CDFA employees join other walkers at the State Capitol for the first annual Citrus Stride for California food banks. California Citrus Mutual will donate 1,000 pounds of fresh citrus for each participant. About 300 people took part in today’s festivities, each walking a mile around the Capitol grounds.
A vertical greenhouse in Jackson, Wyoming
By Claire Martin
The Wyoming soil, iced over for eight months of the year, is not particularly hospitable to heirloom tomatoes, baby basil or lettuce plants. Instead, vegetables are trucked in from California, Mexico and other more fecund parts of the world. Yet starting this spring, Vertical Harvest, a farm in the resort town of Jackson, will begin churning out a projected 100,000 pounds of fresh produce a year. Vertical Harvest uses hydroponic farming methods inside a three-story greenhouse on a 4,500-square-foot downtown lot. It is engaging in a relatively new practice called vertical farming. The company employs 15 people who have conditions such as Down syndrome, autism, seizure disorders and spina bifida; they share 140 hours of work a week under a customized employment model. Vertical Harvest is a public-private partnership with the town of Jackson and it uses a low-profit business model, which means its investors will see a modest profit and it won’t come quickly.
“We’ve been calling it patient capital,” says Penny McBride, a company founder and its chief operating officer.
The farm began growing tomatoes in December and lettuce and herbs in February. By early May, Vertical Harvest’s greenhouse will be fully planted and producing greens. It will distribute them to restaurants and sell them at local grocery stores and in a retail market, inside the greenhouse, which opened this month.
The idea for Vertical Harvest came roughly eight years ago, around the time Ms. McBride and Nona Yehia met at a party in Jackson. Ms. McBride was a consultant working on a food-waste study and a commercial composting start-up, among other projects, and Ms. Yehia was an architect at the local firm E/Ye Architects who had recently designed a public rock climbing park and a private greenhouse that could withstand the harsh Wyoming winters.
The women were aware of the rising demand for high-quality, locally grown produce. Spurred by the organic and farm-to-table culinary movements, droves of professional chefs and home cooks had begun searching out better produce.
Farmers’ markets have responded to the challenge of meeting the need. Their numbers increased by 180 percent from 2006 to 2014, according to a government report. But they can’t do it all. Vertical farms are helping fill the produce gaps, according to Dickson Despommier, author of the book “The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century.” He said there were 30 such farms in the United States and hundreds more worldwide. Japan, with 160, leads the field.
“I don’t know any commercial vertical farms that are not in expansion mode,” Mr. Despommier said.
Vertical Harvest stands out for its relatively small size. The two largest vertical farms in the United States are Green Sense Farms, a 30,000-square-foot hydroponic operation in Portage, Ind., and AeroFarms, an aeroponic greenhouse in Newark whose footprint is a whopping 69,000 square feet. In aeroponic farming, the plants’ roots are exposed to the air, instead of water, as they are in hydroponic farming.
Mr. Despommier said that demand for produce cultivated in vertical farms was also growing because of the desires to create self-sufficient food sources without relying on imports and to ensure food safety. The market is so strong that the vegetables practically sell themselves, he said.
“If you don’t make money, it’s because you don’t know how to add,” he said.
But initially, Vertical Harvest wasn’t an easy sell to some Jackson residents. When Ms. Yehia and Ms. McBride first pitched their idea to the town, which owns the land and the building that Vertical Harvest occupies, they were competing against other proposals. These included a dog park and affordable housing units.
We had to prove it was a feasible idea that would have enough community impact for the town to essentially lease us the land for free,” said Ms. Yehia, the company’s chief executive. (Vertical Harvest pays $100 a month in rent.)
Once their proposal beat the others, the women were required to make their business plan public. And when they needed approvals along the way for things like the lease agreement, they had to make presentations at Town Council meetings.
“At every step of the process we checked in with the town,” Ms. Yehia said.
At first Ms. Yehia and Ms. McBride planned to fund the project exclusively with grant money. But their costs kept rising because of unforeseen complications connected to the vertical nature of the greenhouse. They realized they would need to hire a structural engineer, for one thing.
