The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) has announced the availability of $27 million in grants to fund innovative projects designed to strengthen market opportunities for local and regional food producers and businesses. 

“These grants will continue USDA’s support for the local food sector as an important strategy for keeping wealth in rural communities,” said AMS Administrator Elanor Starmer.  “Entrepreneurs around the country are creating jobs and new economic opportunities in response to growing consumer demand for local food.  AMS is excited to partner with local food stakeholders to strengthen local economies and improve access to fresh, healthy food for their communities.”

AMS has announced the request for applications for the Farmers Market and Local Food Promotion Program, which includes Farmers Market Promotion Program (FMPP) and Local Food Promotion Program (LFPP) grants, and theFederal-State Marketing Improvement Program (FSMIP).  These programs and other resources across USDA are helping to revitalize rural America by supporting local and regional food stakeholders.

The FMPP provides funds for direct farmer-to-consumer marketing projects such as farmers markets, community-supported agriculture programs, roadside stands, and agritourism.  Over the past 10 years, the FMPP has awarded more than 870 grants totaling over $58 million.  The successful results of these investments are summarized in the Farmers Market Promotion Program 2016 Report. (Add link). The LFPP supports projects focused on intermediary supply chain activities for local food businesses. LFPP was established in the 2014 Farm Bill to increase funding for marketing activities such as aggregation, processing, storage, and distribution of local foods.

The FSMIP provides about $1 million in matching funds to state departments of agriculture, state colleges and universities, and other appropriate state agencies. Funds will support research projects to address challenges and opportunities in marketing, transporting, and distributing U.S. agricultural products domestically and internationally.

AMS will host a webinar for potential FMPP and LFPP grant applicants on Wednesday, February 15, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time, and a teleconference for potential FSMIP grant applicants on Thursday, February 16, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time.  For more information about FSMIP, FMPP and LFPP, visit: www.ams.usda.gov/AMSgrants.  The website also contains a link to a grants decision tree, “What AMS Grant is Right for ME?”, to help applicants determine which AMS grant fits their project best. 

The grant applications for FSMIP, FMPP and LFPP must be submitted electronically through www.grants.gov/  by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, March 27, 2017. 

AMS will also host a webinar to introduce potential applicants to Grants.govon Wednesday, February 8, 2017, at 2:30 p.m. Eastern Time.  Applicants are urged to start the Grants.gov registration process as soon as possible to ensure that they meet the deadline and encouraged to submit their applications well in advance of the posted due date.  Any grant application submitted after the due date will not be considered unless the applicant provides documentation of an extenuating circumstance that prevented their timely submission of the grant application, read more on AMS Late and Non-Responsive Application Policy. 

Link to USDA news release

The Planting Seeds blog is featuring stories this month relating to animal health issues and the activities of CDFA’s Division of Animal Health and Food Safety Services.

The Egg Safety and Quality Management Program at CDFA regulates shell eggs and egg products produced, shipped, or sold in California. The mission of the program is to ensure that eggs sold in California are of known quality, origin, grade, and size; have been properly handled, labeled, transported, refrigerated; and are wholesome and safe to eat.

The program also enforces regulatory standards for preventing salmonella enteriditis in eggs, and for providing a minimum floor space standard for egg-laying hens.

Anyone engaged in the production, sale, or handling of shell eggs or egg products in California must register with the program. CDFA personnel inspect shell eggs and egg products at production, packing, distribution, and retail facilities.

SOME OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR EGG HANDLERS ARE:

• LABELING: Consumer-grade packages or containers of eggs must state all of the following: name, address, zip code, quantity, the words “keep refrigerated,” and either the USDA plant of origin code number, the USDA Shell Egg Surveillance number, (if applicable) or California state handler code, sell-by date, *CA SEFS Compliant, *size, *grade, Julian date of pack (the consecutive day of the year that the eggs were packed, in Julian date format. Example – The Julian date for January 1 is 001, the Julian date for December 31 is 365).*Must be printed in font ź inch or larger
• QUALITY: All shell eggs shall be graded and sized. The established grades of eggs are: AA, A, and B. The established sizes of eggs are: pee-wee, small, medium, large, extra large, and jumbo.
• REFRIGERATION: Shell eggs must be maintained at a temperature of 45° Fahrenheit or less.
• DEFECTS: Shell eggs for human consumption must not exceed the tolerances for defects such as checks, leakers, dirty eggs, inedible or loss eggs.

QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

• Q: How is the Program funded?
  • A: The program is funded by assessments collected from registered egg handlers. The current assessment fee is .125 (twelve and a half cents) per 30-dozen case of eggs sold.
• Q: Do out-of-state companies that ship eggs into California have to register with CDFA?
  • A: Yes. Anyone who sells eggs by any means in California must register and pay the assessment fee.
• Q: What happens to eggs that do not pass state inspection?
  • A: Eggs that do not pass inspection are held OFF-SALE by the State or County Enforcement Officer, and they are not released for sale until they are brought into compliance by the responsible party and reinspected and released by an authorized state or county official. Eggs that cannot be brought into compliance are destroyed or sold to breaking plants under certain conditions. Breaking plants receive shell eggs for processing into liquid egg product.
• Q: Where are eggs inspected?
  • A: Eggs are inspected at production plants, wholesale warehouses, retail facilities and farmer’s markets.
• Q: What factors determine the “grade” and size of an egg?
  • A: The grade of a shell egg is determined by the size of the internal air-cell. As an egg ages, the liquid contents evaporate through its pores. The larger the air-cell is, the lower the grade of the egg. The outside appearance also factors into the grade of an egg. Eggs with moderate staining (but not adhering dirt) can be sold as grade “B.” All other grades require a clean, unblemished shell appearance. Dirty eggs cannot be sold to consumers. The size of an egg is determined by its weight, in grams. A small egg must weight 40.16 grams or more, a jumbo egg must weigh 68.51 grams or more.
• Q: Can Non-SEFS breaking stock be brought into the state for breaking, provided that it is clearly marked as breaking stock and not be used for shell egg purposes?
  • A: Yes. There does need to be a process in place that identifies the lot as “breaking product.” Shipping manifests, storage records, sales records, etc., will be inspected/audited to assure that the “breaking product” was indeed used for that purpose.

Link to Egg Quality and Management Home Page

By Dan Charles

Six years ago, Don Cameron, the general manager of Terranova Ranch, southwest of Fresno, Calif., (and California State Board of Food and Agriculture member) did something that seemed kind of crazy.

He went out to a nearby river, which was running high because of recent rains, and he opened an irrigation gate. Water rushed down a canal and flooded hundreds of acres of vineyards — even though it was wintertime. The vineyards were quiet. Nothing was growing.

“We started in February, and we flooded grapes continuously, for the most part, until May,” Cameron says.

Cameron was doing this because for years, he and his neighbors have been digging wells and pumping water out of the ground to irrigate their crops. That groundwater supply has been running low. “I became really concerned about it,” Cameron says.

So his idea was pretty simple: Flood his fields and let gravity do the rest. Water would seep into the ground all the way to the aquifer.

The idea worked. Over four months, Cameron was able to flood his fields with a large amount of water — equivalent to water three feet deep across 1,000 acres. It all went into the ground, and it didn’t harm his grapes.

“This is going to be the future for California,” Cameron says. “If we don’t store the water during flood periods, we’re not going to make it through the droughts.”

Helen Dahlke, a groundwater hydrologist at the University of California, Davis, is working with a half-dozen farmers who are ready to flood their fields this year. “We have test sites set up on almonds, pistachios and alfalfa, just to test how those crops tolerate water that we put on in the winter,” she says.

There are two big reasons for these experiments.

The first is simply that California’s aquifers are depleted. It got really bad during the recent drought, when farmers couldn’t get much water from the state’s surface reservoirs. They pumped so much groundwater that many wells ran dry. The water table in some areas dropped by 10, 20, or even 100 feet. Aquifers are especially depleted in the southern part of California’s Central Valley, south of Fresno. Flooding fields could help the aquifers recover.

The second reason to put water underground is climate change.

California has always counted on snow, piling up in the Sierra Nevada mountains, to act as a giant water reservoir. Water is released gradually as the snow melts.

But because of a warming climate, California now is getting less snow in winter, and more rain. The trend is expected to intensify. But heavy rain isn’t as useful because it quickly outstrips the capacity of the state’s reservoirs and just runs into the ocean. Meanwhile, the state gets very little rain during the summer, when crops need water.

“We really have to find new ways of storing and capturing rainfall in the winter, when it’s available,” says Dahlke.

There’s no better place to store water than underground. Over the years, California’s farmers have extracted twice as much water from the state’s aquifers as the total storage capacity of the state’s dams and man-made lakes. In theory, farmers could replace that water.

Peter Gleick, a water expert and co-founder of the Pacific Institute, says that after winter storms, there is enough water available to recharge those groundwater aquifers.

The hard part, he says, will be getting the state’s farmers and irrigation managers to go along with the plan. Because it will require flooding hundreds of thousands — and possibly millions — of acres.

