CDFA Secretary Karen Ross today joined Denmark’s Food, Agriculture and Fisheries minister, Rasmus Prehn, at the Stanford Mansion in Sacramento to commemorate in-person their 2021 virtual signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Sustainable Dairy Production.
Secretary Ross at the event: “Dairy is the leading agricultural commodity in our state (by value of production). We have a goal of reducing methane emissions by 40 percent from 2013 by 2030– eight short years away–and collaboration and the sharing of information are critical to meeting our goals. Denmark’s partnership only strengthens our opportunity to meet and exceed our goals in methane reduction and further-sustainable dairy production.”
The event was followed by a Sustainable Dairy Seminar, with presentations from dairy industry experts and scientists from throughout California.
Visit this link for more information on CDFA’s methane-reducing dairy digester and manure management programs.
Dr. Edie Marshall, manager of CDFA’s landmark Antimicrobial Use and Stewardship Program, has been appointed to the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Committee on Antimicrobials, a select group of national experts on this issue.
The AVMA is the nation’s leading advocate for veterinary principles, representing more than 99,500 members. The Committee on Antimicrobials is arguably the most influential body in the United States working to promote, protect, and advance the veterinary profession related to antimicrobial use. The committee reviews and supports comprehensive recommendations for policy with legislators, regulators, the marketplace, and other stakeholders. Further, the committee serves as the lead AVMA entity in the Association’s collaboration stakeholders, including human medical entities (e.g., Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), in a One Health approach to the overarching issue of antimicrobial resistance.
For more information related to CDFA’s Antimicrobial Use and Stewardship program visit our website here, and for information on the AVMA Committee on Antimicrobials, visit their website here.
Julie Rentner is president of River Partners, a nonprofit dedicated to bringing life back to California’s rivers and communities. With the state in the grip of an historic drought, and increasingly extreme swings between wet and dry periods, we asked Rentner to tell us more about the benefits of river restoration in a changing climate.
Despite the current drought, we know that floods remain a major concern. How can rivers help with flood management?
Central Valley rivers have always conveyed excess runoff out to the Delta and the bay. The valley was once a gigantic wetland, and we’ve spent the last 150 years draining and channelizing that water, and storing it in reservoirs. But as the climate warms and we see more rain than snow, larger deluges are running off at a faster rate than ever before. Rivers may have to convey up to five times as much floodwater past farms and cities over the next 50 years.
The problem is, larger floods are running through a system that’s constrained by levees. The lower Tuolumne River and the San Joaquin River are some of the most flood-challenged portions of our river systems. State and federal levees were built right up to the river’s edge, which doesn’t give the water much space to spread out. The levees were engineered poorly, and they haven’t been adequately maintained. In the historic 1997 flood, levees broke in 17 places. Most levee systems will face challenges—if not failures—in the next big flood. The water needs a safe conveyance corridor through cities including Modesto, Manteca, Lathrop, and Stockton.
We work with farmers and enterprises to buy marginal, flood-prone farmland in harm’s way. Farmers shift to different properties that are less risky, and we turn those lands into flood-compatible habitat areas throughout the state.
Could you describe some of River Partners’ most successful restoration efforts?
Dos Rios Ranch Preserve near Modesto is our flagship project. It’s California’s largest floodplain restoration project ever. Ten years ago, we bought property from a landowner tired of farming the river bottom. We managed nearly four miles of failing levee, and we worked with the US Army Corps of Engineers, Central Valley Flood Protection Board, and others to breach that levee so that flows could spread out. Dos Rios Ranch sits next to the Three Amigos project, where three neighboring landowners sold their farms after their levees were breached in 1997. The US Department of Agriculture provided funding, and the land was turned over to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for habitat restoration.
Now, thousands of acres of reconnected floodplains are thriving as wildlife habitat. The whole complex has endured deep flooding many times in the last 20 years, and it’s served as a shock absorber, taking pressure off floodwater further downstream and possibly alleviating levee breaks.
How do rivers fit into the groundwater recharge picture in California?
The way our rivers and floodplains fit into the groundwater scheme is fascinating. Water chemists at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory have taken water samples from across the San Joaquin Valley and tested isotopes to determine its age—and whether it came from river flow or precipitation. Rivers once provided twice as much groundwater as they do today. That’s not surprising because of the dams built in the last 100 years, but it suggests that rivers could at least double what they put into the ground today. Allowing more water through river corridors and letting it soak in, especially in areas with groundwater deficits, could put water back in the ground through floodplain recharge.
What’s still needed to make this all work better, beyond money?
