On October 5th and 6th, 2015, UC Davis’ World Food Center will address the growing demands on water systems for agriculture. A panel of international experts and thought leaders will bring new solutions to the table. Their goal is to strike a balance between the global need for more food and the steep urban, industrial and environmental pressures on water supplies—all under the added threats of climate change and soaring energy prices.

The conference will address key issues on the global level down to the individual basin scale. It will analyze the extreme case of California, now in its fourth year of drought, as well as the challenges globally of sustainable management of ground and surface water resources and declining water quality.

The conference will feature talks from policy makers, researchers, development investors and industry leaders from around the world. The ultimate goal will be a series of policy briefs that set the priorities for action in securing water for food security.

A limited number of grants will be provided for participants from developing countries with poster submissions will be solicited.

Link to UC Davis World Food Center

The Sand County Foundation, the California Farm Bureau Federation and Sustainable Conservation are proud to announce the 2015 finalists for the prestigious California Leopold Conservation Award^®, which honors private landowner achievement in voluntary stewardship and management of natural resources.

 

The finalists are:

• Prather Ranch, Shasta County
• Hafenfeld Ranch, Kern County
• Altman Specialty Plants, Riverside and San Diego counties

Jim and Mary Rickert own and manage Prather Ranch (Shasta County), a diversified cattle and certified organic rangeland business. The business includes a feed yard, slaughter facility, retail meat and beef by-product outlets, hay and strawberries. Prather Ranch established conservation easements on several properties to protect biodiversity. They use many conservation practices, including solar powered watering systems, intensive grazing, targeted vegetation management, riparian buffer strips, tail water recovery systems and conversion of open irrigation ditches to pipelines to conserve water. Prather Ranch also provides many educational activities for the public to learn about ranching, and the Rickerts serve on agriculture and conservation boards.

Hafenfeld Ranch (Kern County) is owned by Bruce and Sylvia Hafenfeld, and managed with their son, Eric and his wife, Jamie. The Hafenfelds manage certified organic cattle pastures on their ranch, and on their leases with the U.S. Forest Service and Audubon’s Kern River Preserve. The ranch has a Southwestern willow flycatcher mitigation easement that demonstrates how cattle, wildlife and water management are connected. Conservation practices include riparian plantings, wildlife-friendly water systems and improved irrigation to more efficiently use water and manage water quality. To benefit conservation and agriculture, Bruce serves on several public and private boards.

Ken and Matt Altman own and manage Altman Specialty Plants, (Riverside and San Diego counties) and specialize in drought tolerant and water efficient plants. The nurseries are retrofitted with water and energy efficient irrigation systems, reducing water use per acre by 50%. The Riverside County facility’s recycling system reuses 1 million gallons of water per day. Soil moisture sensors are being installed in their container plants to minimize water use. Altman Plants raises 5,000 plant species with integrated pest management. Ken and Deena Altman founded the Center for Applied Horticultural Research, a non-profit research and teaching center dedicated to advancing a sustainable horticulture industry. Several Altman team members actively serve on agricultural boards.

The 2015 California Leopold Conservation Award will be presented in December at the California Farm Bureau Federation’s Annual Meeting in Reno. Each finalist will be recognized at the event. The award recipient will be presented with a crystal depicting Aldo Leopold and $10,000.

Given in honor of renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold, the Leopold Conservation Award recognizes extraordinary achievement in voluntary conservation. In his influential 1949 book, A Sand County Almanac, Leopold called for an ethical relationship between people and the land they own and manage, which he called “an evolutionary possibility and an ecological necessity.” The Leopold Conservation Award program inspires other landowners through these examples and provides a visible forum where farmers, ranchers and other private landowners are recognized as conservation leaders.

The California Leopold Conservation Award is made possible thanks to generous contributions from many organizations, including American Ag Credit, The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Defense Fund, Farm Credit, The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation, DuPont Pioneer and The Mosaic Company.

