By Chris Koger

The California Dried Plum Board is once again embracing “prunes,” 19 years after changing its name and the way the dried fruit was marketed.

Once again called the California Prune Board, the marketing order that promotes the fruit has launched a new website — https://californiaprunes.org/ — and brand that boosts a health message with the tagline: “Prunes. For life.”

“The world comes to California for prunes, and we take that seriously,” Donn Zea, executive director of the California Prune Board, Roseville, Calif., said in a news release. “California is the most reliable and consistent source in the industry for quality, size and taste.”

Much has changed since the brand change to dried plums, according to the group: gut health has gained more interest and relevance, new research shows eating prunes may support bone health, and the foodie culture has brought new interest.

The new brand, California Prunes, is being used globally and the board officially launched it at the recent INC World Nut & Fruit Congress in Boca Raton, Fla.

The board began exploring the new brand about two years ago.

“California Prunes have earned a premium reputation in global markets,” Zea said in the release. “The message of our new brand is clear: Choose California for prunes.”

Link to story

California Department of Fish and Wildlife News Release

California agencies combating the spread of invasive quagga and zebra mussels remind boaters to remain cautious over the three-day Memorial Day weekend.

Quagga and zebra mussels are invasive freshwater mussels native to Europe and Asia. They multiply quickly, encrust watercraft and infrastructure, alter water quality and the aquatic food web and ultimately impact native and sport fish communities. These mussels spread from one waterbody to another by attaching to watercraft, equipment and nearly anything that has been in an infested waterbody.

Invisible to the naked eye, microscopic juveniles are spread from infested waterbodies by water that is entrapped in boat engines, ballasts, bilges, live-wells and buckets. Quagga mussels have infested 33 waterways in Southern California and zebra mussels have infested two waterways in San Benito County.

To prevent the spread of these mussels and other aquatic invasive species, people launching vessels at any waterbody are subject to watercraft inspections and are strongly encouraged to clean, drain and dry their motorized and non-motorized boats, including personal watercraft, and any equipment that contacts the water before and after use.

“While enjoying this long holiday weekend outdoors experiencing the great variety of recreational opportunities that California has to offer, we ask everyone to please continue their vital, long-standing practice of helping us slow the spread of invasive mussels,” said California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Habitat Conservation Planning Branch Chief Rick Macedo.

Take the following steps both before traveling to and before leaving a waterbody to prevent spreading invasive mussels, improve the efficiency of your inspection experience and safeguard California waterways:

• CLEAN — inspect exposed surfaces and remove all plants and organisms,
• DRAIN — all water, including water contained in lower outboard units, live-wells and bait buckets, and
• DRY — allow the watercraft to thoroughly dry between launches. Watercraft should be kept dry for at least five days in warm weather and up to 30 days in cool weather.

CDFW has developed a brief video demonstrating the ease of implementing the clean, drain and dry prevention method. In addition, a detailed guide to cleaning vessels of invasive mussels is available on the CDFW’s webpage. Additional information is available on the Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW) websiteand the Department of Water Resources (DWR) website.

Travelers are also advised to be prepared for inspections at California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Border Protection Stations. Over the past 10 years, more than 1.45 million watercraft entering California have been inspected at the Border Protection Stations. Inspections, which can also be conducted by CDFW and California State Parks, include a check of boats and personal watercraft, as well as trailers and all onboard items. Contaminated vessels and equipment are subject to decontamination, rejection, quarantine or impoundment.

Quagga and zebra mussels can attach to and damage virtually any submerged surface. They can:

• Ruin a boat engine by blocking the cooling system and causing it to overheat
• Jam a boat’s steering equipment, putting occupants and others at risk
• Require frequent scraping and repainting of boat hulls
• Colonize all underwater substrates such as boat ramps, docks, lines and other underwater surfaces, causing them to require constant cleaning
• Impose large expenses to owners

A multi-agency effort that includes CDFW, DBW, CDFA and DWR has been leading an outreach campaign to alert the public to the quagga and zebra mussel threats. A toll-free hotline, (866) 440-9530, is available for those seeking information on quagga or zebra mussels.

California growers are frustrated by an unusually wet spring that has delayed the planting of some crops like rice and damaged others including strawberries and wine grapes.

The state’s wet conditions come as much of the West is experiencing weird weather. Colorado and Wyoming got an unusually late dump of snow this week. Meanwhile temperatures in Phoenix have dropped 15 degrees below normal.

