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Statement from Secretary Ross on Food Safety Efforts by California Cantaloupe Growers

Posted on August 20, 2012 by Karen Ross, California Agriculture Secretary, and Linda

You may have heard about recent illnesses and two deaths linked to cantaloupe grown in southwestern Indiana. I am very concerned to learn about the severity of this outbreak. My heart goes out to those affected and their loved ones.

All of agriculture and the food-supply chain have a responsibility to protect people from food-borne illness, and I am determined to do all I can as secretary to accomplish that to the best of our ability. The key is a commitment to continual improvement. We have that in California –  in the past twenty years, there has not been one illness linked to California cantaloupe. California continues to lead the nation in food safety enforcement and sound agricultural practices.

Over the last year, California cantaloupe farmers have formed a marketing order that includes mandatory government inspection of farms and packing facilities to verify compliance with stringent food safety standards.

CDFA has partnered with the Center for Produce Safety at UC Davis to continue groundbreaking research on food safety. Through continued research and scientific inquiry, California is committed to maintaining its strong record on food safety.

There are few things more important, more fundamental, than a safe and secure food system. The strength of California’s food system, and the confidence it inspires, is rooted in decades of dedicated, regulatory enforcement at the state and local levels and a consistent commitment to safety by California’s farmers and ranchers.

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Fairs and Farmers are Key Partners with Local Food Banks

Posted on August 16, 2012 by Karen Ross, California Agriculture Secretary, and Linda

Vegetables at the Sacramento Food BankThe success of food banks is based on relationships in local communities with individuals, faith-based organizations, retailers and food service businesses -just to name a few.  Additional partnerships with food producers and processors assist with sourcing local, fresh foods that can be provided to needy families. Some of these relationships have innovative roots,  and fairs are an example of that.

Each year, the California State Fair at Cal Expo features a demonstration farm, and it produces a lot of food.  So far this year, the farm has donated nearly five-thousand pounds of produce to the Sacramento Food Bank and Sacramento Foodlink – high-quality produce like what is seen in the photo to the left. Other fairs have a great tradition of giving with similar efforts. The Big Fresno Fair has raised 268,000 pounds of food over the last three years through its “Feed the Need” program. The Orange County Fair raised more than 43 tons of canned food donated by its customers. The Antelope Valley fair collected 10-thousand cans of food last year and is hoping to better that this year. Fairs in Tehama, Stanislaus, Merced, Calaveras, Lake, and Tulare counties are also providing food to the needy.

Farms play a major role in food donations, as well.  We have declared the month of December to be “Farm to Food Bank Month.” Last year, agriculture provided more than 100 million pounds of food to food banks.

As impressive as all these food donations are, we think we can do better. Improved food access is the first priority of Ag Vision, a strategic plan for California agriculture. The California State Board of Food and Agriculture is working to double California farm contributions to food banks over the next five years.

Food donations are a tremendous resource in a challenging time when one in eight Americans – nearly 46 million people – receives emergency food annually. More than four million of those people are Californians.

I commend California’s agricultural community and our fairs for sharing a commitment to help feed the hungry. I look forward to expanding access to healthy California-grown food for all Californians through partnerships with a variety of stakeholders in coming years.

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News Release – Vacancy on Fertilizer Technical Advisory Committee

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Office of Public Affairs

http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/egov/Press_Releases/Press_Release.asp?PRnum=12-030

SACRAMENTO, August, 15, 2012 – The California Department of Food and Agriculture is announcing a vacancy on the Fertilizer Research and Education Program’s Technical Advisory Subcommittee. This subcommittee reviews and recommends fertilizer research and education programs to CDFA’s Fertilizer Inspection Advisory Board.The Fertilizer Research and Education Program funds and coordinates research and technical assistance to advance the environmentally safe use and handling of fertilizer materials within the agricultural sector. The program serves growers, agricultural supply and service professionals, extension personnel, public agencies, consultants and the public.