As soon as you go up, you start having different considerations in terms of the seismic code and the life safety code,” Ms. Yehia said.
Construction costs also rose. “Our greenhouse manufacturers hadn’t dealt with a vertical greenhouse before, so their original estimates in some cases doubled,” Ms. Yehia said.
She and Ms. McBride began raising money, eventually taking in $3.8 million in public and private funding.
Among the company’s detractors was Ed Cheramy, a retired businessman who served as vice president of the Jackson branch of the Tea Party. His objections involved the objectives of his organization: free markets, and limited and fiscally responsible government.
“Should government be investing money or spending money to do a speculative venture like this?” he said he asked at the time. “Should the government be sponsoring an organization that would compete with the private sector?”
Mr. Cheramy said he stood up at a Town Council meeting in which Ms. Yehia’s and Ms. McBride’s proposal was being discussed and “complained about them and pointed out all of what I thought to be inadequacies of their business plan.” Afterward, the two women asked to meet with him to talk about his concerns — a move that he said surprised him. But he agreed to talk.
They met weekly for several months to work through the business plan. Mr. Cheramy said he quickly understood that Vertical Harvest would not be competing with any local businesses, and he was impressed that Ms. Yehia and Ms. McBride had already secured a revenue stream. They had sold 95 percent of their projected crop output to restaurants and grocery stores and would set aside 5 percent to sell in their retail store.
Of their willingness to hear their opponents’ concerns, Ms. Yehia said, “We have extremely thick skin.”
Eventually, Mr. Cheramy found he had no choice but to support the project. “When you strip away all of your objections, and they’d done all that, then what you’re left with is support,” he said. He added that he testified on behalf of Vertical Harvest at the Jackson Town Council, and at the Wyoming Business Council and the Wyoming State Loan and Investment Board, which together gave the project a $1.5 million grant.
“There’s a whole bunch of wonderful aspects of it,” Mr. Cheramy said, noting Vertical Harvest’s tall and narrow greenhouse design and its hiring of people with disabilities. “But it also makes good fiscal sense.”
Missouri dairy farmer Aubrey Fletcher
Aubrey Fletcher knew she wanted to work on a dairy farm ever since she was a little girl.
“I do remember my mom asking, ‘Are you sure that’s what you want to do?’” Fletcher recalls.
Fletcher knew the work was tough, she grew up milking cows every day. After college she and her husband wanted to return to his family farm, but it wasn’t making financial sense.
“The farm couldn’t necessarily provide both of us with salaries,” says Fletcher. “So we thought, ‘Why not take our premium milk and take that a little further?’”
The Fletchers started Edgewood Creamery outside of Springfield, Missouri, last August. They recently opened a storefront on the farm selling their milk and cheese.
Between the new business, milkings, feedings, and fixing things that need to get fixed, there is a lot to do.
“There’s always something to be done on the farm. And very rarely my house gets clean,” Fletcher says laughing.
Aubrey Fletcher is one of thousands of women stepping out of the shadows of the male-dominated farm world to take more leadership roles on the farm. In the past 15 years the fraction of women who are taking the lead has nearly tripled to about 15 percent of all U.S. farms. Nearly one-third of farms in this country are run by couples working together.
Despite the busy workload, Fletcher has been meeting regularly with a new group of women dairy farmers in her area. She says having a space to come together with other women has been huge.
“Because they can relate to you,” Fletcher says. “They understand that, ‘Oh, you had three calves this morning and you didn’t get your kids to school on time.’ They understand the struggles of being a dairy-farm-wife-slash-mom, and it’s easy to just talk to them about the struggles, and the good times.”
Women-Focused Extension Groups
Groups designed for farm women are not just about the social and emotional support. They serve an educational role as well.
Reagan Bluel, a dairy specialist for the University of Missouri Extension who runs the group of women dairy farmers in Southern Missouri, says she started it out of a growing need she was hearing from women in her area.
“This is another forum to gather information both from extension but also from their peers to see what is successful on those farms,” says Bluel.