“I’m cautiously optimistic that we can do this,” he says. But it’s going to require a different way of thinking. It’s going to require a lot of farmers and owners of ag land to be willing to flood land when the water’s available.”

And Gleick says, even if this large-scale flooding can be accomplished, it won’t be enough, by itself, to protect groundwater supplies. It will have to be accompanied by strict limits on how much water farmers can pump from aquifers. Groundwater — which until recently was almost completely unregulated — will have to be managed so that water is there when farmers really need it, when the rains don’t fall.

Link to article

A joint Soil Health Summit hosted by CDFA and the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service is underway today at CDFA headquarters. A webcast of the meeting may be accessed here, and the agenda may be viewed here. CDFA Secretary Karen Ross made opening remarks this morning.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – A new report from several California agencies tracks the significant progress made in 2016 toward achievement of the California Water Action Plan – progress that builds the reliability and resiliency of our water resources.

The report released today highlights the achievements of 2016, the third year that state agencies have been coordinating efforts under the Water Action Plan.  First released by the administration of Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. in January 2014, the Water Action Plan is a five-year framework with 10 overarching goals designed to bring sustainability to California’s water resources and restoration to its most important ecosystems.

The plan’s major goals include making conservation a way of life, increasing regional self-reliance in water supplies, managing and preparing for dry periods, and providing safe water for all communities.  The plan is the foundation for expenditures under Proposition 1, the $7.5 billion water bond passed overwhelmingly by California voters in November 2014.

The 2016 summary of accomplishments was prepared by the California Natural Resources Agency, California Environmental Protection Agency, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

“We built momentum in 2016 that we intend to maintain in 2017 and beyond,” said California Natural Resources Secretary John Laird.  “United by the Water Action Plan goals and enabled by the Proposition 1 funds, we are making investments that will pay off for generations to come.”

California Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross said, ““This plan is critically important beyond the year-to-year fluctuations we experience in precipitation. Looking ahead, we know that we must work together to make every drop of water count in California.”

“The drought has highlighted the challenges California faces under climate change,” said CalEPA Secretary Matt Rodriquez. “The Water Action Plan serves as an invaluable guide to ensure that our short-term responses to the drought are also being translated into actions that make our water system more sustainable and resilient over the long term.”

Some of the 2016 achievements described in the California Water Action Plan Implementation Report – 2016 Summary of Accomplishments include:

• The investment of hundreds of millions of dollars of Proposition 1 funds in local projects that recycle water, improve farm irrigation water efficiency, capture stormwater, and otherwise stretch and safeguard supplies.  These state bond dollars will leverage additional hundreds of millions of dollars of federal and local investment.
• Launch of dozens of habitat restoration projects around the state, including the largest tidal wetlands restoration project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
• Support for the implementation of Klamath dam removal through bond funding and amendments to a key multi-party agreement.
• Creation of a five-agency framework for moving California beyond emergency, one-size-fits-all drought restrictions on water to permanent water-use efficiency standards in a way that accounts for local conditions and demographics.
• Implementation of regulations to carry out the historic Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014, with counties, cities, and local water districts beginning to form the new agencies that will bring groundwater pumping and recharge into balance.
• Launch of a public process to update the water quality standards and flow requirements in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to balance the needs of fish, farms, and cities.  The State Water Resources Control Board began hearings this year to update 20-year-old Delta water quality standards.

For more information about the California Water Action Plan, visit http://resources.ca.gov/california_water_action_plan/.

Link to news release on California Resources Agency web page.

SACRAMENTO—Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today proposed a balanced state budget that eliminates a projected $2 billion deficit and bolsters the state’s Rainy Day Fund while continuing to invest in education, health care expansion and other core programs.

In a letter to the Legislature, the Governor explained that while this year’s budget “protects our most important achievements,” it is also “the most difficult that we have faced since 2012” and “uncertainty about the future makes acting responsibly now even more important.”

Significant details of the Governor’s 2017-18 State Budget include:

Keeping the Budget Balanced

The budget proposes $3.2 billion in solutions to ensure a balanced budget. By tempering spending growth rather than cutting existing program levels, these actions minimize the negative effects on Californians. The solutions include adjusting Proposition 98 spending, recapturing unspent allocations from 2016 and constraining some projected spending growth. In total, General Fund spending remains flat compared to 2016-17.

