The California Farm Bureau Federation and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) have both expressed support for Governor Newsom’s proposed 2020-2021 budget.
Farm Bureau president Jamie Johansson: “The governor’s budget reinforces his commitment to rural California. In his inaugural address last year, Governor Newsom promised not to leave rural California behind, and he reiterated that commitment in a meeting with our Board of Directors last summer. The proposals contained in his draft budget reflect his concerns for the future of farmers, ranchers and the rural areas they support.
“Farm Bureau will work with the administration and the Legislature to assure that programs addressing the needs of farmers, ranchers and rural California receive the budget investments required to enhance the quality of life and economy throughout the state.”
CAFF executive director Paul Towers: “CAFF applauds Governor Newsom’s investments in the state’s family farmers as well as their communities. The Governor’s proposal reflects bold investments in farm-based solutions to climate change. It will create new economic opportunities for family farmers and deliver more healthy food to all California schoolchildren.
“The Governor’s proposed investments in the state’s school nutrition programs and farm-to-school efforts, including funding for the Office of Farm to Fork, grants for schools and an interagency working group, are a critical first step in ensuring all California kids have access to nutritious, sustainable and locally-grown California food. We look forward to working with First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and Secretary Karen Ross to flesh out the details of this exciting initiative.
“CAFF also applauds the Governor’s recommitment to building healthy soils and promoting sustainable pest management. We are encouraged by continued funding of the Healthy Soils Program, one of the state’s landmark programs to encourage climate smart farming, and to accelerate the transition to sustainable pest management solutions. We will work with the Governor and the Legislature to ensure continued support for successful programs to improve irrigation efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from dairy waste and see promise in the proposed Climate Catalyst Fund, a green revolving loan fund, to help producers meet some of these challenges.
“Finally, we are pleased to see reinvestments in the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, an important on-the-ground partner and technical assistance provider for small and historically underserved farmers.”
School students getting lunch from a cafeteria salad bar.
Note – As part of Governor Newsom’s proposal, CDFA would receive $10 million in 2020-21, and $1.5 million in 2021-22 and ongoing, to establish a grant program for qualifying school districts participating in a farm-to-school incubator pilot project.
Students across the state may soon be able to enjoy more fresh, nutritious food in school meals, thanks to a new budget proposal introduced today by Governor Gavin Newsom in his 2020-21 preliminary budget. This budget proposal, if signed into law, would provide at least $70 million in funding—a 40 percent increase—to strengthen food service programs’ efforts to improve the quality of school meals. This will support efforts to purchase and serve more freshly prepared, locally grown food, and fuel farm-to-school and sustainability initiatives.
“We know these funds will help children across the state gain access to more locally-sourced, healthy, freshly prepared school meals, give school food service staff the tools to succeed, and bolster local California economies through purchasing from local growers and farmers,” says Kat Taylor, Founder of TomKat Foundation and a key partner in the movement to overhaul California Food for California Kids. “We look forward to continuing work with the Governor’s Office, First Partner Siebel Newsom, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary Ross, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Thurmond, legislative leadership, and the dozens of allies to advance this shared vision.”
A diverse coalition of organizations, including the Center for Ecoliteracy, NextGen California, California School Employees Association, and The Office of Kat Taylor — as well as leaders from dozens of organizations in agriculture, education, and public health — have been working tirelessly to make the case for a targeted investment in school nutrition. Their efforts build upon the foundational work and ongoing leadership of CDFA Secretary Ross and State Superintendent Thurmond.
Ben Valdepeña, president of the California School Employees Association, a strong supporter of the investment, said, “Our members who work as cooks, servers, clerks and delivery drivers see first-hand the positive impact providing a nutritious meal can have on students. Without food, students cannot learn, and good nutrition enables students to meet their education and physical potential. We are pleased Governor Newsom has made healthy food service programs a priority.”
The executive director of NextGen California, Arnold Sowell Jr., applauded the announcement. “Investing in programs aimed at improving the health and well-being of students across our state is critically important. Many of our students face food insecurity and hunger, relying on school meals as a stable source of nourishment. This effort is a bold step forward. We look forward to continuing to partner with our stakeholder community to ensure that all California kids can thrive.”
