California is the nation’s leading agricultural state, with 76,400 farms producing more than 400 commodities with a farm-gate value of $54 billion. The mission of the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is to promote and protect agriculture. It’s a complex job — and one that is getting more complex as the climate changes.

With the current drought in its fourth year, California has already started to experience some of the anticipated impacts of climate change. With drought, we have seen economic losses including job losses, fallowed land, and greater demand for a limited amount of water. A concerted approach is urgently needed to prepare California agriculture for future climate change impacts. One essential approach is embracing and implementing the concept of climate smart agriculture.

Practicing climate smart agriculture means following three principles: developing agricultural systems that are resilient to climate change; reducing greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture; and preparing for climate change in a way that keeps farms productive and profitable.

I heard a lot about climate smart agriculture during a recent visit to the Netherlands with a delegation of agricultural leaders from California. The Netherlands is a leading agriculture distributor in Europe and the world’s second largest (after the United States) agricultural exporter. Climate smart agriculture is already strongly integrated into Dutch economic and food security strategies. Our delegation not only heard about the threats from higher precipitation, but also about how overly dry conditions in the summer threaten the stability of peat dikes, which dry up to the point that they may simply float away, compromising the levee structure in a region where most of the land is below sea level.

In California we can prepare for such multi-faceted impacts through our own climate smart agriculture initiatives. At CDFA, we have a variety of programs and efforts underway to support agricultural sustainability, build resilience to climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions:

The State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) is an emergency drought program implemented at the direction of Gov. Jerry Brown to assist farmers in moving to efficient water irrigation systems that save water, conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To date, SWEEP has funded 233 projects totaling almost $18 million with $10.5 million in matching grower funds. The program is built on a strong scientific foundation and supported by a collaborative partnership involving other agencies, resource conservation districts, the California State University (CSU) system and UC ANR Cooperative Extension (UCCE). The academic institutions play a key role in providing technical evaluations of applications for water savings and reductions in energy consumption.

More-efficient irrigation technologies — like this drip system in an almond orchard in Yolo County — save water, conserve energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Dairy Digester Research and Development Program, launched in 2014, provides incentives for dairy operations to install manure digesters. Digesters capture methane from dairy lagoons, allowing the gas to be used to generate electricity. Methane is a short-lived climate pollutant that is 28 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. In 2015, CDFA awarded $11.1 million for the development of five digesters at California dairies. Matching funds by developers totaling $19 million were allocated to these projects. The digester program is supported by several scientific experts from the University of California as well as a technical advisory sub-committee. The program highlights the many opportunities to use agricultural byproducts for multiple benefits, including the generation of electricity.

Manure from dairy cows — like these in Fresno County — is typically collected in lagoons, which generate the potent greenhouse gas methane. Dairy digesters capture the methane produced by microbial manure decomposition so that it does not escape to the atmosphere and can be used as a source of renewable energy.

The Fertilizer Research and Education Program</em> has a long-standing collaboration with UCCE to provide growers with cost-effective practices to improve the efficient use of fertilizer and minimize environmental impacts. Improving the timing and rate of nitrogen fertilizer application can help to prevent leaching and runoff as well as emissions of nitrous oxide (N₂O), another potent greenhouse gas. Efficient use of fertilizer also reduces the amount applied, saving money for the grower.

Under the Healthy Soils Initiative, Gov. Brown has directed CDFA to lead an interagency collaboration to promote the development of healthy soils that sequester carbon on working lands. The health of agricultural soil influences its ability to build and retain adequate organic matter via the activity of plants and soil organisms. Adequate organic matter helps to enable the soil to function as a vital living ecosystem and provide the foundation for sustainable agricultural productivity. Carbon sequestration has been difficult to quantify in soils given the long time period for the accumulation of stable soil carbon pools. However, recent work by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has yielded results that allow for the scientific estimation of greenhouse gas reductions associated with several soil management practices ( comet-planner.com/). These management practices can be implemented on a wide range of croplands and rangelands. We are eager to collaborate with UCCE, NRCS, resource conservation districts and other researchers to advance this important work as part of climate smart agriculture.

No-till and cover cropping strategies help to build soil organic matter and sequester carbon, while also improving soil quality and retaining soil moisture. In a no-till field that will soon be planted to processing tomatoes, Fresno County UCCE advisor Dan Munk uncovers the residue from a winter cover crop of triticale.

