm in California. Photo by Liz Hafalia, SF Chronicle 

By Jonathan Kauffman

Advocates of Bay Area agriculture and organics have been waiting to learn the fate of Star Route Farms since owner Warren Weber put his 100-acre Bolinas farm up for sale in 2013.

“The price of land is a huge obstacle,” said filmmaker Deborah Koons Garcia, whose documentary “Agrarian Elders” about Weber and other organic pioneers will be released in 2018. “When they sell, farmers want to be able to retire, but the people coming in, no matter how young and enthusiastic — that’s a lot of money to come up with.”

There’s little surprise that it took four years for Weber, who initially listed the property for $12.5 million, to find a buyer. The final sale price of $10.4 million is too steep for most beginning farmers, and such a mortgage would make it hard to succeed financially afterward. Someone rich might have bought the land, but individual wealth wouldn’t guarantee that the buyer would continue to farm.

A university seems like the ideal, and deep-pocketed, successor. Yet there aren’t nearly enough institutions in California to do the same for every retiring farmer.

A dangerous disease, west Nile virus, has returned to California this summer.  A total of eight horses have been confirmed positive for the disease,  in Glenn, Contra Costa, Fresno, Kern (2), Riverside, Plumas, and San Joaquin counties. Six horses were unvaccinated and two horses had unknown vaccination status. Five horses died or were euthanized and three horses are recovering.

Once again, we remind horse owners to have their animals vaccinated. It offers them maximum protection against the disease. And once vaccinations occur, horse owners should be checking regularly with their veterinarians to make sure they stay current.

Californians can also do their part to prevent the disease by managing mosquitoes that carry west Nile virus. Please eliminate standing water and work to limit mosquito access to horses by stabling during active mosquito feeding times such as dusk to dawn, and by utilizing fly sheets, masks or permethrin-based mosquito repellents.

It’s important to remember that mosquitoes become infected with the virus when they feed on infected birds.  Horses are a dead-end host and do not spread the virus to other horses or humans. For more information on west Nile virus, please visit this link.

California has submitted recommendations to Congress for the 2018 Farm Bill, to inform upcoming deliberations by members of the House and Senate Agricultural Committees. California’s recommendations focus on robust funding for food and nutrition programs; protection and enhancement of conservation programs; safeguarding marketing and trade programs, including specialty crops; strengthening animal and plant health programs; and making investments in research.

“This set of recommendations reflects the vital role California farmers and ranchers play in our national economy and the health of our citizens,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “As Congress reauthorizes this essential legislation, they have an opportunity to promote the connection between food production and food access, while ensuring that we take care of the land and resources that make California a remarkable place to farm.”

California’s Farm Bill recommendations represent the collective input of more than 70 diverse stakeholder organizations as well as hundreds of citizens who attended five public listening sessions across the state. The recommendations also include contributions from state government agencies – the California Environmental Protection Agency, the California Health and Human Services Agency, the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The recommendations reflect the scope of California’s agricultural diversity and the themes shared by the organizations and individuals that participated in the process.

“Throughout the state, we heard from citizens about the value of this legislation,” said Diana Dooley, secretary of the California Health and Human Services Agency.  “Without exception, participants in our listening sessions recognized the critically important role of the Farm Bill’s nutrition title.  We must ensure that all California’s have access to food.”

The Farm Bill is an omnibus multi-year legislation for major food and farm programs, covering such issues as research, conservation, nutrition, commodities and rural development. The current Farm Bill, also known as the “Agricultural Act of 2014” was signed into law in 2014, authorizing $956 billion in spending over the next ten years.

California’s Farm Bill recommendations are available at www.cdfa.ca.gov/farm_bill.

CLEMSON — Clemson University researchers say the public can help collect scientific information about the effect of Monday’s eclipse on plants for future generations.

This will be the first time since 1918 a total eclipse will cross the entire United States. Douglas Bielenberg, a Clemson plant physiologist, said because total solar eclipses are so rare, not many biological observations have been made on what takes place during totality.

“There is very little organized information related to what happens to plants, during a total solar eclipse,” Bielenberg said. “This will be a great opportunity for people to make and record observations.”

Because most of the obvious visible action will be taking place in the skies, Bielenberg said people will tend to “look up and not down.” But just as much action could be taking place on the ground as in the skies. Plant circadian rhythms could be affected and plants could attempt to get in their night positions even though night is still some hours away.

