By Ann Mills

Note – The author is a former USDA deputy undersecretary for natural resources and development. 

At his Senate confirmation hearing last Thursday, Governor Sonny Purdue opened and closed his remarks by quoting his father: “If you take care of the land, the land will take care of you.”  These are hopeful words for agricultural conservation advocates gearing up to engage in the budget process and Farm Bill reauthorization.

Embedded in this phrase is the idea that sustainable agricultural practices are cornerstones to a durable agricultural infrastructure — an infrastructure that supports long-term agricultural production. And an infrastructure that stewards our natural resources– or as many now say – generates ecosystem services such as abundant clean water, protection of wildlife habitat and open spaces, and reduction in greenhouse gases.  These ecosystem services are an emerging class of agricultural products that will generate new sources of revenue for America’s farmers and ranchers…if federal agencies continue to make important investments.

The President’s “skinny budget” calls for a 21 percent cut in the US Department of Agriculture’s discretionary budget.  While we don’t know the details, it likely includes cuts to the Natural Resources Conservation Service’s (NRCS) capacity to provide technical assistance to farmers and ranchers who want to develop conservation plans for their operations and begin transitioning to more sustainable practices.

Agricultural and conservation groups have already sounded alarms about the impact of these budget cuts on productivity, soil health, wildlife, water resource protection, and the recreation economy.

As Congress takes up the FY18 budget, here are several things to keep in mind:

• NRCS’s discretionary budget has been cut on average by 10% over the past number of years, including steady cuts to resources supporting the agronomists, soil scientists, engineers and other field staff experts who work side-by-side with farmers to develop conservation plans – blueprints for sustainable farm operations.  These plans can’t be phoned in from Washington. To be useful, they have to reflect the unique attributes of the land and the producer’s individual business strategy.
• Some voices suggest that the private sector can step in and provide these services.  Many producers, including new and beginning farmers, operate on narrow margins and are not in a position to hire private technical service providers.  NRCS fills that critical gap with locally-based experts who bring decades of institutional knowledge and science-based tools to help them design lasting conservation practices.
• NRCS has not seen the last of its cuts. It is likely there will be “Changes to Mandatory Programs” (CHIMPs) to its budget again this year through the appropriations process, meaning programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) will take a hit as dollars are shifted to make up cuts to another part of the budget. These are the workhorse programs that match farmer investments in what is often a cost-intensive and lengthy transition to more sustainable practices that have long term payoffs for all of us.  Over each of the past several years, CHIMPS have taken a $350 million bite out of EQIP.  If recent budgets are an indicator of what’s to come, this would mean losing hundreds of millions of dollars in on-farm conservation investments like cover crops, conservation tillage, forest buffer strips, precision nutrient management and irrigation, rotational grazing, and wetland easements. These are the very practices that improve water quality, conserve scarce water resources, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sequester carbon, and provide critical habitat.

Over the past 9 years, NRCS has worked with a half million producers to make conservation investments on more than 400 million acres of farm and ranchlands.  This is surely an impressive number. But there are 3 billion acres of private land in the lower 48 states and there is a tremendous opportunity to do more. Farmers and ranchers want to do more, which is why NRCS programs are oversubscribed by as much as 75% in any given year.

Imagine a future where farmers and ranchers have adequate access to the tools and resources to help them sustainably scale up the products Americans want – abundant food, fiber, fuel, clean water, and healthy ecosystems that provide for wildlife and a vibrant recreational economy.

Governor Purdue’s statement last Thursday spoke of maximizing the opportunity for the men and women of America’s agriculture and agribusiness sector to create jobs and prosper. He spoke of prioritizing customer service. And he re-emphasized the importance of stewarding our natural resources so that “we leave it better than we found it.”  This is a terrific starting point for growing a sustainable agricultural infrastructure: creating new opportunities for farmers to produce traditional agricultural products and ecosystem services; protecting the important customer service that NRCS technical assistance offers; and helping meet the increasing demand for conservation programs that protect our land, our water and our air.

Link to item on George Washington University’s Food Institute web site

 

NOTE – April has been declared ‘Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month’ by the USDA.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The USDA has proclaimed April as Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month.  Each year during April, USDA amplifies its public outreach about the risks that invasive plant pests, diseases and harmful weeds pose to America’s crops and forests—and how the public can prevent their spread.  These non-native, destructive species can seriously harm the economy, environment, or even human health.