Applicants must demonstrate knowledge, technical and scientific expertise in the fields of fertilizing materials, agronomy, plant physiology, production agriculture, principles of experimental research, and environmental issues related to fertilizer material use. The term of office for subcommittee members is three years and members receive no compensation but are entitled to payment of necessary traveling expenses. The subcommittee and research program are funded entirely through user fees and assessments.

Individuals interested in being considered for appointment should send a brief resume to Erika Lewis, California Department of Food and Agriculture – FFLDRS Branch, 1220 N Street, Sacramento, CA 95814 or via e-mail at erika.lewis@cdfa.ca.gov. The application deadline is September 14, 2012.

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Steam shown to kill sudden oak death pathogen- From SF Chronicle

Posted on August 15, 2012 by Office of Public Affairs

http://www.sfgate.com/science/article/Steam-shown-to-kill-Calif-plant-disease-3788696.php

Scientists say they have discovered a new way to kill California’s most virulent forest- and plant-depleting disease, and it turns out the technique is as old as steam cleaning.

Steam, in fact, is what researchers at Dominican University in San Rafael have been using to combat Phytophthora ramorum, a pathogen that causes sudden oak death.

Scientists from a variety of organizations including the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, and Oregon State University demonstrated what appears to be an effective steam-sterilization technique Tuesday on a research plot of ornamental plants at Dominican.

“It’s certainly a new use for steam sterilization,” said Robert Leavitt, director of plant health for the Department of Food and Agriculture. “It looks like it is very promising, and it could be a big step forward as a long-term solution for ramorum blight in nurseries.”

The disease, called ramorum blight when found in nurseries and sudden oak death in the wild, has 107 susceptible host plants, including such common garden ornamentals as camellias. It was discovered in the woodlands of Mill Valley in 1995 and has spread to forests and wildlands in 14 California counties and Curry County, Ore.

The pathogen kills big oak trees and the smaller tan oaks, which have been nearly wiped out in parts of Big Sur, Jack London and China Camp state parks and the Marin Municipal Water District watershed lands near Mount Tamalpais.

For years, steam has been used to sterilize soil in greenhouses, but this is the first time it has been deployed on open fields of infected nursery plants. The technique involves piping steam through a hose underneath a tarp covering the infected plot. The researchers found that subjecting high-clay-content soil to at least 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) for 30 minutes eradicated the deadly microbe.

The only other effective treatment for the disease that scientists know of is an expensive phosphite compound designed mainly for treating infected trees in people’s yards. The steam treatment could potentially be used to sterilize entire nurseries, pinching off the virulent killer at one of its sources, researchers said.

“It is still in the research stage, but we are working toward getting it to the commercial stage very quickly,” Leavitt said. “The concern is that ramorum will move from nurseries to homeowners and then from homeowners out into the wild, where it will spread across the country.

“Keeping it from spreading from nurseries is a giant step in protecting the whole U.S. from this disease.”

Posted in AG Vision, Environment, Invasive Species | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Hollywood is Buzzing with Food … But Where are the Farmers? From the Food Dialogues

Posted on August 9, 2012 by Office of Public Affairs

http://www.fooddialogues.com/posts/2012/08/06/hollywood-is-buzzing-with-food-but-where-are-the-farmers

By George Motz

Unlike stars in Hollywood, “food” may not have an agent, but it has definitely reached celebrity status across America. From documentary films to reality culinary challenges to stand-‘n-stir TV shows, the entertainment industry has created a giant stage that brings attention to how and where our food is grown, raised and processed, ultimately making its way to our tables.

Over the past decade, Americans have been more inspired to think about, care about and talk about where the food we eat comes from. And the food curiosity appetite continues to grow. We should applaud Hollywood and the media for playing a critical role in this inspiration.

Unfortunately, a key cast of characters has been buried back stage in Hollywood’s food story. As Americans tune in to entertainment to feed their food curiosities, are they getting the full story straight from the farmers and ranchers who make everyday decisions about how to raise our food?