The daily grind of agricultural work can make it hard for farmers to get off the farm, Bluel says.
“It can be very isolating,” Bluel says. “And so sometimes it takes scheduling yourself to leave the farm.”
In the next few months she’ll program sessions about everything from calf-raising to stress management.
Many women are used to standing out at big farm shows or meetings, and that’s why Rebecca Connelly started a group for women in dairy in Pennsylvania.
“The role of women on farms has always been there it’s just now women are looking for more information off the farm.”
Connelly says women want more training, they’re seeking out more entrepreneurial opportunities like starting a creamery, and they’re trying to bring a competitive edge to their farm. They also see the value of networking on social media and through these groups. Connelly and her colleagues are organizing a national conference for women dairy workers this year so they can come together to learn from experts and each other.
“Women want to meet other women in agriculture,” Connelly says. “Sometimes they don’t necessarily get out there to see their neighbors or across counties. So this is a great way to meet other women in their area, as well as finding out more resources that are available to them.”
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today announced a significant increase in the number of certified organic operations, continuing the trend of double digit growth in the organic sector. According to new data, there are now 21,781 certified organic operations in the United States and 31,160 around the world.
“Organic food is one of the fasting growing segments of American agriculture,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “As consumer demand for organic products continues to grow, the USDA organic seal has become a leading global standard. The increasing number of organic operations shows that USDA’s strong support for the vibrant organic sector is helping to create jobs and opportunities in rural communities.”
According to data released by the Agricultural Marketing Service’s (AMS) National Organic Program (NOP), the number of domestic certified organic operations increased by almost 12 percent between 2014 and 2015, representing the highest growth rate since 2008 and an increase of nearly 300 percent since the count began in 2002. The total retail market for organic products is now valued at more than $39 billion in the United States and over $75 billion worldwide.
Along with consumer demand for organics, increasingly they are asking for local foods. Under Secretary Vilsack, USDA has supported providing consumers a stronger connection to their food with more than $1 billion in investments to over 40,000 local and regional food businesses and infrastructure projects since between 2009. Industry data estimates that U.S. local food sales totaled at least $12 billion in 2014, up from $5 billion in 2008. More information on how USDA investments are connecting producers with consumers and expanding rural economic opportunities is available in Chapter IV of USDA Results on Medium published today.
USDA has also established a number of resources to help organics producers find technical and financial resources to help them grow domestically and abroad. The site www.usda.gov/organic creates a one-stop-shop for operators, and USDA has made market and pricing information for approximately 250 organic products available free of charge through USDA’s Market News. In 2015, USDA made more than $11.5 million available to assist organic operations with their certification costs.
The data announced today are publicly available as part of the recently launched Organic Integrity Database, a modernized system for tracking certified organic operations. Additional information about USDA resources and support for the organic sector is available on the USDA Organics Resource page.
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross is in Vietnam this week as part of a delegation of the Western United States Agricultural Trade Association (WUSATA), a non-profit formed in 1980 by the 13 western state departments of agriculture as well as the territorial departments in Guam and Samoa. For more than three decades, WUSATA has offered programs and services to assist exporters of high-value food and agricultural products.
There are three short videos chronicling the trip, so far. The first is Secretary Ross visiting a “wet market,” which remains a primary food source for Vietnamese consumers. Her tour guide is Michael Ward of the USDA.
The second video shows Secretary Ross at a retail establishment, FiviMart, a joint supermarket partnership between Vietnam and Japan. She is talking with with Mr. Kurokawa Yoshihiro, Senior Deputy General Director of FiviMart.
The third video is Secretary Ross discussing climate change with US Ambassador Ted Osius during a meeting at the US Embassy in Hanoi.
The California State Fair has announced the recipients of its prestigious awards, including Agriculturalist of the Year. The State Fair annually recognizes the accomplishments and service of key individuals or organizations through a series of awards that are publicly recognized and honored at the Friends of the California State Fair Gala, which will be held this year on Thursday, June 23.
