By Mark Anderson

The farm-to-fork movement has been good to many restaurants in the Sacramento region. Easy access to locally grown food has built revenue and reputations.

But it’s not all about the fork. Some small farmers also are getting a boost, selling more products directly to consumers and restaurants.

Growing consumer interest in how food is made has created new opportunities, particularly for growers who focus on popular niche products, said Mary Kimball, executive director of the Center for Land-Based Learning in Winters.

The first folks to build connections between farms and restaurants had a lot of explaining to do, Kimball said. The farm-to-fork movement has changed all that.

“You don’t have a lot of the barriers that existed before. It’s not unusual for a farmer to sell directly to a restaurant or a store, and a lot of that is due to the farm-to-fork message,” she said.

One example is Passmore Ranch in Sloughhouse, where Michael Passmore has raised sturgeon, black bass, trout, catfish and other fish for more than a decade.

“Being a small farm, we can’t compete with the commodity market,” Passmore said. He sells mostly to high-end restaurants, offering the freshest possible products.

When Sacramento launched its first farm-to-fork celebration in 2012, Passmore was a supporter. His fish were featured prominently on both Farm-to-Fork gala dinners held on Sacramento’s Tower Bridge.

“At the time I didn’t see any benefits for us,” Passmore said. “But it has increased our business in Sacramento. It elevated the idea of using our fish and spread our reputation with restaurants and chefs.”

Building connections

Farm-to-fork farming is growing but remains a tiny fraction of the industry, said Dan Sumner, director of the Agricultural Issues Center at University of California Davis and an agricultural economist.

Most farming is done on an industrial scale. Those operations have little to gain by selling directly to restaurants and consumers.

One reason: Farm-to-fork relationships require personal interaction by the farmers with visiting consumers or with chefs in nearby cities. And that can be expensive — in labor costs or in the owner’s time spent coordinating, delivering, marketing or selling at a farmers market.

That work also requires skills very different from those required in traditional farming, said John Young, Yolo County’s agricultural commissioner. He describes the growth of farm-to-fork agriculture as a work in progress.

“What farmers are really good at is farming, and only a minority of them are good at sales,” he said.

Building up a direct sales business requires a constant and consistent marketing effort to restaurants, schools, stores, farmers markets and households. That doesn’t comes naturally to farmers, he said.

“It’s not for everybody, but it has been a benefit to some growers,” Young said.

Some have a long history

Some farmers have sold directly to the public for decades, either on their farms or at farmers markets. Examples include members of the Apple Hill Growers Association in El Dorado County and growers that participate in the Mountain Mandarin Festival in Placer County.

Mandarin orange farmer Tom Aguilar‘s parents began operating Mandarin Hill Orchards in Penryn in 1943. They started inviting people to the farm in the 1950s. Changing consumer tastes, he said, have greatly increased that business.

At one time a typical customer would be a person stopping by to buy a box of oranges. Now it is a family or a group of people who come up to the farm together, Aguilar said. The farm offers food, tours and other activities to strengthen its appeal to visitors.

People are interested in knowing about the farm and how it works, Aguilar said. “The consumer is really quite ignorant about where their food comes from.”

He sells about 30 percent of his crop to people who visit the orchard. He gets a higher price for those sales than for what he sells wholesale to the supermarkets.

“We’ve been doing this all along. It think it is beneficial to our sales, and it is a good way to get our name out there,” he said.

While mandarin oranges have obvious consumer appeal, growers of some less sexy products — like grains — also have had some success from the farm-to-fork movement.

Michael Bosworth started approaching chefs with organic rice from his farm near Wheatland in 2006. At first, it wasn’t easy.

Most rice is mixed in bulk and milled, eventually getting a label of some kind. Bosworth mills and processes his own rice and controls every step of the process.

Some restaurants were interested in his pitch about how his rice is different.

“There was quite a bit of awareness at the higher-end restaurants, but that was it,” said Bosworth, owner of Rue & Forsman Ranch Inc.

Today, Bosworth sells 30 percent of his crop directly to restaurants and food service operations at UC Davis and at Intel Corp. in Folsom.

Changing perceptions

Growing public interest in food production also is changing perceptions about farming as a profession.

“We’ve seen a dramatic change in how people are seeing the farmers,” said Kimball.

Kimball’s Center for Land-Based Learning, which trains farmers, is seeing growing interest from people who want to make agriculture a career, she said. That is a big change in recent years, she said. Farming is now considered an interesting career path. It’s even considered cool.

“I grew up on a farm, and it was certainly not cool,” she said.

