From a USDA news release 

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced an investment of $1.4 billion to help a diverse rural America keep resources and wealth right at home through job training, business expansion and technical assistance. These investments are part of a suite of business and cooperative services that are projected to help create or save more than 50,000 jobs in rural America through investments made in fiscal year 2021. (NOTE — Forty California companies will receive a total of nearly $42 million).

“For some time, rural America has been at the mercy of an extraction economy, where resources are taken from rural lands only to create jobs and economic opportunity in urban and suburban areas,” Vilsack said. “That’s why USDA is committed to doing what we can to change that extraction economy into a circular economy, where value is added closer to home, so the wealth created in rural areas stays in rural areas. Today’s announcement underlines the Biden-Harris Administration’s commitment to helping transform the economy and bring high-paying jobs and economic opportunities to the people who need it most.”

The funding announced today will help people and businesses in diverse communities and industries throughout 49 states, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. It will help companies hire more workers and reach new customers. It will open the door to new economic opportunities for communities and people who historically have lacked access to critical resources and financing. And it will help entrepreneurs, business cooperatives and farmers in nearly every state create jobs, grow businesses and find new and better markets for the items they produce.

For example:

In California, the Democracy at Work Institute will use a $200,000 Rural Cooperative Development Grant to provide technical assistance to worker-owned cooperative groups, ultimately creating 17 jobs and saving another 41 in rural areas. The organization will assist dozens of cooperatives and rural businesses as well as work with Native American and Native Alaskan groups that are organizing cooperative projects in rural California, Alaska and South Dakota.

In Oklahoma, Rolland Ranch Beef will use a $250,000 Value-Added Producer Grant to increase processing, marketing and delivery of locally raised beef to area consumers, schools and the Chickasaw Nation. Rolland Ranch Beef is a trademarked product by the Intertribal Agriculture Council, certifying it as made and produced by Native Americans. This certification adds value to the beef as more Tribes seek to buy Native foods grown by Native people.

In Iowa, Pella Cooperative Electric Association will use a $300,000 grant from the Rural Economic Development Loan and Grant program to replenish the association’s revolving loan fund, which will facilitate construction of a women’s housing and health care facility.

In Maryland, military veteran- and family-owned Diparma Farms will use a $33,530 Value-Added Producer Grant to expand its free-range poultry operations. The funds will help pay operating costs associated with processing and marketing packaged free-range chicken, duck and turkey products. The project will help the business expand its customer base through partnerships with local beef and cheese producers in Washington County and surrounding areas, leading to an anticipated increase in revenue.

In Pennsylvania, Castanea Farm LLC will use a $10,244 Value-Added Producer Grant to help the family-operated farm market and sell chestnuts. The project is expected to increase its customer base by 25% and revenue by $2 per pound over a two-year period.

In Nebraska, Native360 Loan Fund Inc. will use an $8,701 Rural Microentrepreneur Assistance Program grant to provide business-based training and technical assistance to rural microentrepreneurs and microenterprises in 12 Nebraska counties. Native360 Loan Fund’s mission is to provide affordable credit, capital, technical assistance and related programs to help build strong and self-sufficient Native American business owners.

Read more here

CDFA recognizes Black History Month and the contributions, achievements, and sacrifices made by Black Americans on behalf of our state’s agriculture industry. It’s also a time for us to reflect and honor the Black farmers and ranchers who are planting, growing, and harvesting, and to acknowledge the historic challenges and racism they have faced. Black farmers and ranchers in California tend 120,264 acres and account for $181.3 million in ag sales, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service.  

“Ag is sexy.” That is at the core of the message California Secretary of Agriculture Karen Ross said the state’s agricultural industry needs to convey to youth to attract more of them to the business and the high-tech educational disciplines necessary to train them in emerging farm technology.

Ross was at Imperial Valley College last week as a speaker at Western Growers’ AgTech Workforce Summit. The event included panel discussions on topics such as industry issues and skill identification, education and workforce development strategies, and leadership strategies.