The 2016 AGRICULTURALIST OF THE YEAR AWARD will be presented to Sarbjit “Sarb” Johl. Johl first came to Sutter County from India in 1966, at the age of 13. He began farming with his father in 1976, after graduating from Yuba City High School and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. He served as Chairman of the Sacramento Growers Cooperative, a cling peach co-op, from 1986 to 1993 and has also served as a board member of the California Canning Peach Association. He was founding partner of the Sacramento Valley Walnut Growers LLC., a walnut processing and marketing enterprise, and has served as Chairman of that organization since 2006. In addition to serving on the Northern California Growers Association, for 12 years, he has been a Trustee of the Butte-Yuba-Sutter Water Quality Coalition, and is currently the Chairman of the Cling Peach Board.
The 2016 GOLDEN BEAR AWARD is presented to Gail Kautz. A member of the California State Fair and Exposition Board of Directors from 1987 to 1995, Kautz is actively involved in her family’s farming operation, John Kautz Farms, in Lodi, California. She was the first woman Chair of the California State Fair Board in 1993, and received the Ag Progress Award in 1996 for her outstanding contribution to Agriculture. The Ironstone Concours Foundation, which Kautz started, donates $5,000 annually to the California State Fair Scholarship fund. She has consistently devoted her time to several organizations through the years, including the California State Fair Agricultural Advisory Committee, for which she served as Chair in 2006-07. Her active involvement in the agriculture industry has earned her many awards, including Lifetime Honorary Member of the California 4-H, Lifetime Honorary State Degree from the Future Farmers of America, and the California Farm Bureau Bountiful Award. She is also a member of the San Joaquin County Agricultural Hall of Fame.
The 2016 AGRICULTURAL PROGRESS AWARD is proudly presented to Judy Culbertson, Executive Director of the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. A native of Courtland, California, where she grew up on a 5th generation pear orchard, Judy gained firsthand experience in the industry managing her family’s packing plant. She also worked for the California Farm Bureau, assisting with the development of agricultural education projects and activities prior to joining the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom. Her current vision for the foundation is to ensure that every student develops an appreciation and curiosity to learn about where their food and fiber comes from. Culbertson is a current member and past chair of the California State Fair Agricultural Advisory Council.
The 2016 WINE LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD is granted to G.M. “Pooch” Pucilowski. A nationally-known wine educator and consultant, Pooch has devoted more than 30 years to the pursuit of educating consumers and trade members alike in all aspects of the wine industry. He has served as Chief Judge and Consultant to the California State Fair’s annual Commercial Wine Competition and has judged several of the most prestigious wine competitions throughout the country. He is widely regarded as a wine industry expert and has given lectures and seminars on the subject throughout North America. He is also President/Owner of the University of Wine, in which capacity he has trained restauranteurs, wholesalers/distributors, retailers, and winery personnel.
The 2016 VINEYARD OF THE YEAR AWARD is deservedly bestowed toVineyard 1869/Original Grandpere. Located in Amador County, Vineyard 1869/Original Grandpere is the oldest Zinfandel vineyard in America, as documented in a deed from a U.S. Geological Survey dated in 1869. Initially planted from hardy stock, its ancient vines survived catastrophe inflicted by both man and nature over the course of the ensuing 140+ years. Purchased in 1984 by Scott and Terri Harvey, the vines have been lovingly coaxed back into producing small yields of elegant, complex, first-growth Zinfandel by Scott, a highly regarded California winemaker who was trained in Germany.
The 2016 TECHNOLOGY CHAMPION OF THE YEAR, INDIVIDUAL, is awarded to Eric Brown, President and CEO of California Telehealth Network, an organization that increases access to acute, primary and preventive care in rural America. Eric’s 15 years of experience in the cable television industry have included valuable contributions in the field of network affiliate relations and the management of multiple broadband system marketing and operations. He has previously served as Chairman of the California Cable and Telecommunications Association (CCTA) and is a recipient of the prestigious National Cable and Telecommunications Association Vanguard Award for excellence in cable operations. He has also received the cable industry’s CTAM Chairman’s Award for excellence in cable marketing.