It’s true that many traditional farmers and ranchers have chosen to stay out of the limelight – and haven’t always come forth to play a leading role in Americans’ understanding of where food comes from. Today this is changing.

And, yes, it’s also true that a handful of small, artisanal, local farms have appeared in entertainment, especially in the wake of the “locally grown” food movement. But the majority of farmers have been left out of the food discussion in the entertainment world. Farmers and ranchers from large farming operations who pour their hearts and souls into producing our food are sometimes disregarded by many in Hollywood who draw unfair conclusions about why farmers and ranchers do the things they do on their farms. Why? Because their stories are still untapped. It’s a disadvantage to Americans who are looking deeper to understand and be educated about food that is grown in America.

Farmers and ranchers are ready to have a conversation, and their stories are waiting to be told in the entertainment world. What better place to inspire this conversation than in Hollywood? I believe it is a wholly unexplored part of the food discussion in America that will only benefit us all. And it needs to start now.

George Motz is an Emmy award-winning freelance filmmaker and director of photography. He filmed, directed and produced “Hamburger America,” his second documentary, and is the host of Travel Channel’s “Made In America” and the director of the New York City Food Film Festival.

In conjunction with the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance (USFRA), George Motz hosted a Food Dialogues panel discussion with Hollywood personalities and farmers and ranchers in Los Angeles on this very topic. For more information or to watch the conversation, visit www.fooddialogues.com.

Posted in AG Vision, Agricultural Education, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

CDFA helps reel in catch of short measure tuna cans

Posted on August 8, 2012 by Kristin Macey, Director, CDFA Division of Measurement Standards

You may have heard recently that some of the largest tuna packagers in the country agreed to pay several million dollars to settle a case that started with the discovery that cans of tuna contained less fish than required by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Some of the cans had up to 33 percent less fish than required. This is what is known as “short measure,” a package that seems to be full but is actually not containing the proper value for the money.

CDFA’s Division of Measurement Standards (DMS) initiated the investigation after receiving a number of complaints from consumers. As investigators began their work, they learned that only a couple of locations in the U.S. had the special equipment necessary and that, fortunately, one of those was in California, at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Long Beach, where personnel served as a neutral third party to perform the official testing. In all, hundreds of cans of tuna were tested. The case was a culmination of four years of investigative work.

The packaging companies, Bumble Bee Foods, LLC; Tri Union Seafoods, LLC d/b/a Chicken of the Sea International; and Starkist Co., were prosecuted for selling short measure tuna and for unfair competition. The settlement, totaling $3.3 million, was part of a stipulated final judgment filed in Riverside County on August 3, 2012. The three companies entered into the stipulation not admitting any wrongdoing, liability, or violation of law. In addition to civil penalties and agency costs, $300,000 worth of canned tuna will be distributed to food banks throughout California.

Ensuring fair competition for industry and accurate value comparison for consumers is a primary function of DMS. The state works closely with county sealers of weights and measures who, under the supervision and direction of the secretary of CDFA, carry out many weights and measures activities at the local level, including commercial device testing and pricing accuracy inspections. During this case, DMS worked with local officialsals from Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, and San Diego counties.

Posted in Measurement Standards, Uncategorized | Tagged | 1 Comment

National Farmers Market Week a time to celebrate abundant, healthy food

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Karen Ross, California Agriculture Secretary, and Linda

I’m one of those people who thinks every week should be Farmers Market Week, and one of the miracles of California agriculture is that it’s actually possible in our state. Fresh fruits and vegetables are growing year-round someplace in California, and that provides farmers with the opportunity to bring them to market – direct to consumers.

As we recognize National Farmers Market Week (August 5-11), it’s a great time to celebrate the high-quality, nutritious food brought to us by farmers and ranchers at California’s 827   farmers’ markets, a number that leads the nation.