The event was the second of four being held at rural community colleges in different areas of the state. About 70 persons, mostly local farmers, were in attendance.

Ross told them not only to encourage students to pursue studies, but “to bring a friend.” She described agriculture as one of the more “inclusive” and innovative segments of California’s economy.

“To rise to the occasion of feeding a global population of 10 billion people in the next 30 years with fewer resources and labor, we need to start investing in preparing tomorrow’s agricultural workforce today,” Ross previously explained in a press release. “Education starts in the classroom, and that’s where agriculture prominently needs to be. As the development of technology rapidly accelerates, initiatives such as AgTechX Ed lays the foundation for new tech-based education training platforms that will build an adequately trained workforce.”

Western Growers Center for Innovation and Technology Director Dennis Donohue said the four AgTech summits are intended to “set the table in purposeful way” in identifying the ag industry’s workforce needs.

Western Growers recently received a $750,000 Specialty Crop Block Grant, administered by CDFA, to develop and implement a curriculum to provide California college students with best-in-class ag tech training. Donohue said the monies will be used for curriculum development and teacher training.

Link to story in the Imperial Valley Press

From a USDA news release

USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced plans to increase capacity at the Port of Oakland and improve service for shippers of U.S. grown agricultural commodities. The USDA is partnering with the Port of Oakland to set up a new 25-acre “pop-up” site to make it easier for agricultural companies to fill empty shipping containers with commodities.

Fewer containers have been made available for U.S. agricultural commodities, as ocean carriers have circumvented traditional marketing channels and rushed containers back to be exported empty and as a result, many of these carriers have suspended service to the Port of Oakland. USDA is now taking action to reduce these shipping disruptions that have prevented U.S. agricultural products from reaching their markets.

“COVID-19 revealed vulnerabilities across our supply system, both at our ports and in the agricultural sector,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Vilsack said. “As the economy has made an historic recovery, it has put additional strain on the supply chain. The Biden-Harris Administration is using creative approaches to improve port operations while elevating American-grown food and fiber. This partnership with the Port of Oakland builds on our aggressive approach to addressing challenges within the supply chain and sends a strong signal that we are committed to working across the Administration and with state, local and private partners to mitigate complex port capacity and congestion issues and to keep American agriculture on the move.”

“This creative partnership with USDA and the Port of Oakland will help American farmers and agricultural producers move their product to market while also making better use of empty containers that are causing congestion at the ports,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “After we helped set up inland pop-up ports at the Port of Savannah, we witnessed significant improvements in the flow of goods, and we expect to see similarly positive results once this Oakland facility is open. We look forward to engaging with other ports on similar solutions to congestion.”

“This is an important step that shows the value of players in the supply chain coming together to identify challenges as well as potential solutions,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “I wish to thank the USDA for making this investment. It will help improve access to overseas markets for California agriculture producers at a critical time of year for exports of high-value specialty crops.”

The site will provide space to prepare empty containers beginning in early March. Agricultural companies and cooperatives will have easier access to these containers, which they will fill with commodities, restoring shipping services to agricultural products while relieving congestion. The new site will also have a dedicated gate with the ability to pre-cool refrigerated shipping containers to receive perishable commodities, all while avoiding bottlenecks that would have resulted from entering the main area of the port.

Read more here

From a news release

The Sonoma County Winegrowers are joining Ford Pro^™ in a pilot project that will bring electric vehicles and connected services to three farms in Sonoma County.

The heart of the project is to demonstrate how electric vehicles and web-based fleet management tools can have a positive impact on the agriculture industry in terms of increasing productivity, improving sustainability, and lowering the total cost of fleet ownership anywhere from 10% to 20%.

“Ford Pro is thrilled to team with the Sonoma County Winegrowers to further their sustainability goals and begin their transition to fully integrated all-electric fleets with on-site charging,” said Wanda Young, Ford Pro global chief marketing officer. “Ford Pro and the Sonoma County Winegrowers are driven by many of the same tenets – to accelerate productivity while operating responsibly.”