Large swaths of California have seen two to five times more precipitation than is normal for this point in May, the National Weather Service said. A series of storms soaked much of Colusa County where rice grower Kurt Richter was forced to wait weeks to seed his land.

“You should be seeing green lawns of rice out there right now,” Richter said Tuesday from his farm about 120 miles (195 kilometers) north of San Francisco. “But it’s just flooded fields, with nothing sticking out of the water.”

Rice he managed to get into the ground during brief dry spells is in a “refrigerated state” because of colder than usual temperatures that threaten to reduce yields, he said. Richter’s property typically grows about 5,000 acres (2,000 hectares) of rice annually, but he predicted “we won’t even get close to that this year.”

In a 24-hour period last weekend, parts of Sacramento County in the northern part of the state recorded more than 3.25 inches (8.25 centimeters) of rain. The wet trend will continue through the month, forecasters said.

Strawberry grower Peter Navarro said it’s been at least a decade since heavy rains have affected his Santa Cruz County fields like this year.

“The month of May produces some of your best berries,” said Navarro, grower for Well-Pict Berries in Watsonville. But he told the Santa Cruz Sentinel that ongoing wet weather was disrupting the picking schedule and causing a loss of production.

Too much rain can damage strawberries’ delicate skin, causing the fruit to decay before being picked. Berries that start to rot on the vine can affect green fruit and bring disease to the plant, Navarro said.

To the south in wine country, May showers and accompanying winds have damaged some vines and brought unwelcome moisture that could delay blooming. On top of that growers worry lingering humid conditions will cause mold and mildew on vines that could take an even greater toll.

The result could be a smaller yield for certain varieties including chardonnay and pinot noir grapes, vintners said.

“It’s not ideal,” Alison Crowe, director of winemaking at Plata Wine Partners in Napa, told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat . “It’s not necessarily impacted quality. It will impact the quantity.”

Link to Morning Ag Clips

News release from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service

A Merced dairy family is playing a key role in protecting imperiled Tricolored Blackbirds, a California-native species federally listed as a Bird of Conservation Concern and as a State of California Threatened Species.

A large colony of the birds has been nesting at Diamond J Dairy since late March, and Luciana and Wiebren Jonkman halted their silage harvest to allow the birds to complete their nesting cycle. Now the colony, which peaked at 25,000 birds, is nearing fledging.

“At least 10 percent of this entire species is nesting on this one Merced farm,” said Aaron Rives, soil conservationist for USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service in Merced. “Without the help of the farmers, this species could be set back for years. And once it’s gone, that’s forever.”

Because Tricolored Blackbirds are colonial nesters, thousands of birds may impact—and be impacted by—farming operations near their nests.  By delaying harvest farmers can allow the young birds to safely fledge.

“We are grateful for the tricolored blackbird restoration project,” said Luciana Jonkman.  “We are a first-generation farming family, and we know that sustainability is vital to our farm families and our community. At Diamond J we are constantly looking for opportunities to partner with the community, the state and the federal resources. I hope that folks will see this as a huge win-win for conservation and dairy food security in the state of California.”

The last population estimate was done in 2017, when there were 178,000 birds. If the population is of a similar size this year, that means that over 70 percent of the birds were found on dairies. Two NRCS wetland projects have also provided nesting sites for nearly 20,000 birds.

Most Tricolored Blackbirds reside in the Central Valley, typically nesting in wetlands and dairy silage fields. The young birds need up to 45 days to fledge. With the help of NRCS and partners at Audubon, Western United Dairymen, California Farm Bureau and DairyCares, farmers receive technical and financial assistance to delay harvest until the birds have safely fledged. This year NRCS enrolled nearly 600 acres on 14 dairies, investing $385,000 on forage harvest delay.

Over the past seven years, farmers’ participation in this program has resulted in nesting success for tens of thousands of birds.

Link to 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.

A 26-episode weekly video series has debuted on YouTube to help train the next generation of vegetable crop workers and increase their use of effective stewardship practices in vegetable production.

Projections for near-future retirements of people working in California’s agricultural production, marketing and post-harvest handling sectors indicate severe re-staffing needs in the coming years. Technological advances have reduced manual labor in agriculture, but increased the need for skilled labor to maintain the sustainability of the vegetable industry.

The video series is offered on the UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) YouTube page on a playlist titled “Expanding the Capacity and Training of a New Generation of California Vegetable Producers.” UC ANR is the outreach arm of the University of California which, among other services, provides agricultural research, teaching and advising in all California counties.

The project received financial support from the CDFA’s Specialty Crops Block Grant Program.