“This proposed investment is a huge victory for California kids and a well-earned accomplishment for those who have worked toward a better school food system,” says Adam Kesselman, executive director of the Center for Ecoliteracy, a Berkeley-based nonprofit that is dedicated to education for sustainable living in K-12 schools. “We hope the Governor and the California legislature will include these funds in the final state budget for many years to come.”
As a farmer, the investments by Governor Newsom in the proposed budget to our rural communities, the food and agricultural sector and for climate resilience is a strong step forward for a “California for All.” This is especially true for our great Central Valley – where a Fresno-Merced Innovation Corridor will advance not only food innovation but do so by furthering high quality jobs in some of our most disadvantaged communities impacted by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
I’m especially proud of the commitment that the Governor is providing to CDFA’s ongoing Climate Smart Agricultural Programs – water use efficiency, healthy soils and methane reduction – while also assisting in the retrofit of diesel farm equipment (FARMER). I’m also excited about the potential of the Climate Catalyst Revolving Loan Fund to help in advancing food manufacturing innovations and establishing dairy digesters across the state. These actions further innovation and deployment of new technologies and practices that assist in producing the food we all enjoy.
The $10 million for staffing and grants through
the CDFA Farm to Fork Office combined with the $70 million Prop 98 General Fund
to increase funding for school nutrition and provide training for school food
service workers will promote healthier and more nutritious meals based on CA
Grown food. It’s a win for farmers, local communities and most
importantly our children.
Lastly, the commitment to infrastructure is greatly
appreciated and long overdue – especially the need to expand broadband to rural
areas, provide safe drinking water and to support our local fairgrounds as
community resilience centers in response to wildfires and floods.
Investment in the Water Resilience Portfolio and our community infrastructure
is essential and most welcomed.
The Governor’s Proposed Budget is good for agriculture, good for rural communities and is truly representative of a “California for All.”
Governor Newsom today introducing his 2020-2021 state budget.
California governor Gavin Newsom submitted his 2020-21 budget proposal to the Legislature today – a spending plan that maintains structural balance, builds reserves, and reduces liabilities.
For CDFA, the budget would be $600.4 million. Here are some of the key elements:
Farm to School Baseline Funding: This proposal requests $10 million in 2020-21, and $1.5 million in 2021-22 and ongoing, to establish six positions to provide baseline and expansion support to the Office of Farm to Fork’s (CDFA-F2F) California Farm to School Network. This request includes $8,496,000 to be made available for grants to qualifying school districts participating in a farm-to-school incubator pilot. This request will allow CDFA-F2F to create a roadmap for transformational change in the school food system that supports California farmers, expands food access, and helps achieve the state vision of a California for All.
Fresno-Merced Innovation Corridor: This proposal requests $33 million in 2020-21 to develop a Fresno-Merced Food Innovation Corridor Grant Program to stimulate research and development, commercialization, and innovation to advance sustainable agricultural production and processing and support high quality jobs in the San Joaquin Valley. CDFA will partner with local education institutions, the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, and regional partners to prioritize and implement investments for this initiative, leveraging philanthropic and private support.
State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program(SWEEP): This proposal requests $20 million in 2020-21 to award, administer, and monitor SWEEP grants with a focus on depleted groundwater basins.
Methane Reduction: This proposal requests $20 million in 2020-21 for the Dairy Digester Research Program and Alternative Manure Management Program.
Healthy Soils Initiative: This proposal would provide $18 million annually for healthy soils projects for five years, beginning in ’20-’21.
Environmental Farming Incentive Program – A $200 million bond project that would provide grants for projects including healthy soils, on-farm water efficiency, nutrient management, habitat restoration, biodiversity, carbon sequestration, and other conservation practices on farms and ranches that assist with climate and water resilience.
Cannabis: The budget proposal includes a significant change in the regulatory structure for cannabis. The Administration plans to consolidate the three licensing entities–CDFA, the Department of Public Health and the Bureau of Cannabis Control–into a single Department of Cannabis Control by July 2021. The Administration will submit more details on this proposal in Spring 2020.
Food Waste Recovery: $188,000 for CDFA to help minimize the waste of edible food for humans and animals; aid in meeting the state’s waste reduction goals; research and implement methods for diverting organic waste from landfills; and develop organic waste processing and recycling infrastructure.