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ABOUT THE LEOPOLD CONSERVATION AWARD^®

The Leopold Conservation Award is a competitive award that recognizes landowner achievement in voluntary conservation. The award consists of $10,000 and a crystal depicting Aldo Leopold. Sand County Foundation presents Leopold Conservation Awards in California, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Wisconsin and Wyoming.
ABOUT SAND COUNTY FOUNDATION

Sand County Foundation is a non-profit conservation organization dedicated to working with private landowners across North America to advance ethical and scientifically sound land management practices that benefit the environment. www.sandcounty.net

ABOUT SUSTAINABLE CONSERVATION

Sustainable Conservation helps California thrive by uniting people to solve the toughest challenges facing our land, air and water. Since 1993, it has brought together business, landowners and government to steward the resources that we all depend on in ways that make economic sense. Sustainable Conservation believes common ground is California’s most important resource. www.suscon.org

ABOUT CALIFORNIA FARM BUREAU FEDERATION

The California Farm Bureau Federation works to protect family farms and ranches on behalf of more than 74,000 members statewide and as part of a nationwide network of more than 6.2 million Farm Bureau members. www.cfbf.com

Eastern Sierra Tri-County Fair

9/3/2015 to 9/6/2015
Bishop, CA

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Gold Country Fair

9/10/2015 to 9/13/2015
Auburn, CA

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Inter-Mountain Fair of Shasta

9/3/2015 to 9/7/2015
McArthur, CA

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Kern County Fair

9/23/2015 to 10/4/2015
Bakersfield, CA

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Lake County Fair

9/3/2015 to 9/6/2015
Lakeport, CA

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Lodi Grape Festival & Harvest

9/17/2015 to 9/20/2015
Lodi, CA

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Los Angeles County Fair

9/4/2015 to 9/27/2015
Pomona, CA

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Madera District Fair

9/10/2015 to 9/13/2015
Madera, CA

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Mariposa County Fair & Homecoming

9/4/2015 to 9/7/2015
Mariposa, CA

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Mendocino County Fair & Apple Show

9/18/2015 to 9/20/2015
Boonville, CA

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Monterey County Fair

9/2/2015 to 9/7/2015
Monterey, CA

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Santa Cruz County Fair

9/16/2015 to 9/20/2015
Watsonville, CA

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Tehama District Fair

9/24/2015 to 9/27/2015
Red Bluff, CA

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Tulare County Fair

9/16/2015 to 9/20/2015
Tulare, CA

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Tulelake-Butte Valley Fair

9/10/2015 to 9/13/2015
Tulelake, CA

For the past three years, kids have eaten healthier breakfasts, lunches and snacks at school thanks to the bipartisan Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, which made the first meaningful improvements to the nutrition of foods and beverages served in cafeterias and sold in vending machines in 30 years. Thanks to the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act and other strategies, the national obesity trend is slowly reversing, and our children have more energy to learn and grow, greater opportunity to thrive, and better overall health.

As Congress turns its attention to reauthorizing the Act this year, it is important to remember that our children are battling a national obesity epidemic that costs $190.2 billion per year to treat and, according to retired U.S. generals, threatens our national security by making almost one in three young adults unfit to serve in our nation’s military. If we don’t continue to invest in our children’s health, this generation will be the first to live shorter lives than their parents.

The Act has undoubtedly improved the quality of school meals as well as the health and wellbeing of our children and for those reasons is supported by parents, teachers, doctors and kids themselves. USDA continues to work with schools, listen carefully, and provide time, flexibility, guidance, and resources to help them serve the healthier meals. Now is not the time to backpedal on a healthier future for our kids—that is why Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack is encouraging Congress to act quickly to reauthorize a strong Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act and support the ongoing success of the healthier meals.