By Christine Souza

It’s a “mixed box” when it comes to beekeeper expectations regarding this season’s honey crop. Some beekeepers report that winter weather brought plenty of forage for honeybees to feast on this year, and others say uneven citrus bloom in some areas may affect honey production.

Although no formal statewide honey production figures are expected to be released for a few months, individual beekeepers report that the amount of honey they will extract from bee colonies could be up this year.

“We’re expecting that the honey crop should be significantly better than the last five to seven years at least because of all of the rain,” said Imperial County apiarist Brent Ashurst of Westmoreland, president of the California State Beekeepers Association. “For everyone, the weather has been beneficial because of all of the additional food sources for the bees, and it really makes our job easier because the bees can do what they are supposed to do.”

Beekeepers point out that in recent years, factors such as the ongoing drought and lack of forage, Varroa mites and exposure to crop-protection materials, have taken a toll on the bees, resulting in bee losses for many beekeepers. But the moisture and precipitation this season has led to diverse forage for honeybees, including an abundant mix of plants and wildflowers that bees depend on for quality nutrition.

Ashurst said he does not rely on honey as an income “because it’s feast or famine; there are some years we make a decent amount of honey, and some years we don’t.”

“Where we are located (in Southern California), a good year is 12 pounds of honey per colony. Whereas at a honey-producing area like Montana, they might be getting 120 pounds per colony, so 12 pounds is pretty insignificant,” Ashurst said.

This season, due to the favorable weather, Ashurst has honeybees placed in sage locations in Temecula and Escondido.

“What we’re hoping to get is a sage (honey) crop because finally we got some rain. We don’t know what that crop is going to look like until we take it off in June,” said Ashurst, who added that many beekeepers can sell honey for the wholesale price of $2 a pound, or filter and bottle the honey for farmers market sales and make about $10 a pound.

Stanislaus County beekeeper Orin Johnson of Hughson said “honey production in California has over the years decreased, but this year, we’re looking for a little bump up in honey production for the state.”

For the past few days, Johnson has extracted sage honey, calling the variety “one of the premium honeys in the world.”

“The bees are still in the sage and will probably make another box by the time they come out by June,” Johnson said. “We only make a good sage crop in extremely wet years. This year we had a lot of moisture. It wasn’t as much as 2017, but it came at the right time and the plants are producing.”

With his honeybees placed in sage locations near Hollister and Pinnacles, Johnson recalls beekeepers had large sage honey crops in 2017 and 2010. Johnson sells honey direct to local customers from his warehouse.

“A lot of my customers, other than the family that wants a jar or two, are those interested in selling honey at farmers markets, so they will come with their 5-gallon buckets and purchase direct from me,” Johnson said. “l might have one person come and get a quart jar and another person come get about 30 gallons.”

Many beekeepers have recently moved bees out of the state’s citrus groves near Tulare County and are busy pollinating other crops.

Tulare County beekeeper and citrus grower Roger Everett of Terra Bella Honey Co. said, “We just got done pulling hives from the citrus groves and now we’re trying to get to the next pollination job.”

Transporting honeybee colonies to pollinate watermelons in Kern County, Everett said he likely won’t open a hive to extract citrus honey until late May or early June.

“I don’t know if the hives are all heavy or sort of heavy. I just know there’s a stack of pallets with hives that just came out of the citrus that need to be ran through a machine and we’ll see what we get,” Everett said.

The citrus bloom was hit and miss, Everett said, adding, “Bloom was really weird on the citrus; some fields had heavy bloom and some hardly bloomed at all. That’s how much variation there’s been, at least in Tulare County.”

Related to the orange honey crop, Everett said, “I think it’s going to be a little off again compared to previous years or the expectation over the past few years with the rain we’ve been getting.”

Honey production has been declining in California in recent years, Johnson said, although he said the state is among the top 10 honey-producing states.

“At one time, California was the second- or third-leading honey-producing state in the nation. Production is now about 40-pounds per hive, where before it was closer to 60 pounds a hive,” said Johnson, who noted that changing diversity among irrigated crops has affected honey production.

Beekeepers say that for much of their income, they rely on revenue from pollination, such as from pollinating almonds and other crops.

“Definitely, we’ve got to have the almond pollination income,” Johnson said.

A report on U.S. honey released in February, by the University of California Agricultural Issues Center, found that American appetite for honey is growing. In 2017, Americans consumed 596 million pounds of honey or about 1.82 pounds of honey per person, a 65% increase in consumption since 2009. In addition, the report noted that the U.S. honey sector in 2017 was responsible for more than 22,000 jobs and had total economic output of $4.75 billion.

