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New California law puts teeth into bee registration requirement – from Western Farm Press

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Office of Public Affairs

By Todd Fichette

California agricultural commissioners now have the regulatory “teeth” they sought to enforce bee registration each year – something they long complained was needed to protect the pollinators.

Pest control advisors at the recent annual meeting of the California Association of Pest Control Advisors (CAPCA) were the first to publicly hear about the 18-month effort to force compliance of a law long-ignored, according to Ruthann Anderson, CAPCA chief executive officer.

Dubbed “Bee Where,” the new program gives agricultural commissioners the authority to seek civil penalties of not more than $500 per day a beekeeper is in violation of the law. While previous law required beekeepers to register their bees with county agricultural departments, it was effectively unenforceable, said Riverside County Agricultural Commissioner Ruben Arroyo. The new law that goes into effect Jan. 1, 2019 makes it unlawful to maintain an unregistered apiary.

Funding for the program came from the California Department of Food and Agriculture and California Department of Pesticide Regulation. The California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association (CACASA) promoted the program in collaboration with CAPCA. Arroyo is the current CACASA president.

The website http://bewherecalifornia.com was set up to help growers, PCAs and beekeepers understand the program.

The goal is to help county commissioners know where bees are located and who owns them, so they can be notified 48 hours before chemical spray treatments are applied to crops near where bees are located.

Assembly Bill 2468 by Dr. Joaquin Arambula, D-Fresno, passed the legislative process with no industry opposition, Anderson said.

Arroyo and Anderson promoted the program to over 1,000 PCAs at the association’s recent annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif. Part of the effort there was to highlight ongoing efforts to protect pollinators, which has gained steam in recent years as beekeepers continue to seek answers into higher rates of winter mortality and bee deaths.

While certain classes of pesticides and chemical tank mixes have been blamed for bee deaths, Anderson sees the program as a good first-step to begin collecting data that might help close in on the true cause of bee mortalities.

Beekeepers will be required to pay an annual $10 registration fee beginning in 2020.

How it works

The legislation requires anyone who moves bees into the state or otherwise comes in to possession of an apiary to register the name of the owner, the number of hives and the location those colonies will be moved to within 30 days of arrival. Moreover, relocation of hives within the state will now require a phone call to the destination county agricultural commissioner within 72 hours of first movement. The same applies to hives moved within a single county.

Bee owners must also be on record, either directly or through their designated representatives. This includes name and address of the appropriate party. Hives must also be marked with identifying information.

The program will use the latest computer technology to map bee colony locations. The intent is to have locations linked through Agrian, so when a PCA writes a recommendation through the program, an instant flag will go up if beekeepers are registered within a mile of the planned application site. Arroyo says details of this are still being worked out, but early indications suggest that PCAs will be given various crop protection alternatives if bees are nearby.

“It will come up with a list of suggested softer chemicals to use, but we’re still working with Agrian on this,” Arroyo said.

If there are bees registered within a mile of the planned application site, contact information on the owner of the bees will be provided. Beekeepers can register various means of contact, including phone, email and fax, Anderson said. Beekeepers will be given 48-hour notice prior to spray activities near their hives.

The program is also hoped to have a smart phone app available, so growers, beekeepers and regulatory agencies can search for and tag bee hive locations. County inspectors can then verify these locations to determine if hives are registered and act on those that are not registered.

Anderson says pilot launch of the program will begin with the 2019 almond bloom. A second phase starts a year later with feedback from various stakeholders and expansion of the technology to eventually include reporting of unmarked and unregistered bee hives and information to aid investigations into bee kills.

NOTE –  CDFA continues to work on bee-related issues with a pilot project in North Dakota to inspect bees in other states for the presence of invasive species before they’re shipped to California. This would reduce the amount of time hives would spend at Border Protection Stations.       

Link to story

 

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Video: CDFA and Secretary Ross featured in PBS program “Valley’s Gold”

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Office of Public Affairs

The PBS program “Valley’s Gold” recently welcomed CDFA Secretary Karen Ross to discuss the agency’s many roles in facilitating farming and ranching, as well as its positive impacts on the daily lives of Californians. She is followed in the program by one of the leaders in agricultural advocacy in California, George Soares; California Farm Bureau Federation president Jamie Johansson; and California Agricultural Leadership Foundation president Barry Bedwell.

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Cow power – Truck at Northern California dairy utilizes convenient fuel source

Posted on November 2, 2018 by Office of Public Affairs

CDFA deputy secretary Rachael O’Brien, with California Resources Agency undersecretary Thomas Gibson (L) and dairy farmer Albert Straus, recently visited Straus’ farm in Marin County. Straus is the founder/CEO of Straus Family Creamery, which utilizes an electric farm truck powered by cow manure (pictured).