 

• Kids are eating more healthy food and throwing less food away. Plate waste is not increasing. A study released in March 2015 by the University of Connecticut’s Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity shows that students are eating more nutritious foods and discarding less of their lunches under the healthier standards. Kids ate 13 percent more of their entrees and nearly 20 percent more of their vegetables in 2014 than in 2012, which means that less food is ending up in the trash today than before the national standards were updated.

• Americans agree that healthier meals are the right thing for our kids. A poll released in mid-August by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation shows that 9 out of 10 Americans support national nutrition standards for school meals. Nearly 70% believe school meals are excellent or good, compared to just 26% in 2010, before the healthier school meals were implemented in schools.

• Students like the taste of the healthier school meals. A 2015 study from the University of California, Berkeley’s School of Public Health found that nearly 90 percent of surveyed students liked at least some school meal options. And according to an August 2014 survey by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, 70 percent of elementary school leaders nationwide reported that students liked the new lunches.

• Kids are eating more fruits and vegetables as a result of updated standards. A May 2014 Harvard School of Public Health study shows that, under the updated standards, kids are now eating 16 percent more vegetables and 23 percent more fruit at lunch.

• Parents support the healthier school meals. A September 2014 poll released by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Heart Association shows that 72 percent of parents favor strong nutrition standards for school meals and 91 percent support serving fruits or vegetables with every meal.

• Support for healthier school meals is bipartisan. A September 2014 poll released by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the American Heart Association found that 87 percent of Democrats, 70 percent of independents and more than half of registered voters with kids in public schools surveyed were supportive of the new meals.

• Over 95 percent of schools report that they are successfully meeting the updated nutrition standards. Students across the country are experiencing a healthier school environment with more nutritious options. The new meals are providing children more whole grains, fruits and vegetables, lean protein and low-fat dairy, as well as less sugar, fat, and sodium.

• USDA continues to work with schools as they implement the new standards. USDA recently launched an initiative called Team Up for School Nutrition Success that allows the schools who still face challenges to pair up and learn best practices from schools that are already successfully serving healthier meals. The program has provided training for more than 3,500 individuals and has been enthusiastically received by schools and school officials.

• School lunch revenue is up. Despite concerns raised about the impact of new standards on participation and costs, a USDA analysis suggests that last year, schools saw a net nationwide increase in revenue from school lunches of approximately $450 million. This includes the annual reimbursement rate adjustments, as well as increased revenue from paid meals and the additional 6 cents per meal for schools meeting the new meal standards.

• Participation is increasing substantially in many areas of the country. Total breakfast participation increased by 380,000 students from FY2013 to FY2014 and has increased by more than 3 million students since 2008. USDA has also received reports from many schools indicating a positive response to healthier offerings and increased participation.

• Virtually all schools continue to participate. Data from states indicated very few schools (only 0.51 percent of schools nationwide) reported dropping out of the programs due to struggles over providing kids healthy food. State agencies reported that the schools no longer participating in the NSLP were mainly residential child care institutions and smaller schools with very low percentages of children eligible for free and reduced price meals.

• USDA has and will continue to listen to stakeholders and provide guidance and flexibilities, as appropriate, to help schools and students adapt to the updated requirements. Early in the implementation process for school meals, when schools asked for flexibility to serve larger servings of grains and proteins within the overall calorie caps, USDA responded. In January of 2014, that flexibility was made permanent. USDA is also phasing other requirements in over the next several years. And hearing schools concerns on the lack of availability of whole grain products, USDA is allowing schools that have demonstrated difficulty in obtaining adequate whole grain items to submit a request to the States to use some traditional products for an additional two years while industry works to create better whole grain products.

Link to fact sheet

The latest segment in the Growing California video series, a partnership with California Grown, is “Nature’s Candy.”

By John Holland

At last check, 75 percent of grape growers in California used drip or other low-volume irrigation methods. The rate was 71 percent for almonds and 63 percent for canning tomatoes.