California was the first state to introduce this concept when Governor Brown, then in his first term in office, signed legislation in 1977 creating certified farmers markets . Prior to that, regulations required farmers to properly pack, size and label their fresh fruits, nuts, and vegetables in standard containers to transport and sell anywhere other than the farm site. The action by Governor Brown recognized the importance of direct farmer-to-consumer sales, and these markets are now part of the fabric of many communities throughout the state.  People are more interested than ever in local food and in having relationships with the people who produce it. Farmers markets are perfectly positioned for this.

Certified farmers’ markets are an important source of fresh produce to many seniors and low-income families who can purchase fruits and vegetables through the Senior Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program; the Women, Infants and Children’s (WIC) Supplemental Nutrition Program; and the CalFresh program.   Over the years, farmers’ markets have evolved to offer a diverse array of farm products to include meat and fish products, cheeses, olive oil, wine, flowers and more!

So it’s true – every week is Farmers Market Week. Please try to visit one soon and see its splendors for yourself.

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Climate change is another reason to protect farmland – From the Sacramento Bee’s “Viewpoints” section

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Office of Public Affairs

One of the co-authors of this story, Richard Rominger, is a former CDFA director (now secretary) and USDA deputy secretary. The other co-author, Renata Brillinger, is executive director of the Climate and Agriculture Network.  

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/08/02/4684014/climate-change-is-another-reason.html

By Rich Rominger and Renata Brillinger
Special to The Bee

Food and farming are a big part of California’s identity. After all, the state produces 400 different crops and livestock products; provides more than half of the U.S. supply of fruits, vegetables and nuts; and is the country’s leading dairy supplier.

Many agricultural landscapes pervade California culture – cattle grazing among oak woodlands; vineyards splashing fall colors; almond orchards blooming pink in spring; vast rows of tomatoes, strawberries and lettuce, and more.

Most Californians take the existence of farming and ranching for granted, but this is a mistake. There are mounting pressures to convert farmland to other types of land uses. More than 1.3 million acres of important farmland and grazing land has been converted to other uses since 1984, including more than 1 million acres lost to urbanization. Most aging farmers want to see their land stay in agriculture, but it’s challenging for new farmers to get into the business because of the high cost of land and equipment, so farm families sometimes have little choice but to sell to developers.

Protecting the state’s working lands is important not just for reasons of culture and identity. Agriculture is a $37 billion industry and the backbone of many rural Californian communities and related industries. California’s Central Valley is one of the last great Mediterranean climate agricultural production areas on the globe, and the food produced here for California and the nation is an issue of national security. There are also recreational benefits to be considered since hunting, hiking and tourism can be compatible on agricultural lands.

Ranches and farms also offer numerous environmental benefits. They provide wildlife habitat for birds, pollinators and many other animals. Importantly in our arid climate – especially because water scarcity will become more acute with climate change – agricultural lands serve as groundwater reservoirs where rainfall penetrates soils, in contrast to paved urban areas. And when farmland is properly managed, it can filter water for nearby communities.

New reports released Tuesday (August 1) by the California Natural Resources Agency and the California Energy Commission provide valuable data on climate change adaptation. One of the studies, funded by the Energy Commission’s Public Interest Energy Research Program, adds a new and compelling reason to protect California’s working lands. Led by Louise Jackson, a team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, in cooperation with county agencies, conducted an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions on Yolo County farmland and studied how agriculture can adapt to climate change. This study, which can be found at http://agadapt.ucdavis.edu, provides a tool for assessing agriculture’s responses to climate change at the regional level.

Importantly, the study found that urban land accounts for 70 times more greenhouse gas emissions per acre than cropland. According to the authors, this finding “suggests that land-use policies which protect existing farmland from urban development are likely to help stabilize or reduce future emissions, particularly if they are coupled with ‘smart growth’ policies that prioritize urban infill over expansion.”

The authors go on to state that even greater climate benefits can be gained by using farming practices that reduce emissions, sequester carbon and buffer crop production from uncertainties in future climate and fluctuating energy prices.