Agricultural and Rural Economic Advisor: This proposal requests $199,000 in ongoing funding to support the activities necessary to develop and implement strategies for improving California’s rural, agriculturally based economies. This will enable CDFA to collect data and information that allows informed policy discussions on strategies and or initiatives that will enhance rural economies through innovation, technology, education, and workforce training.
Last year DPR announced that virtually all agricultural use of the
pesticide chlorpyrifos in California will end by December 31, 2020. In order to
support the transition to safer, more sustainable alternatives, DPR and CDFA
have convened a work group to identify, evaluate, and recommend alternative
pest management solutions. The roundtable style discussion sessions are an
opportunity to gather public input on their work to date.
DPR and CDFA also plan to award $2 million in grants to support
the development of safe, more sustainable alternatives to chlorpyrifos.
DPR is soliciting research
ideas and is currently accepting grant concepts that advance alternatives to
chlorpyrifos with the goal of developing and fostering integrated pest
management practices (IPM). You can find more details here. The initial concepts are due
by February 7th.
CDFA will award approximately $1 million in grants to expand outreach about innovative biologically integrated farming systems that reduce chemical insecticide inputs. Crops that have used chlorpyrifos will be a priority.
The public can provide input to the Work Group about alternatives to chlorpyrifos via email at alternatives@cdpr.ca.gov.
Fresno, CA
January 14, 2020
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm (Spanish, Mixteco Baja and Hmong interpreters available).
Mosqueda Community Center (Reading and Beyond)
4670 E. Butler Avenue
Fresno, CA 93702
Sacramento, CA
January 16, 2020
1:30 pm – 3:30 pm (Spanish interpreters available).
Joe Serna Jr. CalEPA Headquarters Building
Byron Sher Auditorium
1001 I Street
Sacramento, CA 95814
Oxnard, CA
January 21, 2020
5:30 pm – 7:30 pm (Spanish and Mixteco Alta interpreters available).
South Oxnard Senior Center
200 E. Bard Road
Oxnard, CA 93033
California Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order today to address the homeless crisis. “The State of California is treating homelessness as a real emergency – because it is one,” said Governor Newsom. “Californians are demanding that all levels of government – federal, state and local – do more to get people off the streets and into services – whether that’s housing, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, or all of the above.”
CDFA, in consultation with the Department of General Services; the Department of Housing and Community Development; the Department of Social Services; and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, has been directed to conduct an initial assessment of fairgrounds near jurisdictions where a shelter crisis is in effect, and for those fairgrounds, determine the population capacity and space that would currently be available to local partners on a short-term emergency basis to provide shelter for individuals who are homeless.
Food technology firms are working on ways to keep produce fresher longer, which would reduce food waste.
By Alexia Elejalde-Ruiz
Imagine bananas that never go bad. To Aidan Mouat, chief executive of Chicago-based Hazel Technologies, it’s not so far-fetched.
His company makes a product that extends the shelf life of all sorts of produce — avocados, cherries, pears, broccoli — by slowing the chemical process that causes decay. Some of the world’s largest growers are using it to send their produce longer distances or reduce how much retailers throw away, and Mouat said a consumer version could be next.
“I envision, in the next 18 months or so, literally selling a banana box to consumers,” Mouat said from Hazel’s growing office space at University Technology Park, a start-up innovation hub on the Illinois Institute of Technology campus. “You keep it on your counter, put a [Hazel] sachet in there once a month, and you have bananas that last forever.”
Hazel Technologies is part of a new wave of innovation seeking to slow spoilage of produce and other perishables, which experts say is a key weapon in the battle against massive food waste in the United States.
As much as 40% of food — and nearly half of produce — produced annually in the U.S. goes uneaten, according to government estimates. Although the waste happens throughout the supply chain, the vast majority of the $218 billion worth of uneaten food annually gets tossed at home or at grocery stores and restaurants, according to ReFed, a Berkeley-based nonprofit that seeks solutions to reduce food waste.
The average American family throws away 25% of groceries purchased, costing a family of four an estimated $1,600 annually, ReFed says. U.S. supermarkets lose $15 billion annually in unsold fruits and vegetables, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Meanwhile, uneaten food is the No. 1 occupant of landfills and squanders the water and energy used to grow and transport it.