“People who have gardens can look for the leaves on the plants to droop, or get in their night positions,” Bielenberg said. “Because we don’t have much information from previous solar eclipses and because this solar eclipse will happen so quickly, we don’t know if plants will be affected. It will be great if people can check to see if their plants act as it was night.”

People can look for leaves folding or flowers that usually just open at night opening during the day. Some common plants that may show movements induced by the eclipse include legumes and Albizia (silk tree).

Bielenberg advises people to observe their plants for a few evenings before the eclipse so that they will know what changes to look for during the eclipse.

Then they can upload photos they take of their plants during the eclipse to the NASA Flickr page at https://www.flickr.com/groups/nasa-eclipse2017/.

Bielenberg said they can have a little fun by using the leaf canopy of trees as natural pinhole cameras. People observing the eclipse from sites with tree cover can look at the shadows of leaves on the ground. During the partial solar eclipse, tiny spaces between the leaves will act as pinhole projectors, dappling the ground with images of the crescent sun.

During the eclipse, Clemson horticulturist Bob Polomski will be studying the effect of the phenomenon on indoor and outdoor plants.

“In response to darkness, the leaves of a prayer plant (Maranta leuconeura) move from a horizontal position to a vertical position, similar to a pair of praying hands,” Polomski said. “Shamrock leaves (Oxalis) assume a horizontal position in sunlight and droop down during the night. Other plants are triggered to open their flowers in the evening to release fragrances that attract night-flying pollinators, such as moths. It will be interesting to see if these events occur during the day as the solar eclipse occurs.”

Polomski will try to observe whether the remontant or repeat-flowering Southern magnolias such as Little Gem and Kay Parris will close prematurely during the reduced sunlight of the eclipse. Southern magnolia flowers typically open around 9 a.m. and close by night. A few plants that bloom at night and could be watched for changes during the eclipse are flowering tobacco (Nicotiana alata), moonflower vine (Ipomoea alba), angel’s trumpet (Datura inoxia), night phlox (Zaluzianskya capensis), four-o’clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) and tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa).

The 2017 total solar eclipse will take about one hour and 40 minutes to cross the entire country. Solar eclipses occur when the moon blocks any part of the sun. Total solar eclipses are only possible on Earth when the sun and moon line up just right and the moon blocks the sun’s entire surface. Partial solar eclipses occur when the alignment is such that the moon blocks only part of the sun. Partial eclipses occur more frequently.

Experts advise anyone who plans to shoot pictures in order to document plant or animal behavior during the eclipse to not look directly at the sun through an unfiltered camera, telescope, binoculars or other optical device. In addition, these experts say do not look at the sun through a camera, a telescope, binoculars, or any other optical device while using eclipse glasses or hand-held solar viewers — the concentrated solar rays will damage the filter and enter a person’s eyes, causing serious injury. Read Eclipse 101 safety information by NASA for more tips on how to safely view the 2017 solar eclipse.

Link to story

I am pleased to announce that Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services director Nick Condos has been assigned to lead the department’s Citrus Disease and Pest Prevention Program, as its interim director. During his 23 years with CDFA, Nick has demonstrated an excellent combination of management skills and experience with growers; and he has established relationships with colleagues throughout industry, the research community and government.

Given the incremental spread of the Asian citrus psyllid (ACP) and the disease it spreads, huanglongbing (HLB), over the last several years, the Citrus Disease and Pest Prevention Program has reached a scope and complexity that I believe will be best served by the placement of Nick in this new leadership role, with the full and continued support of CDFA and the Office of the Secretary.

The Program, funded through industry assessments and state and federal allocations, guides efforts to limit spread of HLB and the ACP, which can spread the disease from tree to tree as it feeds. Growers reaffirmed their support for the continuation of this program at a series of hearings earlier this year.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and citrus growers across the state have worked together to prepare-for and respond to this tremendous threat for many years, prior to the first detections of the ACP in California in 2008. The disease is fatal to citrus trees and has no cure, so the solution must come from research – research that is already well underway, thanks to foresight and funding from growers and our state and federal leaders. To allow ample time for that research, CDFA sets traps to track the pest’s movement, treats trees in infested areas to protect them, and removes trees as soon as HLB is found. These response efforts and additional quarantine measures have succeeded in slowing the spread and containing the disease to a handful of communities in Southern California. HLB has been detected in approximately 70 trees in in urban areas of Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties; all of those trees have been removed.

The assistant director of Plant Health and Pest Prevention Services, Stephen Brown, will step into the role of Interim Director.