Note – CDFA will participate this month with a series of posts about its work to protect California and the US from invasive species. 

Invasive plant pests and diseases can jeopardize entire industries such as U.S. citrus or hardwood timber.  For just one disease— huanglongbing (HLB or citrus greening), in one state, Florida—the losses are alarming: more than $4.5 billion in lost citrus production from the 2006/07 to 2010/11 production seasons.  One invasive pest, the emerald ash borer beetle, has destroyed tens of millions of American ash trees in our forests and communities.  Scientists have estimated the cost of all invasive species to all economic sectors to be approximately $120 billion yearly.

With stakes this high, public awareness and action become key elements in protecting America’s agricultural and natural resources.  APHIS created its Hungry Pests public outreach program to empower Americans with the knowledge they need to leave these “hungry pests” behind.  For instance, invasive pests can hitchhike in and on the things we move and pack, such as firewood, plants, fruits and vegetables, outdoor furniture and agricultural products ordered online.

Americans are urged to be on the lookout for pests like the emerald ash borer and Asian longhorned beetle, which starve trees to death by boring into them and eating their insides.  Keep an eye out for the gypsy moth, whose hungry caterpillars can strip trees and bushes bare.  Not all tree threats are insects; sudden oak death disease, caused by a fungus-like organism, can kill many types of trees as well as many landscape plants, such as camellias and rhododendrons.

Most importantly, learn the “Seven Ways to Leave Hungry Pests Behind,” such as buying firewood where you burn it, or only moving treated firewood if you must bring it with you.  Such simple actions could save a forest or an entire industry from devastation by invasive species.

By Bob Johnson

A few hundred yards from the Kidwell Road off ramp from Highway 80 heading into Dixon from the east, Rich and Shelly Collins have built a small incubator for farmers who serve the local community.

Emma Torbert has four acres of tree fruit for U-pick customers, or for sale through her community-supported agriculture operation, Cloverleaf Farms. Jan-Erik Paino grows five acres of hops he trucks over to Sacramento for his Ruhstaller Brewery, where the slogan is “we grow beer.” Jason Cuff and Glen Baldwin are planting eight acres of organic mixed vegetables they plan to sell at the farm stand on the property.

This location, with the small barn-red farm stand visible from the highway, is what Rich Collins calls an edge, one of the meeting places of the urban and the rural he believes are at the heart of agritourism, and of farming itself.

“At these edges, farm producers and consumers can look into each other’s worlds,” Collins said. “If your connection to the edge is inadequate, you will not know what your consumers want.”

He made his comment during the Yolo, Sacramento, Solano Agritourism Summit in Davis, sponsored by the University of California Small Farm Center.

The summit, one of four held throughout the state, brought together farmers, university researchers, land use regulators and local tourism agency representatives, to meet and share insights on how farmers can make a few extra dollars by inviting in people from the local community.

“Experience is a pretty perishable product, so that means the businesses that can provide it are not as perishable,” said Collins, who is chairman of the board of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. “The experience has to be authentic. Today’s consumer is ripe for that experience.”

Thousands of farmers are making anywhere from a little to a lot of their budget by inviting the public to their farm, ranch or winery to buy the products, and to experience where they are produced.

“Most of them are making between $5,000 and $25,000 from their agritourism activities,” said Penny Leff, UC Small Farm Program agritourism coordinator. “It’s not a lot of money, but it’s a nice supplement to farming income. A few of them are making millions on their agritourism; a small number of them get 25,000 visitors a year.”

Wineries lead the way in agritourism, there are 2,000 to 3,000 tasting rooms in the state, but producers of all sorts of fruits, vegetables and proteins are taking advantage of this opportunity.

“When people come out to your farm or ranch for an experience, they’re still going to buy things,” Leff said. “You may be able to charge a little more, and you’re going to send them home feeling better about the experience.”

Leff, who works extensively with UC Cooperative Extension advisors to help develop local agritourism, introduced the summit attendees to Yolo, Solano and Sacramento counties small farm advisor Margaret Lloyd, who also specializes in organic mixed vegetables out of the Woodland office.

The Small Farm Center also maintains a library of webinars on subjects of interest to agritourism on its webpage (sfp.ucdavis.edu/agritourism/).