Making farming appealing to young people is important. The average age of the California farmer is 60, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Many of those interested in getting into farming are looking at small farms that work closely with restaurants, Kimball said. That kind of farming has been growing. In Yolo County, which tracks it, organic production has grown from $30 million in 2011 to $60 million in 2013.

The search for flavor

Chefs started the farm-to-fork movement by searching for stronger and more interesting flavors. They were reacting to the increasing blandness of some produce, a side effect of industrial agriculture.

“We’ve done a really good job in this country with distribution,” said Yolo agriculture commissioner Young. But the cost of that progress is that a lot of produce is grown to be transported and shelf-stable.

As a result, “We’ve become accustomed to eating anything all year long, like your tomato on a burger,” he said.

By seeking out the flavors of farm-fresh food, chefs have brought back the notion of eating what is in season, said Gail Feenstra, academic coordinator for the Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program at UC Davis.

Among the local pioneers is Sacramento chef Patrick Mulvaney. For years he has contracted with farms for produce he uses at his Mulvaney’s B&L restaurant.

Mulvaney is gratified to see the farm-to-fork movement grow.

“What used to be a conversation with a chef and a farmer is now getting to be a conversation with a hospital administrator and a farmer, or a developer and a farmer, because they are more interested in what they are eating,” Mulvaney said.

“That is a good part of farm-to-fork,” he said. “It creates a conversation where people talk about what they are eating and where it comes from. When you start that conversation, you get people interested and engaged.”

Sacramento Business Journal

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that applications are being accepted for up to $20 million in grants to facilitate the creation of new, innovative markets for carbon credits, providing additional revenue sources for producers to use to address natural resource conservation challenges. These grants are part of the Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) program, authorized through the 2014 Farm Bill.

“USDA has been a leader in supporting market-based solutions to improve water quality and reduce carbon pollution,” Secretary Vilsack said. “With this opportunity, we are supporting the next generation of projects that will help mature these markets and bring them to scale to benefit both producers and the environment.”

For 2015, approximately half of the $20 million is available for environmental markets and conservation finance projects that engage agricultural producers. In past years, CIG has helped fund the development of the basic infrastructure of these markets. This year, USDA, through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is seeking applications for projects that will build on these efforts by maturing and scaling markets and accelerating efforts to leverage private capital and investment in private lands conservation. Improved quantification tools, multi-resource crediting, and projects that substantively engage corporate or financial partners are the types of activities NRCS is pursuing.

As an example, USDA, though CIG, helped fund the development of the first interstate water quality trading program in the Ohio River Basin. Administered by the Electric Power Research Institute, in April, the program is holding its first public auction of water quality credits, generated by farmers in the basin. USDA also funded a project led by the Delta Institute that culminated in the generation and sale of nitrous oxide credits on corn fields in the Midwest. This project demonstrated that greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced on cropland while maintaining corn yields.

USDA is also soliciting proposals for projects to stimulate natural resource improvements, including, but not limited to, improvements in water quantity, soil health, and wildlife habitat. Applications from this funding pool may also emphasize expected benefits to historically underserved producers, veterans, and organic producers. Applications in the fields of economics and sociology as they relate to natural resources are also being welcomed.

Under CIG, Environmental Quality Incentives Program funds are used to award competitive grants to non-Federal governmental or nongovernmental organizations, Tribes, or individuals. The 2014 Farm Bill also included language that has led to some changes in this year’s CIG funding announcement. One change eliminates the requirement that half the applicant’s match be in cash. Another expands eligibility for the 10 percent set-aside provision for historically underserved producers.

As in prior years, NRCS will accept pre-proposals for initial review before inviting entities to submit full proposals. Pre-proposals are due Tuesday, February 24, 2015. To apply electronically, visit http://www.grants.gov or contact a local NRCS office.

Link to news release

———————————————————————————————————-

Story from the Modesto Bee

By Jeff Jardine

One of the perils left over from the Gold Rush era in the Mother Lode is the number of mine shafts still exposed.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management in 2011 determined there were more than 47,000 of them statewide and began working with California’s Department of Conservation to seal as many as possible, including mines near Columbia and Big Oak Flat, both in Tuolumne County.

They missed one, or haven’t gotten to it yet, as a 1,200-pound Brahma cow named Molly discovered in Tuttletown last week. Tuttletown is an old mining community along Highway 49, near New Melones Reservoir.

Molly fell into a 35-foot-deep shaft and spent more than three days down there while local vet Dr. Wes Wittman, Tuolumne County Animal Control Officer Jennifer Clarke and UC Davis’ Veterinary Emergency Response Team worked together to extract her Thursday.

It certainly helped that the animal, raised from a calf by owner Antoinette Nichols, is very friendly with people, making it easier for the vets to go down into the confined space and get her into a harness.