The truck, which was put into service last year, relies on methane as it travels the 500-acre dairy farm with animal feed. The Straus dairy cows actually power the truck that feeds them. This is one type of environmentally sustainable project that aligns with the work of  CDFA’s Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation as it distributes grant funding to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, as part of California Climate Investments. Note – This project was solely implemented by the Straus family and was not funded by CDFA.

 

 

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Scientists push for a crash program to scrub carbon from air – from the New York Times

Posted on November 1, 2018 by Office of Public Affairs

Photo from the New York Times

By Brad Plumer

With time running out to avoid dangerous global warming, the nation’s leading scientific body  urged the federal government to begin a research program focused on developing technologies that can remove vast quantities of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere in order to help slow climate change.

The 369-page report, written by a panel of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, underscores an important shift. For decades, experts said that nations could prevent large temperature increases mainly by reducing reliance on fossil fuels and moving to cleaner sources like solar, wind and nuclear power.

But at this point, nations have delayed so long in cutting their carbon dioxide emissions that even a breakneck shift toward clean energy would most likely not be enough. According to a landmark scientific report issued by the United Nations this month, taking out a big chunk of the carbon dioxide already loaded into the atmosphere may be necessary to avoid significant further warming, even though researchers haven’t yet figured out how to do so economically, or at sufficient scale.

And we’ll have to do it fast. To meet the climate goals laid out under the Paris Agreement, humanity may have to start removing around 10 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year by midcentury, in addition to reducing industrial emissions, said Stephen W. Pacala, a Princeton climate scientist who led the panel. That’s nearly as much carbon as all the world’s forests and soils currently absorb each year.

“Midcentury is not very far away,” Dr. Pacala said. “To develop the technologies and scale up to 10 billion tons a year is a frightful endeavor, something that would really require a lot of activity. So the time would have to be now.”

The panel’s members conceded that the Trump administration may not find the climate change argument all that compelling, since the president has disavowed the Paris Agreement. But, Dr. Pacala said, it’s quite likely that other countries will be interested in carbon removal. The United States could take a leading role in developing technologies that could one day be worth many billions of dollars.

Right now, there are plenty of ideas for carbon removal kicking around. Countries could plant more trees that pull carbon dioxide out of the air and lock it in their wood. Farmers could adopt techniques, such as no-till agriculture, that would keep more carbon trapped in the soil. A few companies are building “direct air capture” plants that use chemical agents to scrub trace amounts of carbon dioxide from the air, allowing them to sell the gas to industrial customers or bury it underground.

But, the National Academies panel warned, many of these methods are still unproven or face serious limitations. There’s only so much land available to plant new trees. Scientists are still unsure how much carbon can realistically be stored in agricultural soils. And direct air capture plants are still too expensive for mass deployment.

In theory, it might be possible to collect wood or other plant matter that has absorbed carbon dioxide from the air, burn it in biomass power plants for energy and then capture the carbon released from combustion and bury it deep underground, creating, in essence, a power plant that has negative emissions. While no such facilities are operating commercially today, the technology to build them exists.

But one potential problem with this approach, the National Academies panel said, is that the land required to grow biomass for these power plants could run into conflicts with the need for farmland for food. The panel estimated that this method might one day be able to remove 3 to 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide from the air each year, but possibly much less, depending on land constraints.

That’s a far cry from the 10 to 20 billion tons of carbon dioxide we may need to pull out of the air by the end of the century in order to limit overall global warming to around 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the recent United Nations report. That figure assumes nations manage to decarbonize their energy and industrial systems almost entirely by 2050.

If nations fail to hold global warming below that 1.5 degree level, the United Nations report warned, tens of millions more people could be exposed to life-threatening heat waves and water shortages, and the world’s coral reefs could disappear almost entirely.

The National Academies panel recommended a dual strategy. The United States could set up programs to start testing and deploying carbon removal methods that look ready to go, such as negative emissions biomass plants, new forest management techniques or carbon farming programs.

At the same time, federal agencies would need to fund research into early-stage carbon removal techniques, to explore whether they may one day be ready for widespread use.

For instance, scientists have long known that certain minerals, like peridotite, can bind with carbon dioxide in the air and essentially convert the gas into solid rock. Researchers in Oman have been exploring the potential to use the country’s vast mineral deposits for carbon removal, but there are still major questions about whether this can be done feasibly on a large scale.

In its report, the panel laid out a detailed research agenda that could ultimately cost billions of dollars. But given that carbon removal could “solve a substantial fraction of the climate problem,” the report said, those costs are modest. For comparison, the federal government spent $22 billion on renewable energy research between 1978 and 2013.