The pilot project is launching with Bevill Vineyard Management and Vino Farms in Healdsburg, and Dutton Ranch in Sebastopol – which collectively represent about 4,000 acres in the vineyard-rich Russian River Valley. Young anticipates the program will expand in the coming months to include other farming operations in the county.

About 60,000 acres across Sonoma County are dedicated to growing wine grapes, and another 120,000 acres are used for other diversified agriculture, such as apple orchards, dairy farms and cut flowers. In 2014, the Sonoma County Winegrowers launched an initiative to represent one of the nation’s leading winegrowing regions in terms of sustainability, with a target of reaching sustainable designation for nearly all of its vineyard acreage in the county.

Sonoma County Winegrowers president Karissa Kruse said she believes electric vehicle adoption and efficient fleet management are the next steps in sustainability.

“This collaboration with the Ford Pro team is a great natural next step to help us continue our progress in sustainable agriculture,” Kruse said. “A lot of farming families have a rich history with Ford, and with history comes trust. So as many of our farmers look for ways to lead in innovation and be a part of the solution, that trust is critical when it comes to investing in electric vehicles and in solutions to manage farming fleets. Our farmers love this pilot program; it’s going to be foundational.”

In addition to the vehicles, the farms can consult with the Ford Pro team for the duration of the program and will have software, charging services, and energy management assistance available – all to help reduce operating costs and more efficiently manage gas and electric vehicle fleets.

Read more on the Sonoma County Winegrowers web site

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross participated this week at the California Association of Resource Conservation District’s (CARCD) 76th Annual Conference, joining USDA-NRCS state conservationist Carlos Suarez and Dr. Glenda Humiston, vice president of the University of California’s Agriculture and Natural Resources division. The virtual panel discussion was moderated by Karen Buhr, executive director of CARCD.

The discussion focused on the ongoing collaboration, partnership, and commitment to continue building climate resiliency and assisting farmers and ranchers in this significant goal.

Secretary Ross stressed the importance of funding for technical assistance to ensure that Climate Smart Agriculture programs and resources may be sustained. Resource conservation districts throughout California have received approximately 50 percent of technical assistance funds from CDFA.

The panel also covered the importance of equity at the center of agricultural best practices and funding opportunities. Secretary Ross noted CDFA is committed to carrying out the Governor’s goal for addressing climate change in a way that builds a more equitable economy. Additionally, a number of employees have completed the agency’s first training sessions as part of the Cohort of the Capitol Collaborative on Race and Equity, and CDFA has established the agency’s first Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee.  The secretary has also convened two ad-hoc advisory groups — one for historically underserved farmers and the other for small farmers.  

“We will continue bringing an equity lens to all aspects of our work and the people and stakeholders we serve. Our commitment to equity includes working to provide all California farmers with access to the agency’s many programs,” Secretary Ross said.

Secretary Ross also thanked Governor Newson and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom for their commitment to healthy soils, conservation, farm-to-school programs, and a sustainable and resilient agricultural system for California.

CDFA has received $2 million from the USDA for a research consortium to implement a demonstration and outreach approach to help farmers improve nitrogen fertilization and irrigation practices. These funds are being awarded through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grants program, which this year is providing $15 million to 19 projects nationwide to support the development of new tools, approaches, practices and technologies to further natural resource conservation on private lands.

This project will be led by CDFA’s Fertilizer Research and Education Program (FREP) and is a collaboration with the University of California’s Agriculture and Natural Resources division and UC Davis to support farmer-led coalitions in protecting the long-term viability of farming in the San Joaquin Valley.

The three-year project will deploy seven UC Cooperative Extension personnel to the San Joaquin Valley to perform education and demonstration projects, provide on-farm consultation, and conduct outreach activities to promote locally appropriate best practices.