Randy Selesia of Sonora’s Vic’s Towing company hoisted her out of the shaft. Miraculously, she suffered only a couple of bruises, he said.

“That was pretty neat, to see her come out of there alive,” said Selesia, who in his 50-plus years in the towing business also has extracted horses, goats and, of course, vehicles from some pretty deep and steep places. “It was one of those circumstances where everybody worked together. That’s what it is all about.”

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross joined colleagues from across state government this week to honor recipients of the annual Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Awards (GEELA).

The GEELA program is California’s highest environmental honor – recognizing individuals, organizations, and businesses that have demonstrated exceptional leadership and made notable, voluntary contributions in conserving California’s precious resources; protecting and enhancing our environment; building public-private partnerships; and strengthening the state’s economy.

Secretary Ross was pleased to present awards to Parducci Wine Cellars, for its efforts to conserve and reclaim water; to the Lodi Winegrape Commission, for its rules for sustainable winegrowing; and the California Sustainable Winegrowing Alliance, for the development of metrics for water, energy, and nitrogen use, as well as greenhouse gas emissions.

GEELA is administered by the California Environmental Protection Agency, in partnership with the Natural Resources Agency; the Department of Food and Agriculture; the State Transportation Agency; the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency; the Labor and Workforce Development Agency; and the Health and Human Services Agency.

 

By Brian K. Sullivan

California will reach the halfway point in its rainy season this weekend. Hopes that the three-year drought will be washed away are probably already in the past.

While December brought heavy rains that put the state on pace for a normal season, there hasn’t been much precipitation since then. Since Jan. 1, Sacramento and Fresno have received too little to measure.

“We’ve had four weeks of a very minimal amount of rain in the northern part of the state, which is where our key reservoirs lie,” said Pete Fickenscher, senior hydrologist at the California Nevada River Forecast Center in Sacramento.

Now the forecast calls for a high pressure ridge to form along the West Coast, bringing sun, mild temperatures and an extended dry spell.

“They certainly have a dry forecast with that ridge,” said Brian Hurley, a meteorologist with the Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. “That ridge is going to keep it dry through the weekend.”

The ridge may also deflect any storms coming in off the Pacific, sending them farther north, he said.

California’s drought will probably extend into a fourth year if rain doesn’t fall and snow doesn’t pile up in the mountains. Governor Jerry Brown declared an emergency a year ago and asked residents to cut water use by 20 percent.

The drought affects about 37 million people and 77.5 percent of California is suffering extreme drought or worse, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor in Lincoln, Nebraska.

As of Jan. 21, some of the state’s largest reservoirs are ahead of last year’s levels, according to the California Data Exchange Center’s website. Lakes Shasta and Oroville, for instance, have more water in them than they did a year ago.

While it may look optimistic, without rain to sustain them those hopes could fade. According to one measure, the Northern California Eight Station Index, the state is on track for its driest January on record, Fickenscher said.

In order to equal a normal year, California will need 25 inches of liquid equivalent, either from rain or snow, in February and March, based on U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates, said Matthew Rosencrans, a meteorologist at the Climate Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

“They would need records amounts of precipitation to get back to normal,” Rosencrans said. “There will be one or two more storms, but I don’t think it will be the year that turns the tide.”

It may take years to replenish California’s groundwater, Fickenscher said. As for the drought on the surface, the message since the start of the rainy season hasn’t changed.

“What we really need is some concentrated rain back-to-back,” Fickenscher said. “We had one good month; we need to two or three months. It’s looking like it’s probably not going to break out this year.”

Link to story

 

By Edward Ortiz 

The fate of the world’s food supply, the relationship of food to health, and the role of venture capital in farming were among a slate of issues tackled by noted national scientists and others during the official launch of the Innovation Institute for Food and Health at UC Davis on Wednesday.

The center is a partnership between the university and Mars Inc., and signals a deepening of a 40-year relationship between the two.

The institute is destined to operate under the umbrella of UC Davis’ planned World Food Center, which the university has said it wants to establish in Sacramento, possibly in the downtown railyard.

Wednesday’s event at the Mondavi Center was the first held by the innovation institute, which will be funded with $40 million from Mars, the company best known as the maker of Snickers and M&Ms. UC Davis will contribute $20 million.

“This will be a research-based relationship, but there is another element to it. It will also be an innovation-based relationship,” said Harold Schmitz, chief science officer at Mars Inc.

In participating, Mars hopes to find a sustainable business model it can use in the long term for its food operations – especially its growing pet food operation.

For UC Davis, the institute is being seen as a Silicon Valley-like center where startups and innovative research will be created within the food realm.