Until three years ago, the state funded a popular program called the Williamson Act, which offered property tax reductions for farmers who agreed to keep their land in production for 10-year periods. Budget cuts have axed the funds, and there are now virtually no public funds to encourage farmers to hold onto their land.

There are other well-documented policy tools available for protecting farmland. Three ingredients are needed to make them work.

First, we must balance competing uses and develop criteria and guidelines for prioritizing the most high-value agricultural lands. Accommodating a growing population, preparing for a secure renewable energy future and building a 21st-century transportation system must not be accomplished at the cost of paving or “solar paneling” over vast acreages of prime land that we need to feed ourselves.

Second, we must find sources of funding to ensure that maximal community benefit can be obtained from working lands while ensuring that farmers and ranchers can afford to get in and stay in business. One potential source of new funds is California’s cap-and-trade program, which is expected to raise more than a half billion dollars this year, increasing in following years. The Legislature is currently debating an investment plan for the funds; it should include farmland protection.

Third, because land use decisions are difficult, development pressures intense and issues of property rights sometimes contentious, we need political leadership, public awareness and support. Thanks to the team of UC Davis researchers and government funding for their study, we can add climate protection to the compelling list of reasons to invest in the long-term protection of California’s farms and ranches.

Posted in AG Vision, Climate Change | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What happens to school gardens in summer?

Posted on August 6, 2012 by Office of Public Affairs

http://grist.org/food/no-more-trowels-no-more-roots-what-happens-to-school-gardens-in-summer/

The biggest irony of the school garden is that it often goes untended during summer, the peak season. This is no coincidence; what we now call “summer vacation” used to be the time when most parents needed their children at home in the fields, planting and harvesting.

Now that the majority of Americans are no longer farmers, however, schools have become many children’s sole exposure to agriculture. But the good news is that they’re far from scarce; schools across the country are scrambling to set up food-producing gardens and take advantage of the hands-on lessons they provide.

Alice Waters’ “edible schoolyard,” while no longer considered revolutionary, is still a model for many teachers. FoodCorps, a branch of the AmeriCorps Service Network dedicated to food education, is wrapping up its first year of garden programming in selected schools, and many school districts and nonprofits are embracing school gardens at the local level. But what happens to all these gardens when school’s out for summer?

“There are kinks that haven’t been worked out in a lot of these newer school gardens, summer maintenance being one of them,” said Dana Stevens, a Food Corps member stationed in rural Washington County, Maine. When she arrived, the crop of brand-new school gardens in the area was mostly either left untended June through August or maintained by faculty or community volunteers.

This year, Stevens tried to organize the process. At one of the schools where she’d worked during the year, she created a garden work party schedule for the summer, turning a volunteer chore into an opportunity for a community get-together every couple of weeks. At another school, Stevens ran a weekly summer garden program for second through sixth graders. Every Wednesday, her group of 13 did garden upkeep, played garden-related games, and finished the day by harvesting and cooking a meal together.

Katy Brantley, serving FoodCorps in Monticello, Ark., took a similar approach with the garden at the middle school where she taught. At the end of the school year she put out applications for summer garden interns, and ended up with about 10 kids who would come a couple times a week to help maintain the garden and, like Stevens’ students, cook with fresh ingredients. She said many of these kids hadn’t actually taken garden classes during the school year, so the summer program served as a way to open the curriculum to everyone.

“I [found] some kids who are very dedicated and excited about coming to garden,” Brantley said. “It’s been much easier to keep it alive. It’s not beneficial for just me to be out there.”

Rachel Pringle, director of programs for the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance, said that while the mild California climate means summer can serve as the dormant season for some gardens, “it’s also really wonderful to come back in the fall and have things ready to harvest.” To that end, many of the 80-plus gardens in the alliance have developed summer programming like cooking camps or internships. Schools with heavy parent involvement can rely on families to volunteer for a summer garden maintenance schedule, and in a city with epically long waiting lists for plots at community gardens, such volunteer work has the added benefit of offering would-be gardeners an area of their own to grow things, if only for a limited amount of time. “There are parents actually interested in growing food for themselves over the summer,” Pringle said. “In an urban environment they didn’t have that [space] at home.”