Routing unused food to charities or upcycling can help keep it out of the garbage, but solutions to prevent waste at the source, such as through shelf life extension, “have some of the greatest economic value per ton and net environmental benefit,” said Alexandra Coari, director of capital and innovation at ReFed.
Spoilage prevention packaging has the potential to avert 72,000 tons of waste and 330,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions, plus save 44 billion gallons of water a year, she said.
Technology that extends shelf life has been around for a long time, but there has recently been a “huge uptick” in innovations that expand the options, helping to drive the $185 million in venture capital invested in combating food waste last year, Coari said.
“It’s the early days,” Coari said. “We are excited to see where they can go.”
Hazel Technologies, founded in 2015 by a group of Northwestern University graduate students, has raised $18 million so far, including nearly $1 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It has 100 clients in 12 countries in North and South America.
The company makes small sachets — about the size of a salt or pepper packet packaged with to-go orders — that can be thrown into a box of produce to shut down the food’s response to ethylene, a chemical naturally emitted by many fruits and vegetables that triggers the loss of firmness, texture and color. The sachets continuously emit a small amount of an ethylene inhibitor, changing the atmosphere in the storage box but not the food itself.
Although ethylene management technology isn’t new, Hazel’s sachets are gaining fans because they are easy to use, whether in okra fields in Honduras or avocado packinghouses in the U.S., Mouat said. In addition to ethylene inhibitors, the company is working on antimicrobial reactions and will soon bring to market antimicrobial liners for packages of berries, to ward off the white fuzz.
Hazel’s goal is to improve the delivery of decay-stopping technologies by incorporating them into packaging, not only for produce but also for cut meats.
“We can extend the shelf life of practically any perishable by targeting the specific mechanism that causes it to go bad and integrating it with the packaging that already exists today,” said Mouat, who graduated from Northwestern with a doctorate in chemistry in 2016.
How much Hazel can extend the shelf life depends on the type of food.
For example, tests show an unripened pear gets an extra seven to 10 days after being treated with a Hazel sachet, plus an extra three to four days once ripe, Mouat said. Pilot testing being done on packaged chicken, beef, fish and pork suggests the sell-by date could be pushed back by four to six days, he said.
Mission Produce, the largest grower, packer and shipper of Hass avocados in the world, found that ripe avocados that normally would have to be sold in two to five days once hitting retail stores lasted seven to 10 days if they were treated with Hazel’s product, said Patrick Cortes, senior director of business development at the Oxnard company.
Once they’d achieved maximum ripeness, which normally means they’d turn black inside within a couple of days, some treated avocados kept at room temperature were still good when they were sliced two weeks later, he said.
Mission, which has developed a branded product with Hazel called AvoLast, has completed one retail trial with the product and is about to launch two more, as well as a food service trial, Cortes said. So far he prefers it to other shelf life extension treatments the company has tested because it is easy to use.
“You just throw it in the box,” Cortes said. “It gives us the flexibility to treat the fruit at various parts of the supply chain, whether at packing or at ripening.”
Mission is investing in the technology to help retain the freshness of avocados that travel long ocean journeys and help U.S. retailers save money by throwing fewer avocados away, Cortes said. On average U.S. retailers waste 5% of avocados, which also has an environmental impact, he said.
“We took a retailer we sell to and said, if we can reduce their [wasted produce] by 2% it would be the equivalent of powering 26 homes for a year,” Cortes said. “It just makes perfect sense to do the right thing.”
It also makes business sense, and investors are starting to take notice, said Coari at ReFed.
Goleta, Calif.-based Apeel Sciences, which has created an all-natural coating that gives produce a spoilage-resistant skin, last year landed a $70-million funding round that included Andreessen Horowitz, a prominent venture capital firm that has backed some of the biggest tech companies.
Apeel installed its coating equipment along Kroger’s avocado supply chain and this year rolled out longer-lasting avocados at hundreds of Kroger stores. It is also starting retail tests on asparagus, which are the produce industry’s biggest carbon emitters because their shelf life is so short they have to travel by air.