Mars will not be the only company involved in the center. Other companies, universities and entities will eventually be brought into the fold, said Linda P.B. Katehi, chancellor of UC Davis.

“A number of faculty have already started collaboration work with other companies, and we will invite them to participate,” Katehi said. She did not specify which companies are involved, or what research might be included.

The broad-based approach the institute seeks to take in tackling food issues was evident in the wide-ranging and powerhouse roster of speakers invited to the symposia.

One of those was molecular biologist and Nobel laureate Elizabeth Blackburn, who spoke about how education and genetics affect health. Blackburn won a Nobel prize in medicine in 2009 for her research into how chromosomes are protected by shoelace cap-like end pieces called telomeres.

Blackburn related a key study of 100,000 Californians that found those who did not finish high school had shorter telomeres, a phenomenon correlated with the onset of disease, like cancer.

Blackburn said that an innovation institute could allow such research to get into the hands of those who can use it for the public good.

“Communication is absolutely the key thing,” Blackburn said. “Scientists are skeptical of other areas of science. There’s a lot of mutual mistrust.”

Karen Ross, secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, also attended. “I believe this is a watershed moment for food and health” she said. “At the end of the day, nutrition education is an important foundation for helping our youth learn lifelong habits and this is the kind of thing that should happen in this region.”

Climate change and its effect on food security was also a topic of discussion.

“We’re at a tipping point where we’ve seen warning signals. We can no longer plead ignorance, we’re no longer bystanders,” said Benjamin Santer, atmospheric scientist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. “So, I hope this new institute can do a better job of communicating the science of climate change.”

 

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack has announced that 115 high-impact projects across all 50 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico will receive more than $370 million in federal funding as part of the new USDA Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP).  In addition, these projects will leverage an estimated $400 million more in partner contributions—for a total of nearly $800 million—to improve the nation’s water quality, support wildlife habitat and enhance the environment.  Vilsack made the announcement near Phoenix, where the new program will invest in a project with five local partners to clean and conserve water along the Verde River, a tributary of the Colorado River.

“This is an entirely new approach to conservation efforts,” said Secretary Vilsack. “These partnerships empower communities to set priorities and lead the way on conservation efforts important for their region. They also encourage private sector investment so we can make an impact that’s well beyond what the Federal government could accomplish on its own.”

The RCPP competitively awards funds to conservation projects designed by local partners specifically for their region. Eligible partners include private companies, universities, non-profit organizations, local and tribal governments and others joining with agricultural and conservation organizations and producers to invest money, manpower and materials to their proposed initiatives.

Through the RCPP, partners propose conservation projects to improve soil health, water quality and water use efficiency, wildlife habitat, and other related natural resources on private lands.

Four of the selected projects are connected to California:

1) Expansion of Waterbird Habitat – The current sequence of events for rice production creates a situation where birds are frequently left with abrupt changes in habitat availability. The proposal extends the “watering” season of flooded rice fields beyond just the production phase and adds shallow water habitat in the winter/spring and fall months. This proposal supports the California Rice Commission in expanding the Waterbird Habitat Enhancement Program (WHEP) by 50 percent, thus enhancing the wildlife value of 165,000 acres of rice and the long term sustainability of rice agriculture.

2) Rice Stewardship Partnership – The Rice Stewardship Partnership, composed of Ducks Unlimited, the USA Rice Federation, and 44 collaborating partners, will assist up to 800 rice producers to address water quantity, water quality, and wildlife habitat across 380,000 acres in Mississippi, Arkansas, California, Louisiana, Missouri, and Texas.

3) Tricolored Blackbird Habitat – The Tricolored Blackbird once was abundant in California with a population in the millions. It now has an estimated 145,000 birds remaining statewide, and many predict that it is heading toward extinction. This proposal is a partnership between the dairy industry and conservation groups, with Audobon California as the lead partner, to address the factors that challenge California dairy farmers and threaten Tricolored Blackbirds, with the goal of finding a sustainable solution for management of colonies on farms and saving the Tricolored Blackbird from extinction.

4) Klamath-Rogue Woodland Health and Habitat Conservation – Many at-risk and listed species depend on quality oak woodlands that are threatened by conifer encroachment, densification, and severe wildfires in this project area, covering portions of Oregon and California. Working with landowners, including historically underserved producers, and using a sound, science-based approach, the partners will target 3,200 high-priority acres recently identified in a Conservation Implementation Strategy to preserve, enhance, and restore the structural diversity, ecological function, and overall health and persistence of oak habitats and their watersheds.

A complete list of the projects and their descriptions is available on the NRCS website.

Link to complete news release