The thing that drives all of this is investment, so I’m excited that California is investing in multi-benefit water management. But we need to be thinking differently about how we plumb the valley. In the San Joaquin Valley, the drought is increasing interest in collaboration among people who haven’t usually collaborated. There’s been a lot of movement in just the last 12-18 months among managers of major irrigation districts, leaders of environmental justice organizations, and others coming to table to say, “Look, we need to agree on some basic principles on how to move forward with public investment and improve our freshwater systems.” There’s got to be give-and-take on all sides. If we plan it together, we’ll have a better outcome.
What gives you hope? I’m optimistic that attitudes are changing. I’m hopeful about the public funding. If we don’t get work going on the ground now, we’ll be facing an even more devastating situation during the next drought.
River Partners has this one specific, powerful toolbox: to acquire land, change land use, and restore multi-benefit habitat. There are over $300 million in projects that we know are shovel-ready today. We’ve got willing landowners in priority areas that we know will be helpful to wildlife recovery, groundwater recharge, and flood safety. Local officials support it. The magnitude of change needed is huge. Can we all grow to meet that challenge? I’m hopeful we can.
Port of Oakland’s new, temporary container yard is getting federal help in the form of financial relief for its customers. The USDA is providing agricultural and other exporters assistance in covering expenses for using the pop-up yard.
“Supply chain issues locally to globally have hampered the US export business through West Coast ports including Oakland,” said Port of Oakland Executive Director Danny Wan. “We thank the USDA for providing financial incentives to our customers. This will promote use of the yard, reduce marine terminal congestion and ease some of the logistics strain for our exporters.”
The temporary container yard opened March 7, 2022, as part of the Biden Administration’s larger program to relieve port congestion. The USDA is offering a $400 incentive per export reefer (refrigerated container) and $200 for a “dry” container (non-reefer). This funding is for the temporary staging of loaded export containers. In addition, the USDA is offering a $125 incentive to pick up an empty dry container used for agricultural bookings.
“This will help defray the additional costs incurred by our shippers and make usage of the new facility more feasible,” said Port of Oakland Maritime Director Bryan Brandes. “The temporary yard provides a place for truckers to easily pick up empty containers to be loaded with US exports and it allows for staging loaded containers ready to be shipped overseas without crowding busy terminals.”
“This federal partnership highlights Oakland’s traditional role as a critical export gateway,” added Mr. Brandes. “We continue to work closely with ocean carriers to restore services here so that shippers can have more opportunity for outbound vessel space.” Maritime industry experts are saying that they expect global volatility in the supply chain to continue for months. Ship schedule disruptions continue due to multiple factors including pandemic impacts on trucking and marine terminal operations at China’s largest ports
CDFA secretary Karen Ross today in Visalia presenting a proclamation honoring the 100th anniversary of Land O’Lakes, a dairy cooperative that formed in Minnesota in 1921 and merged with Dairyman’s Cooperative Creamery Association in Tulare in 1998. Land O’Lakes now counts nearly 150 California dairy operators among its members. California is the leading dairy state in the nation, with farmgate sales of nearly $7.5 billion in 2020, representing nearly 20 percent of US dairy production. Joining Secretary Ross in the photo is the Board of Directors for Land O’Lakes West, from left, Justin Curti, Jared Fernandes, Joey Fernandes, and Stephen Mancebo.
A new tool designed to provide farmers and ranchers with key information about climate smart agriculture programs is now available online. The tool features a user-friendly map for users to explore, screen and efficiently identify regions for analysis, comparison and reporting. The intent is to place this information at the fingertips of farmers and ranchers, making the application process faster, and more efficient. The web-based tool, named RePlan (Regional Conservation and Development Planning Tool), comes as a result of a partnership between CDFA, the Strategic Growth Council, the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, and the Conservation Biology Institute. RePlan developers have created applications for two CDFA programs — the Healthy Soils Program (HSP) and the Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP).
For AMMP, the tool combines relevant datasets with site location and analysis tools to identify practices that will reduce dairy and livestock methane emissions through the implementation of non-digester approaches. In one step, a farmer can model current and proposed practices, explore alternative practices, calculate the resulting emission reductions using California Air Resources Board tools, and submit a final proposal package for AMMP funding.
The Partners
The California Strategic Growth Council (SGC) collaborates with public agencies, communities, and stakeholders to achieve sustainability, equity, economic prosperity, and quality of life for all. SGC also manages several grant programs funded by the California Climate Investments (CCI) that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while providing also providing a variety of other benefits – particularly in disadvantaged communities.
The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR) studies future research and planning needs, fosters goal-driven collaboration, and provides guidance to state partners and local communities, with a focus on land use and community development, climate risk and resilience, and high-road economic development.