These are a few examples of practices that can reduce greenhouse gases and increase climate resilience on our farms and ranches. Gov. Brown’s 2016–2017 proposed budget signals California’s ongoing support for these initiatives, including $20 million for SWEEP, $35 million for the dairy digester program and $20 million for the Healthy Soils Initiative. In addition, the proposed budget includes $40 million for the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program, overseen by the Strategic Growth Council and administered by the Department of Conservation, and which supports the protection and sustainable management of California’s agricultural lands through planning and conservation via agricultural easements.

Going forward, CDFA’s climate smart agriculture initiatives will be coordinated through the newly created Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation.

There is no doubt we can do more in the climate smart agriculture arena. As we continue to expand our work in this area, CDFA will continue to work closely with our partners, including the scientific and technical experts at the CSU and UC systems. We are fortunate in California to have such expertise available to support our food production system with sound research, an extensive technical support infrastructure and an enormously accomplished agricultural extension service.

Link to web site

Late last year the FDA published the final Produce Rule, which is a key component of new federal food safety laws under the Food Safety Modernization Act, or FSMA.

Video courtesy of the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement.

Link to Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement blog post

CDFA’s Border Protection Station along I-10 at Blythe.

By Hailey Branson-Potts

State officials have announced the arrest of a Baldwin Park trucker who they said hauled more than $13,000 worth of out-of-state bottles and cans into California in a case of recycling fraud.

On Jan. 15, agents with the Department of Food and Agriculture arrested Daniel Rosales, 45, after inspecting his 53-foot semi-trailer, the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) said in a statement. Rosales had been stopped at a border checkpoint in Blythe, officials said.

(Learn more about CDFA’s Border Protection Stations)

Inside Rosales’ truck, which was marked as BNS Trucking out of Baldwin Park, agents discovered 6,622 pounds of aluminum and 2,606 pounds of plastic beverage containers with a potential California Redemption Value of $13,550, according to CalRecycle, which has administrative authority over the state’s beverage container recycling program.

Rosales produced a bill of lading — a document issued by a carrier that details a shipment of merchandise — that indicated he was hauling bottle caps, officials said. He was unable to produce an imported materials report, which is legally required for anyone transporting used beverage containers into California, CalRecycle said.

Rosales entered the state from Arizona, according to Michelle Gregory, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Justice, which investigates and prosecutes criminal cases on behalf of CalRecycle.

Rosales was arrested and his truck impounded, officials said. He was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Riverside County Superior Court in Indio on charges of felony recycling fraud and attempted grand theft. He faces six months to three years in prison if convicted, CalRecycle said.

“Truck drivers need to understand that CalRecycle will not tolerate recycling fraud, which essentially steals money from the honest Californians,” CalRecycle Director Scott Smithline said in a prepared statement.

Consumers pay California Redemption Value (CRV) when they purchase beverages from a retailer, and receive CRV refunds when they redeem the containers at a recycling center.

“Anyone who helps these criminal organizations haul out-of-state used beverage containers into our state to make fraudulent CRV redemptions will be caught and punished,” Smithline said.

In 2015, CalRecycle and its enforcement partners (including CDFA) arrested eight drivers who brought 85,646 pounds of out-of-state used beverage containers into California, with a potential redemption value of more than $108,000, said Lance Klug, a CalRecycle spokesman.

Link to story

The USDA has announced a joint agreement with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to increase employment opportunities in the agricultural sector for military veterans and their spouses.

The agreement establishes a new partnership between USDA and Hiring Our Heroes, a program that helps military veterans, transitioning active duty personnel, and their spouses and partners with training and opportunities to find meaningful employment when entering the civilian workforce.

Since 2009, USDA has provided $466.8 million in farm loans to help more than 6,868 veterans purchase farmland, buy equipment, and make repairs and upgrades. Microloans offering smaller amounts of support to meet the needs of small or niche-type farm operations have also grown in popularity among veterans. Since it was launched in January 2013, USDA’s microloan program has provided more than $25.8 million in support to help veterans grow their farming businesses.

Recently, USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) also expanded its collaboration with the Department of Defense to better reach the nearly 200,000 service members transitioning from military service to civilian life each year. Through a career training and counseling program, called the Transition Assistance Program, or TAP, USDA provides information on a wide variety of loans, grants, training and technical assistance available for veterans who are passionate about a career in agriculture.

For more information on how USDA can help military veterans transition into agriculture as a career, visit www.usda.gov/veterans.

A riparian corridor along the Russian River in Sonoma County.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and partners across the nation together will direct up to $720 million towards 84 conservation projects that will help communities improve water quality, combat drought, enhance soil health, support wildlife habitat and protect agricultural viability. These projects make up the second round of the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) created by the 2014 Farm Bill.