Outside experts hailed the report as a sign that carbon removal is finally becoming central to the discussions around how to tackle climate change.

“We’re moving from the early stage of ‘what is carbon removal?’ to figuring out what specific steps can be taken to get these solutions at scale,” said Noah Deich, executive director of the group Carbon180, which recently began an effort to bring researchers and companies together to help bring carbon removal technologies to the marketplace.

The National Academies panel did, however, warn of one potential drawback of carbon removal research. It could create a “moral hazard,” in which governments may feel less urgency to cut their own emissions if they think that giant carbon-scrubbing machines will soon save the day.

To that end, the panel stressed that carbon removal, if developed, could only be a part of a larger global warming strategy. “Reducing emissions,” the report noted, “is vital to addressing the climate problem.”

Link to story

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Girl Scouts meet bugs

Posted on October 31, 2018 by Office of Public Affairs

CDFA’s Dr, Marc Epstein assists a Brownie examining a butterfly through a microscope.

Brownie Girl Scout Troop 2367 from Dixon, CA had a special guest at a recent troop meeting.  Dr. Marc Epstein, a Senior Insect Biosystematist and Lepidopterist at CDFA’s Plant Pest Diagnostics Lab in Sacramento, made a special visit to help teach the girls about insects.

During his visit, Dr. Epstein shared with the girls how he became interested in insects and what it means to be an Entomologist.  He also showed them a video presentation of live insects flying, eating, walking and metamorphosing, explaining that not all insects are pests, some are beneficial.

Dr. Epstein also brought specimen cases of flies, beetles, and butterflies from the CDFA’s insect collection to show their beauty and diversity.  A dissecting teaching microscope was set up for the girls to view the colorful scales that comprise the wings of butterflies.  For many of the girls, it was their first time looking through a microscope. After learning about the patterns and colorings on different larvae species, the girls were inspired to paint and craft their own caterpillars out of cardboard egg cartons.

Bug specimens

During the meeting, the Brownies were able to complete all their requirements for the “Bugs”skill badge.  This badge, along with the First Aid, Hiker and Cabin Camper badges are all requirements of the Outdoor Journey series the Brownie troop is currently working on.  This journey has allowed the girls the opportunity to get outside and explore nature with fun, safe activities that help build essential outdoor skills and inspire the girls to become environmental stewards.  The final part of the journey requires the girls to plan and execute a sustainable Take Action community project.  There is already “buzz” among the troop to focus their project on something related to insects!

The Brownie troop is comprised of ten energetic third-grade girls from various elementary schools in Dixon.  One of the Co-Leaders of the troop is Dr. Suzanne Rooney Latham, a Senior Plant Pathologist at CDFA.

 

 

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Californian heads FFA officer team elected at 91st National FFA Convention & Expo

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Office of Public Affairs

2018-19 National FFA Office TeamLuke O’Leary, a Californian and agricultural leadership and development major at Texas A&M University, has been elected FFA national president at the organization’s 91st annual national event. He receives the gavel from 2017-18 National President Breanna Holbert, also a Californian.

Joining Luke on the 2018-19 National FFA Officer team:

Layni LeBlanc, an animal science – science and technology major at Louisiana State University, was elected national secretary.

Adrian Schunk, a communications major at Michigan State University, was elected eastern region vice president.

Ridge Hughbanks, an agribusiness major at Oklahoma State University, was elected central region vice president.

Jordan Stowe, an agriscience education major at Auburn University, was elected southern region vice president.

Shea Booster, an agricultural business management major at Oregon State University, was elected western region vice president.

Each year at the National FFA Convention & Expo, six students are elected by delegates to represent the organization as national officers. Delegates elect a president, secretary, and vice presidents representing the central, southern, eastern, and western regions of the country. National officers commit to a year of service to the National FFA Organization. Each officer travels more than 100,000 national and international miles to interact with business and industry leaders, thousands of FFA members and teachers, corporate sponsors, government and education officials, state FFA leaders, the general public, and more. The team will lead personal growth and leadership training conferences for FFA members throughout the country and help set policies that will guide the future of FFA and promote agricultural literacy.

See the FFA’s original announcement here.

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Turning waste into energy and other benefits: Secretary Ross addresses National Renderers Association

Posted on October 29, 2018 by Office of Public Affairs
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross with representatives of the National Renderers Association.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross with representatives of the National Renderers Association.

If it were up to her, CDFA Secretary Karen Ross would rather we all stopped using the word “waste.” That’s what she told the National Renderers Association last week at their conference in Orange County.