The 2016 TECHNOLOGY CHAMPION OF THE YEAR, ORGANIZATION, is awarded to Emergency Call and Tracking System (ECaTS). ECaTS is the first universal 911 Call Reporting System that leverages the ubiquitous nature of the Internet to provide secure, real-time reporting to the 911 industry. In developing a product that gathers data on more than 350,000 calls per day to produce insights that not only identify the data, but establish how that data was produced, the company has brought private sector business intelligence analytics to the public safety industry, epitomizing the virtues of what it takes to confront the challenges of “Big Data” within the 911 industry.
These awards will be presented at the annual Friends of the California State Fair Gala on Thursday, June 23, 2016. Funds raised from the Gala support Friends of the California State Fair student scholarships. Prior to the dinner and awards ceremony, the Best of California Tasting will feature award-winning wine, beer, cheese and olive oil from the State Fair competitions. To support the celebration please email gala@calexpo.com.
About the California State Fair
For more than 160 years, the California State Fair has showcased the best of the Golden State. Cal Expo was dedicated as a place to celebrate California’s achievements, industries, agriculture, diversity of its people, traditions and trends that shape the Golden State’s future. The 2016 California State Fair will take place July 8-24.
A previous Sierra snowpack survey.
By Steve Scauzillo
When Frank Gehrke trudged up to Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada on Wednesday he found what was missing at this time last year: Snow.
The annual spring snowpack survey conducted by Gehrke for the California Department of Water Resources revealed a snowpack depth of 58.4 inches, for 95 percent of the station’s historical average.
The manual measurement is a vast improvement from zero last year, when Gehrke plunged his measuring pole into dirt, revealing an overall water content from all snow in the Sierra Nevada at 5 percent of the April 1 historical average, the lowest amount ever recorded.
Typically at its deepest on April 1, the sun will melt the snow, slowly replenishing low level reservoirs that feed the State Water Project. On a typical year, California gets one-third its water supply from the snowpack melt.
One month ago, the snowpack at Phillips Station was 58.3 inches deep, according to the DWR. The department recently raised the allocation of water to be released from the state aqueduct from 5 percent to 40 percent.
“This will improve conditions for reservoir storage,” Gehrke said, adding a caveat that drought conditions remain in many parts of the state, including Southern California.
Before Gehrke’s survey on Wednesday, electronic snowpack readings were 97 percent in the Northern Sierra and Trinity area; 88 percent in the Central Sierra and 72 percent in the Southern Sierra, for a statewide average of 87 percent of normal, vastly superior to last year but not at 100 percent or above.
The readings were a disappointment when considering predictions of well-above average snowfall and rain from the large El Nino parked in the central Pacific.
Precipitation in eight northern California stations is at 51.9 inches, about 125 percent of average to date, but far from the 1997-1998 El Nino rain year totals of 82.4 inches, the department reported.
Snowpack surveys by the Department of Water Resources in late March and early April are indicators of how much water California will reap from the melting snowpack, which in normal years provides about 30 percent of the state’s water.
Reservoir levels are increasing. At Lake Oroville, levels are at 113 percent of historical average, or about 85 percent of capacity, said DWR officials. Lake Shasta is at 109 percent of historical average and 88 percent capacity.
“The water levels as compared to last year are much, much better,” said DWR’s Jan Frazier. But not enough to end a four-year drought. “We’ve been running on a deficit for so long, that we are still in drought. We have not broken the drought, although water levels are much better,” Frazier said.
Levels at Southern California reservoirs are much lower. At Castaic Lake, which stores water bought from Northern California, levels are 45 percent of historical average and only 40 percent capacity. Lake Perris is 43 percent and 36 percent, respectively.
Note – The Department of Water Resources’ latest snow survey results are expected later today.
Charlie Creek Bridge at Shasta Lake.
A plant science professor at Cal Poly Pomona received a $416,343 state grant (A CDFA Specialty Crop Block Grant) to study how to grow lettuce with less nitrogen fertilizer and water.
Professor David Still said the grant will help him identify the genes in lettuce that govern nitrogen and water use. According to Still, water has become scarcer with the current drought and the nitrogen in fertilizers is linked to greenhouse gas and can cause groundwater pollution.