Bolstering State Reserves

Proposition 2 establishes a constitutional goal of having 10 percent of tax revenues in the state’s Rainy Day Fund. With a $1.15 billion deposit in the budget, the Rainy Day Fund will total $7.9 billion by the end of 2017-18, 63 percent of the constitutional target. While a full Rainy Day Fund might not eliminate the need for further spending reductions in case of a recession or major federal policy changes, saving now would allow the state to soften the magnitude and length of necessary cuts.

Increasing Education Funding

K-14 funding is expected to grow to $73.5 billion in 2017-18, up 55 percent – or $26.2 billion – from 2011-12. For K-12 schools, funding levels will increase by about $3,900 per student in 2017-18, over 2011-12 levels. This reinvestment provides the opportunity to correct historical inequities in school district funding with continued implementation of the Local Control Funding Formula.

Continuing Health Care Expansion

Under the optional expansion provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act, the budget increases enrollment of this Medi-Cal population to 4.1 million Californians, with the state’s General Fund share of cost increasing from $888 million to nearly $1.6 billion.

Counteracting Poverty

California has an extensive safety net for the state’s residents who live in poverty. Since 2012, the General Fund has invested about $18 billion annually to help those in poverty. The budget continues to fund:

• The rising state minimum wage, which is scheduled to increase to $11 per hour in 2018 and $15 per hour over time.
• California’s Earned Income Tax Credit.
• The first cost-of-living adjustment for Supplemental Security Income/State Supplementary Payment recipients since 2005.
• The repeal of the maximum family grant rule in CalWORKs, which denied aid to children who were born while their parents were receiving aid.
• Increases in child care and early education provider rates and children served totaling $837 million.

Strengthening Transportation Infrastructure

Annual maintenance and repairs of California’s highways, roads and bridges are billions of dollars more than can be funded annually within existing revenues. The budget reflects the Governor’s transportation package, first proposed in September 2015, which would provide $4.2 billion annually to improve the maintenance of highways and local roads, expand public transit and strengthen critical trade routes.

Combating Climate Change

The state has appropriated $3.4 billion in cap-and-trade auction proceeds to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, with funding prioritized in disadvantaged communities. With volatility in recent auctions due in part to uncertainty about the program’s post-2020 future, the Administration proposes two-thirds urgency legislation to confirm the program’s continued authority beyond 2020. Assuming approval, the budget proposes $2.2 billion in expenditures from auction proceeds, with a continued emphasis on low-income and disadvantaged communities.

The full summary of the Governor’s budget proposal can be found at www.ebudget.ca.gov.

Link to Governor Brown’s website. 

The glassy-winged sharpshooter spreads Pierce’s disease.

Authorities in San Diego Monday announced a $160,328 settlement against two related plant businesses as part of a civil environmental prosecution alleging the companies unlawfully distributed infested and potentially infested plants throughout the state in May 2014 and February 2015.

The agreement by Plant Source Inc. and Viva Farms LLC resolves allegations made in a lawsuit that claimed the distributors unlawfully sold and transported plants throughout California in violation of the Pierce’s Disease Control Program. The program was established by the state Legislature in response to a statewide agricultural emergency caused by a plant-killing disease that affects California’s grape industry and other agricultural commodities.

“Skirting built-in protections brings consequences,” said District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis. “Environmental laws and programs exist to keep our agriculture and environment safe and thriving for all Californians and visitors.”

The California Department of Food and Agriculture and the county of San Diego Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures investigated the case.

They found that in May 2014, Plant Source, operating under an agreement to comply with the disease control program, failed to follow requirements and unlawfully shipped 35 separate shipments containing 624 crape myrtle plants to Home Depot stores in California.

Seven of the 35 shipments were found to be infested with glassy-winged sharpshooter egg masses. The insect is a large leafhopper, which carries and spreads the plant-killing Pierce’s disease, which can devastate entire crops.

Plant Source was placed under additional plant-shipping restrictions after the 2014 investigation. However, the company again failed to follow the program requirements in February 2015 and unlawfully shipped 48 plants to a non- infested area of San Luis Obispo County, and 315 palm trees to a non-infested area of Imperial County.

Plant Source and Viva Farms cooperated throughout the investigation and worked to enhance their policies and procedures to eliminate improper transporting, officials said.

“This judgment makes it abundantly clear how serious Pierce’s disease is for California,” Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross said. “Whether you sell plants, harvest grapes, make wine, or enjoy grapes at the table, the rules at the core of this case benefit the public by preventing the spread of disease and protecting the vines that are the center of California’s world-class vineyards.”