Of course, some volunteers inevitably neglect their garden-work duties. But, Pringle said, “the wonderful thing is that school gardening is an experiment. It’s fun, it’s wild — they’re not perfectly manicured gardens.” And a slightly overgrown plot offers a great opportunity for kids to jump right in and get their hands dirty cleaning it up at the beginning of the school year.

Beyond the practical benefit, summer programs can also be an ideal setting for garden education. Stevens said having students for a full day gave her much more freedom to let lessons follow their natural course. “[It’s] not just a 40-minute classroom session where they’re in and out and may or may not remember what they did that day,” she said. “We can explore what’s actually happening in the garden and what people are interested in.”

Both Stevens and Brantley said having more time to cook in the summer also made a key difference. “It’s really important to have both pieces — working in the garden and learning to use what’s coming out of it,” Stevens said. “When I go into schools to do classes we have to choose one or the other.”

Students can forget a lot of what they learn over summer break — including food and garden lessons. That’s why, Pringle said, “creating an outdoor classroom culture at your school” is a critical part of turning kids into gardeners. “If you have a summer program, that is just reinforcement of all those skills and the culture they’ve been learning throughout the year.”

Though Stevens and Brantley are now wrapping up their yearlong FoodCorps commitments, they’re leaving their schools’ gardens in good shape for the next crop of service members to expand their efforts. After all, as Pringle put it, “school gardens should never be finished.”

Posted in AG Vision, Agricultural Education, Community-based Food System, Food Access, Uncategorized | Tagged | Leave a comment

Measuring the Olympics

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Kristin Macey, Director, CDFA Division of Measurement Standards

An Olympics monument in LondonThe Olympic Games are one of the greatest international stages in the world, with the best athletes coming together for feats of skill, strength and endurance. But medal winners rely on more than just ability.  A precise system of measurements, distances and timing is required to maintain the integrity of the competition. Before the games even begin, meticulous care is given to the accuracy of measurements to ensure that athletes compete on a level playing field.

Since times and distances achieved in Olympic events are compared to those of past Olympians, measurement is crucial. For example, every four years a different city and country host the games; thus, a different swimming pool and track and more must be provided each time.  The ability to consistently reproduce a pool length exactly 50 meters (not 50.01 or 49.99) or a track 400 meters long (not 400.01 or 399.99) may not appear to be significant.  However, when you consider that additional length equals extra time and that some races are won by one- thousandth of a second, it becomes clear that precise distances are a big deal.

Accurate timing is essential. Modern timing devices are much more precise than earlier models, allowing for more accurate measurements. When something goes wrong, the results can be permanent. For example, in this year’s games, a faulty clock may have cost a South Korean fencer an opportunity for a medal.

The Modern Olympic Games started in 1896 in Athens.  Officials at these games relied on analog stopwatches.  At the 1912 Stockholm games, electronic stopwatches were used for the first time, but finishes were still hand-timed.  The margin of error was 0.2 seconds.  An athlete could travel a distance of two meters in this time.  In 1932, at the Los Angeles games, thirty precision chronograph stopwatches were used for each event.  The degree of accuracy was then at one-tenth of a second.  In London, in 1948, the first photo-finish camera was used and revolutionized timekeeping, and the degree of accuracy was improved to a hundredth of a second.

As exciting as the Olympic Games are, and how important accurate measurement is to their success, on a more ordinary level, precise measurement also impacts our everyday lives. The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Division of Measurement Standards is responsible for the accuracy of measurement in many routine transactions, such as shopping at the grocery store, buying gasoline at a service station, or riding in a taxi. We consider every day to be the Olympics for our system of weights and measures and the protections it provides in commerce.

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