“The lettuce industry has never had to face these issues, using less water and less nitrogen,” Still says.
California farmers gross about $2 billion annually from the production of lettuce, which is grown along the Central Coast, the San Joaquin Valley and desert regions of southern California. Growers use different cultivars of lettuce in each of these regions because of the climatological differences between them.
“There is not a ‘one size fits all’ for lettuce production,” Still says.
Still wants to improve upon particular genetic traits in lettuce. For example, developing seeds that germinate under stress, such as heat or increased salinity, will help adapt the crop to global warming.
Heat in particular leads lettuce to “bolt” or transition from a vegetative stage to the flowering stage, which is a problem in hotter climates like Arizona. The research should identify the genes that increase the ability of lettuce to resist bolting, Still says.
In addition, Still’s lab is working to create more nutritious lettuce. For example, the outer leaves of iceberg lettuce are more nutritious than the inner leaves, because the genes need light, Still says. Research may be able to identify and adjust those genetic properties that would increase the nutritional value of the inner leaves, he says.
The project is expected to take a number of years, because the breeding cycle of lettuce is usually between eight to 10 years, Still says. Researchers will conduct their work under the conditions that lettuce would be grown commercially, he says.
The goal of the research project is not to release a new cultivar, but to identify genes and characteristics that will improve performance and develop the genetic markers that will allow industry plant breeders to improve their cultivars, Still says.
“We are doing the research. They can do the development,” he says. “We do it for the knowledge. The primary consideration is figuring out how it works.”
The research findings can be published and released to other industries and private breeders, Still says.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has announced it is awarding 21 counties a total of $6.7 million in grants to help with sustainable groundwater planning. The Proposition 1 Sustainable Groundwater Planning Grant Program provides funding for county projects that will develop groundwater plans consistent with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) enacted by Governor Edmund G. Brown, Jr. in 2014.The awards were made to counties with high and medium priority groundwater basins, some of which are in critical over-draft.
DWR received 23 grant applications requesting a total of approximately $7 million. Adding the matching funds provided by the grant award recipients, approximately $13 million will be dedicated to projects in counties that need to begin long-term planning for sustainable groundwater management.
According to Laura McLean, Senior Engineering Geologist with the Sustainable Groundwater Planning Grant Program, DWR gave priority to proposals that will benefit disadvantaged communities, address critically overdrafted basins, address basins exhibiting stressed conditions, and proposals to enact ordinances to address groundwater sustainability. “This funding will help counties address long-term planning goals, better understand what’s coming in and going out of their aquifers, and get the much- needed jumpstart on addressing the new regulations,” says McLean. “More funding will certainly become available to help groundwater sustainability agencies moving forward. We aim to complement the timeline requirements of the law as we continue to streamline our grant processes to get the money out as quickly as possible.”
Colusa County is among the 21 counties across California receiving funding and plans to use the funding to advance groundwater sustainability through policy and technical refinement. Mendocino County plans to use the funds for the initial groundwater sustainability plan development, and Kings County’s proposal will include developing a groundwater model for its critically over-drafted groundwater basin.
The funding provides the means for local communities to create long-term sustainable groundwater management plans for California’s groundwater basins. On average, groundwater makes up over one-third of California’s water supply and over one-half of the supply during drought years. When groundwater basins are critically over-drafted, chronically lowered groundwater levels, seawater intrusion, and land subsidence can result.
The SGMA requires basins in conditions of critical overdraft to be managed under a groundwater sustainability plan two years prior to other high-and-medium priority basins, stressing the need for funding to implement sustainability plans and take steps to rehabilitate basins as soon as possible.
DWR announced draft funding recommendations in January and considered public comments on the proposals. DWR staff is working with grantees on detailed work plans for their respective projects including efforts to develop groundwater ordinances and develop plans that protect basins, their beneficial uses, and facilitate basin-wide sustainability. Over next several months DWR will continue to work with counties regarding budgets and schedules for the funds, which counties can expect to receive as soon as June 2016.