When more than 62 billion pounds of animal by-products are converted annually into usable commodities such as animal feed, biofuels, fertilizers, soaps, and paints, that’s no longer “waste,” that’s a sustainable livestock and meat industry. Renderers play a critical role to agriculture by recycling fallen animals to protect the health of our livestock populations, public health, and the environment. Renderers also provide a vital service to the restaurant sector by converting used cooking oil into biodiesel.

When 75 percent of California’s biodiesel production comes from used cooking oil, that’s no longer primarily a “waste” product – it’s an energy product. And when those diesel-substitute biofuels also provide significant greenhouse gas reductions, that’s not “waste,” that’s climate change mitigation. There are more opportunities out there along these same lines – ways to get organic waste out of landfills and into productive, beneficial roles in our marketplace. And California’s Rendering Industry has a long history of leading that transformation.

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California launches first dairy digester pipeline cluster

Posted on October 26, 2018 by Office of Public Affairs
CDFA Undersecretary Jenny Lester Moffitt (right) joined a tour of the pipeline cluster facility.

CDFA Undersecretary Jenny Lester Moffitt (right) joined a tour of the pipeline cluster facility.

California is proud to announce the state’s first dairy digester pipeline cluster. CDFA Undersecretary Jenny Lester Moffitt was on-hand this week for the launch of Calgren Renewable Fuels’ new facility, which partners with local dairies in the Pixley, California area.

Eleven digesters, 22 miles of pipeline and 75,000 cows contribute to this interconnected system, which will collectively reduce an estimated of 1,867,651 metric tons of CO2 (equivalent) over 10 years. That’s equal to 399,925 passenger vehicles driven for 1 year or 201,668 homes’ electricity use for 1 year. Now that’s cow power.

The digesters and the cluster project were made possible in part by grants in 2017 and 2018 from CDFA’s Dairy Digester Research and Development Program totalling approximately $16 million, with an additional $17.5 million in matching funds provided by the dairies and Calgren.

CDFA Undersecretary Jenny Lester Moffitt congratulates Calgren and their partner dairies and contractors at the launch of the new digester cluster facility.

CDFA Undersecretary Jenny Lester Moffitt congratulates Calgren and their partner dairies and contractors at the launch of the new digester cluster facility.

Touring the Calgren facility.

Touring the Calgren facility.

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New Partnership with UC advances Climate Smart Agriculture in California

Posted on October 26, 2018 by Office of Public Affairs
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross (right) and University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Vice President Glenda Humiston

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross (right) and University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Vice President Glenda Humiston signed the MOU this morning at Sacramento’s Stanford Mansion.

California Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross and University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Vice President Glenda Humiston signed a memorandum of understanding this morning at Sacramento’s Stanford Mansion to initiate a new partnership to advance Climate Smart Agriculture in California.

This partnership, funded by California Climate Investments dollars through the Strategic Growth Council (SGC), will provide $1.1 million to fund 10 UC Cooperative Extension community education specialists who will be deployed in 10 counties statewide to assist and encourage farmers to participate in CDFA programs aimed at increasing adoption of smart farming and ranching practices.

“Agriculture is an important part of the climate solution,” said Secretary Ross. “This funding enables CDFA and UC ANR to partner with farmers to scale-up climate smart agricultural practices.”

“This new joint effort reflects our commitment to extending research-supported solutions to our farming community so they have the information and tools they need to make climate-smart decisions,” Humiston said. “It also demonstrates our shared goal of promoting new practices that are grounded in science.”

The program is focused on implementing on-farm solutions to improve soil health, nutrient management, irrigation management, on-farm composting and manure management – smart farming practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.

The CDFA programs involved are:

• State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program
• Healthy Soils Program
• Alternative Manure Management Program

Memorandum of Understanding

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CDFA’s “Pest Prevention University” a chance for counties to learn more about pest programs

Posted on October 25, 2018 by Office of Public Affairs

CDFA’s annual ‘Pest Prevention University’ visited several locations throughout the state this year and met with agricultural commissioner’s staff from 40 counties to discuss ongoing invasive species issues, and to share information about CDFA programs. In this photograph, quarantine enforcement is being discussed in Fresno County.

The university concept was introduced in 1999 by former CDFA ag biologist Ed Williams – now the agricultural commissioner in Ventura County. It covers a wide range of programs, including the finer points of plant inspection being discussed here at a session in Solano County.

The subject areas this year included, for the first time, nutria, an invasive rodent turning up in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. CDFA and the counties are assisting with detection techniques as they work with state wildlife officials.

 

The courses also included parcel inspection, work that is carried out in many counties with the assistance of specially trained dogs.

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