News release from the Lake County Winegrape Commission

With an increase in the number and duration of large wildfires, the California wine industry is working together to explore ways to combat the effect of smoke exposure and fire damage on winegrapes and wine. Industry leaders in Lake County, a region that has experienced multiple devastating wildfires in recent years, are leveraging data gathered from fires as a means to find solutions that will help wineries and grape growers minimize the impact from these natural disasters.

The Lake County Winegrape Commission (LCWC) is collaborating with the California Association of Winegrape Growers in CAWG’s effort to seek support from Congress by expanding the scope of an existing disaster assistance bill; additional collaborators include Lake County Farm Bureau, Mendocino Winegrowers Inc., and Mendocino County Farm Bureau. The request by CAWG and industry collaborators identifies the need for $5.25 million in funding to support intensive research to prevent and limit the effect of smoke on winegrapes during a wildfire. The research funding would support development of protective materials that can be applied in the vineyards and more accurate testing protocols for smoke compounds.

“We hope our collaborations are able to propel a more precise understanding of wildfire impacts on winegrapes,” said Debra Sommerfield, President of the LCWC. “It’s our intent to support innovative new findings that will not only further the understanding of impacts for winegrape growers in Lake County, but also set a precedent for the importance of future research across Northern California.”

To further understand the effects of smoke from wildland fires on grapes and wines, the LCWC initiated a collaborative research project in an effort to provide actionable insights. This research project comprises regional sampling, data gathering, weather- and fire-related GIS modeling, and sensory analysis. Project partners include UC Davis, UC Cooperative Extension, ETS Laboratories, the Australian Wine Research Institute, Western Weather Group, Lake County Air Quality Management District, and individual winegrape growers and vintners.

Link to news release

With citrus season underway in California, CDFA offers an encore presentation of “Lemon Appeal” from its award-winning Growing California video series.

In December of 1996 and January of 1997, a series of subtropical pineapple express storms washed over California. Watersheds were already saturated when the storms brought more than 30 inches of rain, making it one of the wettest Decembers on record. Widespread flooding ensued—levees failed and rivers overflowed.

Recognizing a need to respond and be proactive, a committee of dairy producers, government agency representatives, industry leaders, and university specialists gathered to create the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program (CDQAP), ensuring high-quality milk production and continuous improvement in environmental stewardship. It was also a prime opportunity to demonstrate the commitment of the California dairy industry to producing high quality, safe products, in an environmentally friendly, animal-care conscience manner. Initial funding was provided by the California Farm Bureau Federation, California Department of Food and Agriculture and the California Dairy Research Foundation (CDRF). Dr. Michael Payne, a University of California veterinary researcher, was brought on board to direct the program, and Dr. Deanne Meyer, University of California Cooperative Extension specialist, was enlisted to develop educational programs. Continued CDRF funding provided an important direct tie to dairy producers through check off dollars, and industry expertise.

TRUST FOSTERS SUCCESS

In 1998, the CDQAP began delivering environmental stewardship workshops and finalized an Environmental Stewardship Partnership Agreement with 14 academic, regulatory and industry signatories. It was an unprecedented collaboration, building a bridge between science, regulation, and production. The agreement brought together multiple state and federal agencies, the University of California and the dairy industry to address environmental issues and ensure dairy producers had the tools they needed to comply with regulations.

“The trust fostered 20 years ago in those early meetings between industry, regulatory agencies, and academia is still the foundation of our program partnership today,” said Denise Mullinax, assistant director, CDQAP and interim director, CDRF. “CDQAP works to provide dairy producers with the tools they need to not only gain regulatory compliance but to make ongoing improvements and show consumers that this industry is serious about sustainability—which means environmental stewardship, food safety, and animal well-being—while maintaining economic viability for the long-term”

For 20 years, CDQAP has been on the front lines, much of it in grassroots-style, educating and training farmers. As new water and air quality requirements for dairies evolved, the CDQAP traveled around the state to train farmers. When dairy producers nationwide launched a new animal care verification program, the CDQAP provided California producers with education and tools to support participation. When agro-terrorism and biosecurity became a threat, the CDQAP helped dairy producers and processors prepare and protect their products. When animal disease outbreaks occurred in other parts of the world, the CDQAP helped California producers understand the threats and prepare to respond if needed.