Dairy feed crops? Not so much. The rate was just 7 percent for corn and 2.5 percent for alfalfa, based on a 2010 survey. These farmers much prefer flood irrigation, at least when the water is abundant.

That could change, based on the discussion Wednesday at a farm about 6 miles southeast of Merced. It has a test plot for corn grown with drip lines, which deliver water close to the roots, reducing losses to seepage and evaporation.

“We wanted to utilize – especially in a drought – our water most efficiently,” said John Cardoza, a project manager in the Modesto office of Sustainable Conservation. The group, based in San Francisco, helps farmers and other business people protect the environment.

Sustainable Conservation joined with Netafim USA, which makes irrigation supplies in Fresno and elsewhere, to study the potential for drip irrigation in dairy feed crops. The gathering was at De Jager Farms, which offered a few of its 17,000 acres for the project.

Flood irrigation typically takes about 40 vertical inches of water over the growing season for corn, said Nate Ray, one of the farm managers at De Jager. The drip system reduced that to 28 inches last year. The yield per acre improved, thanks to efficient application of the manure-tainted wastewater that is part of the irrigation supply at dairy farms.

“It’s probably been a 20 percent increased yield and a good foot of water that we’re saving,” Ray said. He also noted the time savings: With flood irrigation, it can take 14 or 15 hours for the water to cover a field.

Widespread use of drip systems by dairy farmers would help extend the water supply for all Californians. It also could boost the economic health of the dairy industry, which employs thousands of people in farming and processing in the Northern San Joaquin Valley.

Drip irrigation has one drawback, many people in farming note: It reduces the groundwater recharge provided by flood irrigation. This is the topic of an upcoming study that will include Stanislaus County almonds.

Drip systems have been widely adopted in orchards and vineyards in part because the lines can be laid once and tractors and other rigs can work around them. The same goes for microsprinklers, another low-volume technology that directs water to the roots.

The approach to drip irrigation differs in dairy feed fields, which are planted and harvested two or three times a year. The drip tape can either be buried deep enough to avoid disturbance, or it can be a disposable type that is removed after harvest. Netafim collects the waste and recycles it into new tape.

Dairy drip irrigation poses other challenges – the wastewater has to be filtered to remove most of the solids in the manure so they do not clog the tiny pores in the irrigation lines. Farmers also need to watch for gophers and other creatures that can damage a system.

Despite this, the effort shows promise, including reduced risk to groundwater quality from nitrates, a manure byproduct that can make people sick.

“We’re increasing water efficiency,” Cardoza said. “We’re increasing the efficiency and use of the nutrients that we have already on the farm. We’re reducing our costs from water use. We’re reducing our costs from using synthetic fertilizers.”

Link to story

 

A dangerous disease, west Nile virus, has returned to California this summer. The disease has been detected in four horses – two in Riverside County, one in Tehama County, and one in Shasta County. Two of the horses have died and the other two 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 CDFA’s web site.

By Edward Ortiz

Sonoma farmer Andrea Davis-Cetina didn’t discover her passion for farming until she went to college.

She entered Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., intending to study photography but, during a stint on the campus farm, found herself enjoying every aspect of agriculture instead, the 32-year-old said. So she switched course and instead earned a degree in sustainable agriculture in 2005. She now runs Quarter Acre Farm, which grows organic vegetables and seedlings.

“Studying agriculture in college was extremely helpful for me in becoming a successful farmer because I was able to study how to grow a plant from a seed or make a crop plan,” Davis-Cetina said. “I was also able to take courses in ecology, anthropology and rural studies, which prepared me for the lifestyle and challenges of being a farmer.”

At one time, young farmers inherited the family’s fields or gained valuable experience working neighboring crops. Today, driven by more complicated organic farming practices and agricultural technology, they’re increasingly winning their farm smarts in classrooms or during an internship, and either leasing or buying farmland from non-family members.

Like other starting farmers, Davis-Cetina said she believes a college degree allowed her to play catch-up.