Other movers in the industry include Massachusetts-based Cambridge Crops, which makes an edible protective coating from natural silk proteins and recently got $4 million in seed funding from MIT’s venture fund; and British firm It’s Fresh, a maker of ethylene filters that last year got a $10-million infusion from AgroFresh, a longtime maker of freshness products, which bought a 15% stake in the company.
Yet adoption by the industry has a long way to go. Suppliers pay for the technology but the benefit is felt downstream at retail, complicating the business model, Coari said.
It is unclear whether shoppers will be willing to pay more for longer-lasting produce or will respond to branding of products long considered commodities, she said.
It’s also unclear how much more it might cost them. Prices vary so much because of weather or other production issues that consumers may barely notice, Hazel’s Mouat said. Apeel, in its pilot with Kroger, found no price increase was necessary because sales increased and waste declined.
In addition, it can be complicated and expensive to introduce shelf life extension technologies into the supply chain if it involves installing equipment or training seasonal workers.
That’s where Hazel has a leg up. Growers and suppliers that have tried numerous alternatives say they have been attracted to the flexibility and user friendliness of Hazel’s technology.
“It has to be simple to use or may not be worth doing,” said Davis Ortega, director of packing operations at Orchard View Cherries in Oregon.
Orchard View conducted a small trial with Hazel two years ago and this year has more than doubled its use, primarily for cherries embarking on ocean trips to Asia that can take up to 23 days.
It found cherries treated at the end of the packaging process were firmer than untreated cherries after 20 days, and had fewer indentations and greener stems. Consumers often reject produce that doesn’t look perfect, even if it is still perfectly good, so aesthetics matter.
“It was definitely noticeable. The fruit looked fresher, more appetizing,” Ortega said. “It allows us to feel more confident in where we can ship our product.”
That could mean exploring new markets, such as India and Africa, which is a 35-day transit.
At WP Produce in Miami, the largest grower and importer of tropical green skin avocados in the Western Hemisphere, Vice President Chris Gonzalez hopes using Hazel will allow it to increase market share in the United States.
Tropical avocados, currently less than 1% of the U.S. avocado market, have a shorter shelf life than the much more common Hass avocado, although they last longer once they are cut open because they don’t oxidize as fast, he said.
Treating tropical avocados with Hazel adds four to five days of shelf life, and “that’s going to help us out shipping to Malaysia, to California, to the West Coast,” said Gonzalez, whose company grows avocados on 500 acres in the Dominican Republic. As U.S. consumers get to know the larger, firmer alternative to Hass, he believes there will be fans, especially among millennials who like to try new things.
“There’s a lot of market share to be gained there,” Gonzalez said.
Mouat declined to disclose Hazel’s revenue but said sales have grown threefold over the last year. The company, which is not yet profitable, started the year with 14 people and will more than double to 30 employees by the end of the year. Hazel also will have expanded its office space by more than a third, to 14,000 square feet, by year’s end.
Four of the five original founders — who were graduate students in engineering, law and chemistry when they met at an interdisciplinary course at Northwestern’s Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation — occupy Hazel’s C-suite. In addition to Mouat, there’s Chief Marketing Officer Pat Flynn, Chief Intellectual Property Officer Amy Garber and Chief Technology Officer Adam Preslar.
The company has grand ambitions.
India, for example, grows more mangoes than anywhere in the world but exports only 10%, leaving many to go to waste, Mouat said. Using Hazel’s sachets to extend shelf life in such countries that lack stable supply chain infrastructure could allow them to sell their fruit to new markets without investments in pricey equipment, he said.
Mouat also hopes to create a consumer-focused sachet that people can throw into the veggie crisper in the fridge, or the aforementioned banana box.
And then there’s the booze.
An irony of operating an anti-food-waste tech company is that food is tested in a lab to ensure the technology works, creating waste of its own.
Mouat has addressed that by taking discarded passion fruit and making a sour IPA, and discarded bananas and making a banana rum. He has a fridge full of dragon fruit and is considering making a dragon fruit beer.
The company sends bottles to investors and customers as gifts for the holidays, but they have proved so popular that Mouat is looking into working with distillers or brewers to transform Hazel’s food waste into alcohol.
“There is a surprising amount of appetite among our investors to add it as a legitimate arm of the Hazel business model,” he said.