“When you do agritourism, you are in the hospitality business,” Leff said. “You need different skills, and maybe different employees, have to have different insurances, and deal with different governmental and community groups.”

The local planning department can be among the more difficult governmental agencies faced when developing an agritourism business.

“We’re the biggest challenge and the least helpful,” said Taro Echiburu, director of the Community Services Department in Yolo County. “Regulators are there to implement policies that are set by others. I believe we can be helpful by getting out of the way and letting the market take over, and by making sure it doesn’t get out of control.”

Collins navigated his way around tough building standards at his Dixon farm by limiting himself to a postage stamp-sized farm stand.

“We have a 120-square-foot farm stand at the exit,” he said. “We made it 120 feet because that is the largest structure you can build without a permit. If it were 121 feet, it would cost $100,000 to build.”

Since he set out to try his hand at vegetable growing, Collins has had to learn about a lot of things other than farming.

“I got my start in endive in 1978, and went commercial in 1983,” he recalled. “I quickly found out that growing endive was one challenge, but another was selling it, because nobody knew what it was or how you used it. When I was 18, I was production oriented. But the day after I had my first box, I had to figure out how to sell it.”

Collins started California Endive Farms in the 1980s and by the time he sold it a few years ago to concentrate on his farm stand and incubator, the company had grown to be easily the largest endive producer in the country.

“Start with a market and work backwards,” he advised. “Just because you can produce it doesn’t mean you’re going to be able to sell it and market it at a profit. Consumers are the suppliers of demand.”

He said what he believes many people want today is a meeting at the edge with their farmers, so they can experience the place their food is produced.

Link to Ag Alert and the California Farm Bureau Federation

With an estimated 40 percent of all California state employees eligible to retire in the next five years, and nearly 50 percent here at CDFA, the agency recognizes a substantial need to recruit new employees and will hold its second annual career fair in Sacramento on April 7, 2017, from 9 am to 1 pm at 2800 Gateway Oaks Drive Sacramento, CA 95833.

Current and future job openings cover the full spectrum of programs at CDFA, including plant health; animal health; dairy food safety; weights and measures – including work in alternative fuels; information technology; marketing; climate smart agriculture; oversight programs for certified farmers markets and organic agriculture; and administration and other support functions.

The agency will need scientists and other subject matter experts as well as veterinarians, entomologists, chemists, technical specialists, analysts, and a full complement of support personnel.

So come on out and learn about career opportunities at CDFA!

2017 Career Fair Event Schedule

New South Wales: Our trip to Australia included a trip near the village of of Yenda, for a tour with the irrigation, energy and wastewater management team for Casella Family Brands, the owners of Yellow Tail and Peter Lehmann wines, among other labels. Yellow Tail was launched in the USA in 2001 and quickly surpassed all initial projections to become one of the world’s most recognized wines.

The family-owned winery is a leader in adopting technology in the vineyards and its processing facility. All irrigation pumps are linked by radio and cellular phone for scheduling by computer. Soil moisture probes feed into the information system every 15 minutes along with a network of weather station data. The integrated data management system requires fewer pumping hours–a 25-30 percent savings of energy use- brings reductions in greenhouse gas emissions,  and it saves money! The computer system from Australia’s Right Energy Solutions was a capital investment with a fifteen-month payback!

New South Wales: One of our last stops in Australia was so fun – Ferrero Rocher, the world’s third largest confectionary!! Claudio Cavallini, general manager of the company’s Australian agriculture program, welcomed us to the 2,000-hectare property -a former cattle ranch being converted to hazelnut plantings. In addition to its famous namesake chocolates, Nutella is one of the company’s products.

The company sources its hazelnuts from Turkey, Italy, Chile, Argentina, the U.S., Spain, South Africa and Serbia. Australia is the latest addition to its growing sites, which are selected for climate, chill hours, soils and access to water. Diversifying sourcing locations helps manage risk and ensure the best quality and freshest hazelnuts.

New South Wales: Australian farmers grow some of the same specialty crops as we do in California, including citrus. Frank Mercuri, chairman of Pacific Fresh, hosted us for a tour of as citrus packing house and an orchard. Pacific Fresh is owned by 8 farmers and packs for another 22 growers. The co-op was established in 1997 and has quickly grown to the country’s fifth-largest. It is affiliated with Sunkist in California. Exports are critical to the Australian citrus industry. It ships 65 percent of its production overseas.