Program staff will consult with farmer-led water quality coalitions in each region to further assess grower needs. UC Davis researchers will study the effectiveness of this demonstration-and-outreach approaches and will identify extension methods that can efficiently help farmers adopt new conservation practices. 

For more information on the project, contact FREP@cdfa.ca.gov.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture Office of Farm to Fork (CDFA-F2F) recently was allocated $20 million to continue its Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program. CDFA encourages interested parties to stay tuned for announcements about how to apply in the next round of this grant program that funds energy-efficient refrigeration units in corner stores and small businesses in low-income or low-access areas throughout the state, allowing them to stock California-grown fresh produce, nuts and minimally processed foods as well as meat, dairy, eggs and other foods.

Examples of Healthy Refrigeration Grant Program benefits can be seen in this video released by the County of Los Angeles Internal Services Department spotlighting four locations that received a refrigeration unit through the first round of grants.

https://vimeo.com/539258784/eb702c2e51

https://vimeo.com/539258784/eb702c2e51

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is proposing a revision of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule that would change the pre-harvest agricultural water requirements for farms covered by the Produce Safety Rule (other than sprouts). Most California fruit, vegetable and nut farms are covered by the Produce Safety Rule, including those with more than $25,000 in average annual produce sales, with some exceptions.

FDA’s proposed revision is intended to address stakeholder concerns about the complexity and practical implementation of certain pre-harvest agricultural water requirements. The proposed revision does not change requirements for agricultural water used during and after harvest, or for sprouts. It would introduce a systems-based, pre-harvest agricultural water assessment to evaluate potential hazards and guide risk management decision-making on the farm. Public comments about the FDA’s proposed revision may be submitted via the Federal Register until April 5, 2022.

In California, the Produce Safety Rule is regulated on FDA’s behalf by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Produce Safety Program. During the proposed revision’s comment period and until the FDA rulemaking process has been completed, CDFA’s Produce Safety Program will maintain the current inspection process related to this section of the Produce Safety Rule.

Visit CDFA’s Produce Safety Program webpage for more information about farms covered by the Produce Safety Rule.

From a Farm Credit Alliance news release

Going off to college is a big leap into the unknown for most college-bound high school seniors – especially when they’re doing so in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. To help ease the transition, the California Association of Future Farmers of America (FFA) has introduced a new program to make that leap a little more manageable – and to remind the students that there are many pathways to a career in California agriculture.

Funded in part by grants from Farm Credit, the Change Makers Summit: The Future Awaits! is a two-day program aimed at incoming high school seniors, explained Maureen Funk, the California FFA Foundation’s development director.

“The original plan, pre-pandemic, was that prior to their senior year, seniors would take time out and go to a conference at a college campus, experience life in the dorms, and have conversations with FFA alums about what skills they need to develop during their senior year to get ready for their next steps,” she said. “It’s an opportunity for them to stop and reflect for a bit – you’re almost done with this program, what’s next?”

Of course, due to COVID-19, the conference had to be virtual. The first one was held in the spring of 2021 for students about to graduate from high school, with a second session held in August for incoming seniors. FFA is planning to hold the program again this year, but plans are not yet final.

Rob Faris, President and CEO of Golden State Farm Credit, said the program is designed to help students use the skills they have gained and fulfill their life’s purpose after leaving the FFA blue and gold.

“The FFA alumni volunteers help students identify the specific skills they have gained from their FFA education and help them create a career plan that highlights how those skills will help them find success,” Faris said. “The volunteers also outline specific service projects seniors can undertake in their home communities or at college, and the seniors will leave knowing how capable, valuable and marketable they are.”

Maureen Funk said 164 students participated last April and another 207 did so in August.

“Our target was 150 participants at each session, so we were very pleased with the outcomes. Both sessions included a broad band of students from all our areas and participation was very good. The interns and volunteers all felt they got really good feedback and that it was a valuable experience.”

For more information about the summit, visit https://calaged.org/change-makers-summit.