“Once I decided I wanted to farm as a career, I felt the need to study everything I could get my hands on involving farming,” she said.

Young farmers are part of a demographic that agriculture officials say are needed to replenish a rapidly graying industry. In Sacramento County, the average age of a farmer is 57 years old, just below the national average. The aging farmer population means that nearly 65 percent of farmland in the U.S. is on the cusp of some sort of transition as many farmers near retirement age, according to the 2012 U.S. Department of Agriculture census.

Roughly a quarter of farmers now earn college degrees – a rate slightly lower than those in U.S. households, where 30 percent earn college degrees, according to a 2011 USDA report.

The value of a college education for farmers is of no small concern at the Winters-based Center for Land-Based Learning, a nonprofit focused on creating the next generation of farmers.

“A degree in agriculture is extremely important – as is a college education,” said Mary Kimball, the center’s executive director. “Like with any major, one of the most critical things is learning how to learn, how to work with others, and seeing that there is a very large world out there beyond yourself.”

Getting a degree, however, also requires taking on school loan debt – a new challenge for farmers whose debt typically came from a land or equipment purchase.

A recent survey by the National Young Farmers Coalition, a nonprofit farm advocacy organization, found that student loan debt is a barrier to would-be farmers and ranchers. The survey found that 30 percent of respondents delayed or declined getting into agriculture because of student loans. An additional 48 percent cited student loans as preventing them from growing their business or getting credit.

At UC Davis, the nation’s premier agricultural university, 81 percent of students pursuing a degree in agricultural or environmental science have taken on student loans. The average cumulative loan debt for graduating undergraduates in those two majors, for the 2013-14 school year, was $17,921.

“Young people are telling us their student loan debt is one of the most serious barriers they face when they consider a career in agriculture,” said Lindsey Lusher Shute, coalition executive director.

School loan debt has forced young farmers to make tough choices.

“After graduating, I was excited to make a career for myself in agriculture, but interning on farms is not a way to save up money to start a farm when your student loan is waiting for you,” Davis-Cetina said.

She said she still needs to work 15 hours a week at an off-farm job to pay her bills. The estimated payoff date for her loan: October 2017.

Some are coming to the field with college degrees that have nothing to do with agriculture – like urban farmer Tyler Stowers. The 29-year-old picked up the farming bug while working at farm-to-table restaurants when he was pursuing a bachelor’s in philosophy at UC Berkeley.

“My college experience has proven very helpful to me as a farmer,” Stowers said. “A farmer is required to wear many hats on a daily basis, and my years in school exposed me to world problems and potential solutions that I otherwise would have probably never experienced.”

Like Davis-Cetina, Stowers also took on college loans. The loan payments and the high price of farmland in the Sacramento region forced Stowers to take an unconventional path to farming. In lieu of a land purchase, Stowers turned 1,200 square feet of his parents’ backyard in suburban Roseville into verdant rows of lettuce, basil and other vegetables.

“In these vital beginnings of a boot-strapping startup, every dollar counts,” Stowers said. “I’ve cut my lifestyle down to bare bones so that every dollar earned is reinvested back into the farm.”

Cattle rancher Ariel Greenwood said she believes young farmers should approach the financial demands of a college degree with a healthy dose of caution.

Since graduating from North Carolina State University two years ago with a double major in psychology and agroecology, the 25-year-old has worked as a cattle herder for a small startup company called Holistic Ag. She grazes holistically managed, grass-fed cattle at a 3,200-acre research preserve in Santa Rosa.

She said she wants to deepen her grazing experience through further coursework and workshops. However, making a $300 monthly college loan payment on an income of less than $1,000 monthly won’t allow it, Greenwood said.

“Studying agroecology and related coursework definitely enhanced my understanding of every aspect of the work I’m doing,” she said. “That being said, if someone told me I’d be financially crippled right out of the gate in order to obtain that extra edge, I’d probably have reconsidered.”

Link to article