Link to story

The USDA has released the 2015 Expenditures on Children by Families report, also known as “The Cost of Raising a Child.” The report, developed by economists at USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (CNPP), estimates that for a child born in 2015, a middle-income* married-couple family will spend between $12,350 and $13,900 annually (in 2015 dollars) – or $233,610 from birth through age 17 – on child-rearing expenses. Families with lower incomes are expected to spend $174,690 and families with higher incomes are expected to spend $372,210 from birth through age 17. Many state governments use this annual report, first issued in 1960, as a resource in determining child support and foster care guidelines.

The report details spending by married-couple and single-parent households; for married-couple households, spending in various regions of the country are examined. Housing (29 percent) and food (18 percent) account for the largest share of child-rearing expenses for middle-income, married-couple families, followed by childcare/education (16 percent), transportation (15 percent), and health care (9 percent). Clothing was the smallest expense, at 6 percent, and other miscellaneous child-rearing necessities from birth to age 18 accounted for 7 percent. This report does not include costs related to pregnancy or college costs.

“When CNPP first issued this report in 1960, housing and food were the two highest expenses, just as they are today,” said CNPP Executive Director Angie Tagtow. “But while housing costs have increased over time, changes in American agriculture have resulted in lower food costs, and family food budgets now represent a lower percentage of household income.”

Across the country, costs were highest in the urban Northeast, urban West, and urban South; while lowest in the urban Midwest and rural areas. Much of the regional variation in expenses was related to housing. Differences in child care and education expenses also contributed to regional variation. Overall, child-rearing expenses in rural areas were 24 percent lower than those in the region with the highest expenses, the urban Northeast.

It is important to note that child-rearing costs vary greatly depending on the number and ages of children in a household. As family size increases, costs per child generally decrease.

Link to full news release

The Planting Seeds blog will feature stories this month relating to animal health issues and the activities of CDFA’s Division of Animal Health and Food Safety Services. CDFA works closely with the University of California on these issues. 

By Pamela Kan-Rice, UC Agriculture and Natural Resources

The same weather radar technology used to predict rain is now giving UC researchers the ability to track wild birds that could carry the avian influenza virus. Avian influenza, which kills chickens, turkeys and other birds, can take a significant economic toll on the poultry industry. In 2014-15, the United States experienced its worst bird flu outbreak in history, resulting in more than 48 million birds dying in 15 states, including California.

“We use the existing network of weather radar stations in the U.S. in the same way that radar is used to track rain, except that we process the data to allow us to interpret the radar signal bouncing off birds instead of raindrops,” said Maurice Pitesky, UC Cooperative Extension poultry specialist. “The data can be interpreted to track birds.”

NEXRAD, or next-generation radar, is a network of 160 high-resolution S-band Doppler weather radars operated by the National Weather Service. The technology works best for tracking birds in the winter during feeding. When waterfowl leave their roosting locations in concert to feed, their bodies produce reflectivity of the radar beam.

“By tracking mass bird movements remotely in real time, we hope to gain novel strategic insights with respect to surveillance and prevention of avian influenza transmission to domestic poultry,” said Todd Kelman, a veterinarian and engineer who co-leads the project with Pitesky, who is also in the School of Veterinary Medicine at UC Davis. They are exploring how the information might be used to prevent an outbreak.

In California, waterfowl migrate by the millions from September through March via the Pacific Flyway, where they winter in wetlands, rice and corn fields. The Central Valley alone is home to 3 million waterfowl at the height of migration.

“Using NEXRAD and various other approaches, we hope to be able to produce monthly or quarterly maps that will alert poultry producers as to the locations of waterfowl in the Central Valley of California,” Pitesky said.

“Waterfowl populations can have different habitat based on the amount of precipitation in a given year,” said Pitesky. “Therefore, we need to use these types of monitoring tools to understand where waterfowl are located. Landsat, or satellite-based land imagery, and NEXRAD are two remote tools that may be very useful, as opposed to flyovers and banding, which are more expensive and not practical for large geographical areas.”

The project — funded by UC Agriculture and Natural Resources — is a collaboration between UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and Jeff Buler, University of Delaware wildlife ecologist whose team first developed the NEXRAD approach in the Central Valley of California. They also are working with the U.S. Geological Survey, the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the California Poultry Federation, the Pacific Egg and Poultry Association and Point Blue, an organization that focuses on conservation science.

Link to post

CDFA takes precautions to prevent bird flu and other avian diseases

CDFA’s Division of Animal Health and Food Safety Services protects:

• The safety and security of meat, poultry, dairy products, and other foods of animal origin
• Public and animal health through the prevention, detection, and eradication of livestock and poultry diseases and dairy contamination incidents
• Cattle owners against loss of animals by theft, straying or misappropriation through ongoing inspections and investigative services