To date, nearly 800 dairy farms in California have received CDQAP environmental certification. Certifying producers must complete three program components: environmental stewardship education, farm management planning and reporting, and an on-site third-party evaluation.

In a 2004 news article about the successes of CDQAP, Ria de Grassi, then California Farm Bureau Federation director of livestock, animal health and welfare, said, “Certification requires producers to meet a high standard of protecting the environment. That high standard gives credibility to the program and, by extension, to the certified producers. That’s a win-win outcome.”

ONE-OF-A-KIND, ONE TO BE TRUSTED

The program was, and still is, one-of-a-kind — a unique, public-private collaboration that continues to produce large-scale results. In 2007, the program received the Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award (GEELA), California’s highest and most prestigious environmental honor.

Link to full story on CDQAP web site

Link to CDFA’s Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP) and Alternative Manure Mangement Program (AMMP)  

An international team of more than three dozen researchers has published a paper highlighting the potential of citizen science to address pressing research challenges in agriculture and food systems. One key to capitalizing on such efforts, the researchers find, may be to build stronger ties between citizen science and agricultural extension efforts.

“We define citizen science as research in which non-scientists play a role in project development, data collection or discovery and which is subject to conventional peer review,” says Sean Ryan, lead author of a paper on the work. “Though citizen science has grown in popularity in recent decades, it isn’t a new idea. There are examples of what you might call citizen science dating back to ancient China, 3,500 years ago.

“Our goal with this work was to capture the extent to which modern citizen science has helped us address meaningful research questions related to agriculture and food,” says Ryan, who is a Citizen Science Fellow at North Carolina State University and postdoctoral researcher at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. “Has citizen science made a difference in tackling the global challenge of feeding a growing population in a changing climate? Could it do more?”

To assess the state of citizen science in agricultural research, the researchers analyzed hundreds of academic articles, singling out dozens of examples that address issues from crop pests and pathogens to biodiversity and ecosystem services. The researchers also looked at a number of ongoing projects that have not yet appeared in academic journals.

“In all of the areas we looked at, we found that citizen science has been used to both produce scientifically robust findings that address real-world issues and to engage the public,” Ryan says.

Specifically, the researchers found that – as long as a study was well designed – citizen science could produce solid findings, make a research project more cost effective and allow researchers to expand the scale of their studies dramatically.

“For example, enlisting farmers or gardeners in a study could give researchers access to samples across a broad geographic range, often on lands that researchers would not otherwise have access to,” Ryan says.

Another key idea to come out of the work is that agricultural extension and citizen science practitioners could learn from each other, and such partnerships hold a lot of potential for addressing agricultural research challenges.

“Ag extension is focused on connecting growers and researchers; it’s where research findings are put into practice,” Ryan says. “It’s effective because extension agents have relationships with farmers. There’s real trust there. And those kinds of relationships are essential to both understanding which research questions have real-world value and to enlisting growers into efforts to address those questions. Partnerships between extension and citizen science have enormous potential to advance agricultural science.”

In addition, the researchers note that citizen science efforts have the potential to – at least partially – fill the role of extension in parts of the world where there is no extension service. For example, by building relationships with farmers, citizen science practitioners may be able to help farmers apply research to address on-farm challenges.

“Ultimately, we hope citizen science researchers consider looking at agricultural issues,” Ryan says. “We hope agricultural researchers consider citizen science as a viable means of advancing their work, and we hope to see more collaboration and communication between citizen science and agricultural extension.”

Link to story

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is launching a new outreach campaign focused on preventing the spread of infectious poultry diseases in both commercial and backyard poultry.  Considering the devastating impact of the highly pathogenic avian influenza outbreak in 2014-2015, as well as this year’s outbreak of virulent Newcastle disease in California, the timing is right for everyone in the poultry community to work together to protect the health of our nation’s flocks.

The “Defend the Flock” campaign to promote biosecurity combines and updates two previous campaigns that were each targeted at a specific segment of the poultry population.

USDA has introduced a web page for the campaign,  www.aphis.usda.gov/animalhealth/defendtheflock, where bird owners can find important information about protecting flocks from disease. The site also has a resource section, including a series of checklists each covering specific biosecurity principles. Bird producers, growers, workers and enthusiasts alike can use these as regular reminders for maintaining a high level of biosecurity.