The state apiary sector will know more about this season’s honey crop in a few months, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Service is expected to release its annual honey report for 2018 this week. The report includes information about honey producing colonies, honey-production and price by color class.

Link to story

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 CDFA Secretary Karen Ross

What a fabulous and inspiring event in Woodland recently to celebrate the groundbreaking of the new home for the Center for Land Based Learning! Hoorah to founders Craig and Julie McNamara for the vision to create a place with programs to introduce young people to agriculture and stewardship of our natural resources. Twenty-five year’s later the Center is leading the way with cutting-edge programs for new beginning farmers and ag apprenticeship programs.

The Clark family’s no-cost long-term lease on a beautiful site that includes 30 acres of farm land, and the generous lead-gift of $1.5 million from the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation illustrate the faith and optimism in the Center’s ability to touch lives and make communities stronger for the good of all.

My heart is full of gratitude for this organization and its fabulous people.

By Daniel Oropeza

With the world’s population estimated to reach 9.8 billion people by 2050, is vertical farming a viable option for feeding our rapidly growing cities while keeping us from committing climate suicide?  

City life is in demand. According to the United Nations, 3 million people all over the world are moving to cities every week, and this number is expected to keep increasing. The UN predicts that, in 15 to 30 years, two-thirds of the world will be living in cities.

The U.S. is no different — we love our cities too. Today, 82% of Americans live in medium or large-sized cities, and this percentage is expected to spike in the future as well. Where we get our food to feed these growing cities will play a major role in whether we achieve our climate goals under the Paris Agreement or not.

According to experts, up to 23% of our global greenhouse gases can be traced back to agriculture and land use. That’s almost a fourth of our total greenhouse gas emissions. But that only accounts for production: food then needs to be transported to the big cities, and in many cases, that means taking big diesel-emitting 18-wheelers across the country, or exporting food out of the country altogether.

California’s agriculture industry is huge. We have 77,500 farms producing more than 400 different commodities, and we produce two-thirds of the nation’s fruits and nuts. We export one-fourth of our total food production to other countries. And all this comes at a carbon price we might not be able to afford as the food demand for our hungry cities increases.

A simple solution to reduce our food mileage — the distance food travels from production to consumption — is to grow food near our cities. But an even better solution could be to grow food right inside our cities.

Vertical farming is the act of growing food in vertically-stacked layers indoors year-round by controlling light, temperature and water, often without the use of soil. Two of vertical farming’s biggest perks are its climate control mechanisms and potential to make production more efficient.  

As climate change gets worse, many places where we’ve been able to grow food for years will start experiencing unprecedented problems. Rain seasons, drought years, flash floods and irregular weather patterns can become less predictable. Habitable areas for insects will change as well, which could introduce pests and disease to new areas. The ability to grow food indoors, and without soil, gets rid of these future uncertainties.      

Growing food indoors without concerns about climate or soil means extreme-weather Chicago, congested New York and even dry Las Vegas can become independently sustainable food producers, grow food year-round and feed themselves locally.

Soil-free agriculture will eliminate any use of pesticides and herbicides, which would make consuming food much healthier. It also alleviates the problem of dealing with the declining health of our soil. According to the UN, half of the soil usable for agriculture has been lost in the past 150 years, leaving us with only 60 more years of viable soil.  

Vertical farming also brings potential for solving our current and projected water issues in California. By using hydroponic system technology, water is constantly recycled and uses 98% less water per item than traditional farming. Adopting this technology would be greatly beneficial for our future, considering that California’s agricultural sector uses 40% of our water.

Vertical farming also means potential economic profit for farmers. With 3.5 million workers maintaining the fields in the U.S., labor comes at a price. But vertical farming can automate most of its production, meaning that more businesses can afford to jump into the market and bring the cost of food down.

Ecologically, vertical farming can  help the land harmed by deforestation and desertification to regenerate and return to its natural state. This would allow many species to retake their natural habitats and help slow the alarming rates of extinction.

While vertical farming has the potential to solve a lot of our current and future problems, it’s still very early in its development, and there are many questions we don’t know the answers to. Will the food grown under LED lights be as nutritious as the food grown under the sun? Is the carbon footprint of substituting the sun’s energy with LED lights sustainable? Where will the energy to run these vertical farms come from?

Vertical farming is not the answer to all of our problems and is not a technology meant to replace conventional farming altogether. But it can allow for our growing cities to take some load off farms and become more self-sufficient.

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