California is receiving more than $30 million of the funding, including $8 million for conservation projects in Sonoma County to protect agricultural lands and ecosystems. The project is focused on four resource concerns: insufficient water, water quality degradation, soil quality degradation and inadequate habitat for fish and wildlife. Conservation activities will focus on developing landowner plans; acquiring easements; layering multiple practices in key riparian corridors, groundwater basins and floodplains; and implementing riparian corridor restoration, water conservation measures and floodplain enhancements to achieve sustainable water quality and quantity, soil health and functional ecosystems.

Through the 2015 and 2016 rounds, USDA and partners are investing up to $1.5 billion in 199 strategic conservation projects. Projects are selected on a competitive basis, and local private partners must be able to at least match the USDA commitment. For this round, USDA received 265 applications requesting nearly $900 million, or four times the amount of available federal funding. The 84 projects selected for 2016 include proposed partner matches totaling over $500 million, more than tripling the federal investment alone.

RCPP draws on local knowledge and networks to fuel conservation projects. Bringing together a wide variety of new partners including businesses, universities, non-profits and local and Tribal governments makes it possible to deliver innovative, landscape- and watershed-scale projects that improve water quality and quantity, wildlife habitat, soil health and other natural resource concerns on working farms, ranches and forests.

Water quality and drought are dominant themes in this year’s RCPP project list with 45 of the 84 projects focusing on water resource concerns.

USDA is committed to invest $1.2 billion in RCPP partnerships over the life of the 2014 Farm Bill. Today’s announcement brings the current USDA commitment to almost $600 million invested in 199 partner-led projects, leveraging an additional $900 million for conservation activities in all 50 states and Puerto Rico.

See the full list of 2016 projects.

Link to news release

Salinas third-grader Miranda Lopez was the lucky winner of the annual Bonnie Plants cabbage-growing contest, intended to spark children’s interest in agriculture and the origins of their food. More than 67,000 California third-graders received cabbage plants to take home, nurture and grow.  Miranda’s 23-pound specimen won her $1,000 from Bonnie Plants for her future education and a letter of congratulations from Secretary Ross!

Miranda Lopez

c/o Jacqueline Terrazas, Principal

Madonna del Sasso School

20 Santa Teresa Way

Salinas, CA 93906

Dear Miranda:

Congratulations on being the California State winner of the 2016 Bonnie Plants’ 3^rd Grade Cabbage Program!  As Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, I know how much effort and dedication it must have taken to grow such an impressive cabbage.

Through this work, you have learned what it takes for our farmers to grow the food that eventually ends up on the plates of families all throughout the land.  I hereby grant you the title of “honorary farmer” and know that you are always welcome to stop by the Department if you are ever in Sacramento.

Growing a cabbage takes investment, faith, commitment and practice, all values that will serve you well in life and in pursuit of your education.  The $1,000 award will help you in this effort and I look forward to hearing about your future success in whatever profession you decide to pursue.

Again, congratulations on your accomplishment and best wishes for the future.

Yours truly,

Karen Ross

Secretary

California’s Detector Dog Program is receiving more than $3 million for its vitally important work to detect invasive species at shipping and postal facilities.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has allocated $58.25 million from Section 10007 of the 2014 Farm Bill. This money will support 434 projects that prevent the introduction or spread of plant pests and diseases that threaten U.S. agriculture and the environment and ensure the availability of a healthy supply of clean plant stock in the United States. Funding will be provided to 50 States plus Guam and Puerto Rico to implement projects suggested by universities, States, Federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations, non-profits and Tribal organizations.

California, as the largest agricultural producer in the country, will receive more than $12.3 million for 36 projects, including $3,180,597 for its Detector Dog Program, $3 million for crucial and ongoing exotic fruit fly surveys, and $1,750,961 for emergency response plant health programs.

Since the 2014 Farm Bill was enacted, APHIS has funded more than 1,200 projects that have played a significant role in our efforts to protect American agriculture. Collectively, these projects make it possible for us to quickly detect and rapidly respond to invasive pests.

They also help our country maintain the infrastructure necessary for making sure that disease-free, certified planting materials are available to U.S. specialty crop producers.

The Farm Bill provided $62.5 million for these programs in fiscal year 2016, though funding was reduced by sequestration. The FY 2016 Section 10007 of the 2014 Farm Bill spending plan is available on the APHIS Web site at www.aphis.usda.gov/farmbill.

The public can help protect America’s agricultural and natural resources by being aware of invasive pests and the damage they cause. APHIS created the Hungry Pests public outreach program to empower Americans with the knowledge they need to leave these “hungry pests” behind. Visit www.HungryPests.com to learn more about invasive plant pest and diseases impacting your area and how you can help, and check out CDFA’s Report A Pest site with links to additional resources.