NOTE – California bird owners are urged to call the State Bird Hotline if they have sick birds. 866-922-2473.

From Morning Ag Clips

The expanding use of technology by organic growers, regardless of the size of their operation, will be the topic of an educational session at the upcoming Organic Grower Summit. “Technology Is Not Just For Big Ag” will focus on making new technologies accessible for organic growers through a variety of business models aimed at making operations more efficient and sustainable.

The Organic Grower Summit, slated for December 12-13, in Monterey, CA will feature a series of intensive and educational sessions focused on organic growing. “Technology Is Not Just For Big Ag” will explain technology advances including asset sharing, robotics and one of the most talked about information systems, blockchain. Panelists for the session will discuss the issues associated with bringing technology to smaller organic growers and how the industry can work together to help these technologies take root and scale.

Panelists for the session include:

Brian Dawson, co-founder, CEO, Harvestport
Raja Ramachandran, co-founder, CEO, ripe.io
Diane Wu, co-Founder and CEO, Trace Genomics
The session will be moderated by Hank Giclas, senior vice president, Western Growers

“Blockchain technology and secure data will enable organic growers to better engage with the consumers and environment to facilitate a more transparent and truth based system, opening new business opportunities for farmers and food value chain stakeholders,” shared panelist Raja Ramachandran, CEO and co-Founder, Ripe.IO.

The Organic Grower Summit, a joint production between California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF) and Organic Produce Network (OPN), brings together organic growers, producers and processors for two days of education, information and networking opportunities with organic production supply chain and service providers.

Link to rest of story

Please click on the image to go to the webpage.

Entrance to the Yuba-Sutter Fair evacuation center.

California’s network of fairs are fulfilling a crucial role as evacuation centers for people and animals and as a staging area for fire crews. The following fairgrounds have operations occurring as part of overall response efforts.

Butte County Fair (Gridley, CA) – currently serving as an evacuation center and animal shelter. Approximately 300 individuals and 700 animals currently in residence. North Valley Animal Disaster Group is facilitating the animal shelter operation and has a directory of online images for lost animals to reconnect pets with their families.

Silver Dollar Fair (Chico, CA) – approximately 6,500 emergency personnel on site, serving as a fire camp and staging ground.

Yuba-Sutter Fair (Yuba City, CA) – currently serving as an evacuation center and animal shelter. More than 140 individuals and 60 animals currently in residence.

Ventura County Fair (Ventura, CA) – current serving as an animal shelter with more than 75 animals (primarily horses) in residence.

Glenn County Fair (Orland, CA) – current serving as a evacuation center and animal shelter. Approximately 70 individuals and 30 animals currently in residence.

For further information and assistance resources for the November Wildfires – California Wildfires Statewide Recovery Resources

Secretary Ross with Dutch Agricultural Counselor Marianne Vaes.

I recently had the opportunity to meet with Marianne Vaes, Agricultural Counselor for the embassy of the Netherlands in Washington DC. Counselor Vaes was here with her advisor Caroline Feitel to build upon our close relationship with the Netherlands.

After visiting the Netherlands in 2015 as part of our first Climate Smart Agriculture mission to study climate analogues, we continue to collaborate closely with on climate change, including several information-exchange webinars on potential agricultural management practices that could be used to adapt to a changing climate.

Counselor Vaes has experienced a changing climate firsthand with drought conditions in the Netherlands. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge on agriculture systems that are facing many of the same challenges we face here in California.

In addition to Counselor Vaes, our recent meeting included representatives from the Dutch Consulate in San Francisco, the University of California VINE (Verde Innovation Network for Entrepreneurship); and CDFA’s State Veterinarian, Science Advisor, and contributing scientists at our agency. The discussion centered on several topics, including antimicrobial animal use and resistance efforts, agricultural technologies, and the soon to be held World AgriFoodTech 2018 Conference in the Netherlands, which will focus on technological innovations and recent agricultural policies in general, including the recently-introduced Circular Agriculture Policy in the Netherlands.

It was a pleasure meeting with Counselor Vaes and we look forward to continuing to work together on important issues that impact agricultural production, so that we may continue to produce food to feed an ever-growing global population.