The Conservation Biology Institute (CBI) applies the best science and technology available to accelerate the conservation, recovery, and adaptation of biological diversity in a fast-changing world. Their expertise includes GIS and decision-support tools, global forest conservation, landscape modeling, water, energy, and infrastructure development. CBI created Data Basin in response to the increased demand for geographic environmental and conservation data access, integration, interpretation, analysis, and sharing.
Welcome to Earth Week! With the annual Earth Day recognition coming on April 22, CDFA is taking this opportunity to discuss its environmental stewardship work throughout the week.
CDFA’s Office of Environmental Farming & Innovation oversees and administers climate-focused programs like the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP), the Healthy Soils Program, the Alternative Manure Management Program, and more. The objective of these programs is to incentivize practices that result in a net benefit for agriculture and the environment through innovation, efficient management, and science.
CDFA will share more information about its environmental programs on Earth Day with a webinar via Zoom that will be available for public participation, from 12 noon to 1:30 pm. We hope you will join us! The pertinent information is below:
FFA student Lance Leland carries one crate containing a queen bee and worker bees during Westminster High School’s ceremonial queen bee handoff Friday evening, April 8, 2022. Sixty-thousand bees were brought to their new home at the school’s Giving Farm. (Photo by Frank D’Amato, OC Register)
By Grace Toohey
Mayra Bahena had always been told to try to stay away from bees.
But then the Westminster High junior found herself head-to-toe in a white beekeeping suit, accepting thousands of bees on behalf of her high school’s new agriculture program addition.
“To willingly hold bees and be around them is so ironic and funny,” Bahena said. “I’ve never ever held that many bees in my life – it was something so new and exciting.”
Bahena is one of about 15 students helping establish California’s first high school beekeeping program, hoping to create a sanctuary at Westminster High for six queen bees and 60,000 worker bees to live, work and eventually produce honey, beeswax and other hive by-products.
“I was all in, it’s something so different,” said Bahena, who is a leader in the school’s FFA program, a student organization focused on leadership and career opportunities through agriculture education. “I know this is going to bring a lot of color and uniqueness to our school.”
Through a partnership with the Community Action Partnership of Orange County and with startup funds from the USDA, Westminster High accepted the bees from local company Honey Pacifica, beginning the months-long process of caring for the bees, harvesting their honey and making marketable products.
While the high school already has an expansive agricultural program – including its 8-acre Giving Farm on which students grow donations for local food pantries, as well as projects to raise livestock and operate farming machinery – the beekeeping program will further enhance students’ educational opportunities and hands-on experiences, agriculture instructor Dave Eusantos said.
“These are city kids, and some of them they see bees, but they don’t give them a second thought and what that creature means to their food supply,” Eusantos said. “Learning about bees is so very fascinating, it’s a fantastic way to teach so many areas of agriculture science.”
Eusantos said he’s leaning heavily on the support and wisdom of Honey Pacifica owner Jon Poto to help jump-start the program. The program already has plans to grow a pollinator garden for the bees, and is working with other programs for studying marketing and culinary arts to help advertise and sell the students’ soon-to-be honey products.
Eusantos and Poto said they expect the school’s first batch of honey could be harvested by August or September.
Poto said his company’s involvement in the workforce development program at the high school is special because Honey Pacifica’s origins can be traced to his brother Frank’s high-school science project involving bees.
“This was the catalyst for our family’s journey into beekeeping,” he said. “We’re so excited to work with Westminster High School’s passionate students to bring this working bee colony to life, which we’re hoping will lead to a profitable honey endeavor.”
Community Action Partnership officials said they hope the program at Westminster High can become a model for other schools in the region, especially as projections show that income from the bee products should offset most costs to run the program, with volunteers and students providing the necessary workforce.
“These students have worked diligently to provide this colony of bees a safe home here at our Giving Farm and we’re confident they will take great care of them and produce quality, organic honey that locals will love,” Westminster High Principal Amy Sabol said.
While Eusantos said he understands not all the students in his agriculture classes or the FFA program are interested in pursuing careers in agriculture – Bahena hopes to study liberal arts in college – he knows the coursework and experiences are still so valuable. He said he’s focused on helping the teens better understand how they interact with food and materials, so they can be “responsible citizens.”
“I’m not trying to turn them into a farmer,” he said. “I’m trying to teach you about where your food and fiber comes from.
“I know the looks on the students’ faces and their body language as they were putting the bees into the beehives – it was a once in a lifetime experience,” he said. “That’s something that you can’t mimic in terms of a zoom meeting, … or YouTube video. Seeing it, hearing it, smelling it and feeling it, this hands-on, in-person experience is so valuable.”