Link to news release

In the lab, researchers use engineered bacteria to brew ‘green’ chemicals that can be used in a wide range of useful products. Credit: University of Minnesota

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have engineered a new synthetic biopathway that can more efficiently and cost-effectively turn agricultural waste, like corn stover and orange peels, into a variety of useful products ranging from spandex to chicken feed.

The groundbreaking study was published (this week) in the journal Nature Chemical Biology.

For years, researchers have been looking for more sustainable sources for the raw materials used to make the products we use every day. Recently, biomass made from corn or sugarcane is used in manufacturing of a wide range of non-food products from plastics to fuel. However, use of food to make inedible products is controversial because it affects the food supply and can elevate food prices.

n this study, researchers looked at turning inedible biological byproducts, that scientists call lignocelluloslic biomass, to produce useful products to avoid the “food versus chemical” purposes. They specifically looked at the process to use lignocellulosic biomass to produce butanediol (BDO) that is used to produce more than 1 billion pounds of spandex each year used in clothing and home furnishings. In 2010, it was estimated that spandex was used in 80 percent of all clothing.

To establish the platform pathway, researchers examined the gene sequences from bacteria and fungi that turn the biomass into tricarboxylic acid (TCA) intermediates. The researchers call this new metabolism “nonphosphorylative metabolism,” which enables the production of useful products from TCA cycle with less than five steps, compared to previous 10 steps. Less steps in the process resulted in a 70 percent higher yield in production and a process that is overall better for the environment.

What excited researchers the most was that this pathway could be used for more than just producing BDO for spandex. It can be used to produce a variety of useful products.

“We found that this new platform could be used to convert agricultural waste to chemicals that can be used for many other products ranging from chicken feed to flavor enhancers in food,” said the study’s lead researcher Kechun Zhang, a chemical engineering and materials science assistant professor in the University of Minnesota’s College of Science and Engineering.

“The pathway we developed was sustainable so it is better for the environment. This study is also one of the few examples of artificial metabolic pathways constructed so far,” Zhang added.

Explore further: Researchers improve process to create renewable chemicals from plants (w/ Video)

More information: Engineering nonphosphorylative metabolism to generate lignocellulose-derived products, Nature Chemical Biology, DOI: 10.1038/nchembio.2020

Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2016-02-scientists-synthetic-biopathway-agriculture-green.html#jCp

SACRAMENTO, February 10, 2016 – The 2015 crush totaled 3,862,385 tons, down 7 percent from the 2014 crush of 4,144,534 tons. Red wine varieties accounted for the largest share of all grapes crushed, at 2,037,083 tons, down 5 percent from 2014. The 2015 white wine variety crush totaled 1,662,159 tons, down 5 percent from 2014. Tons crushed of raisin type varieties totaled 92,432, down 41 percent from 2014, and tons crushed of table type varieties totaled 70,711, down 25 percent from 2014. The 2015 average price of all varieties was $667.31, down 10 percent from 2014. Average prices for the 2015 crop by type were as follows: red wine grapes, $783.58, down 12 percent from 2014; white wine grapes, $538.67, down 10 percent from 2014; raisin grapes, $247.52, up 6 percent; and table grapes, $252.63, up 8 percent.

In 2015, Chardonnay continued to account for the largest percentage of the total crush volume with 16.4 percent. Cabernet Sauvignon accounted for the second leading percentage of crush with 11.8 percent. The next eight highest percentages of grapes crushed included only wine grape varieties. Thompson Seedless, the leading raisin grape variety crushed for 2015, held 2.0 percent of the total crush.

Grapes produced in District 4 (Napa County) received the highest average price of $4,328.75 per ton, up 6 percent from 2014. District 3 (Sonoma and Marin counties) received the second highest return of $2,440.74, up 5 percent from 2014. The 2015 Chardonnay price of $785.87 was down 9 percent from 2014, and the Cabernet Sauvignon price of $1,302.74 was also down 9 percent from 2014. The 2015 average price for Zinfandel was $573.33, down 8 percent from 2014, while the Merlot average price was down 5 percent from 2014 at $738.08 per ton. The Preliminary Grape Crush Report includes all grape tonnage crushed during the 2015 season. It also includes purchased tonnage and pricing information for grapes with final prices prior to January 10, 2015. The March 10, 2016 Final Grape Crush Report will contain any late reports or corrections to the preliminary report. The entire Grape Crush Report is available online at www.nass.usda.gov/ca.