The next segment in the Growing California video series, a partnership with California Grown, is “The Beneficial Bean.”

With freezing temperatures in the forecast this week for much of the Central Valley, concern is high for growers of commodities in the midst of harvest, or close to it, such as citrus and avocados. The California Department of Food and Agriculture works collaboratively with these and other commodity groups to help minimize damage and protect consumers.

Citrus growers use a variety of methods to help protect their crops. They often utilize massive wind machines to keep the coldest air from settling on the orchard floor. They may also use water to preemptively form a layer of frost protection on the fruit. This is important because we know that while citrus can sustain temperatures well below freezing for several hours, a few degrees difference may be enough to save the crop.

The citrus industry assesses itself a mil fee—a small percentage of production–to pay for county and state regulatory programs that include CDFA’s Division of Inspection Services conducting temperature monitoring in the coldest areas. The Department uses temperature data to determine if crop samples need to be further examined for internal damage. The samples may be held for several days, because freeze damage may take up to 72 hours to show itself in citrus and 5 days for avocados. This precaution helps keep freeze-damaged produce out of the marketplace.

With CDFA and growers working together, every effort is made to ensure consumers are being sold the very best produce California has to offer.

http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_24500983/greenwaste-biogas-san-jose-food-scraps-energy-zero-waste-green?source=rss#

By Dana Hull

The nation’s largest facility for turning food scraps into biogas is about to go online in north San Jose.

The project is a unique partnership between GreenWaste, which collects garbage, recycled materials and compostibles, and Zanker Road Resource Management, which operates recycling facilities. The two firms formed the Zero Waste Energy Development Company in 2011 to take organic recycling to the next level: extracting energy.

Food waste, largely from restaurants and commercial businesses across San Jose, will be processed at the Los Esteros Road location by 16 massive digestion chambers that each can hold 350 tons of waste.

The process takes roughly 21 days, during which the food breaks down into compost and methane biogas. The gas can then be converted into electricity to power the facility or for use as fuel elsewhere. The technology, known as “dry fermentation anaerobic digestion,” uses bacteria to break down organic matter in an oxygen-free environment and without using large quantities of water.

Scheduled to open later this month, the new facility arrives as California works to divert more materials — from garbage to food scraps to consumer electronics — away from landfills.

“This project is a big milestone for us,” said Jo Zientek, the City of San Jose’s Deputy Director of Environmental Services. “It’s built on a piece of property that’s an old landfill site that’s owned by the city already. And the project is a direct outgrowth of San Jose’s Green Vision.”

San Jose adopted its Green Vision agenda in 2007 with the goal of making the city a world center of clean technology innovation. Included in the plan is an effort to divert 100 percent of waste from landfills and convert waste to energy.

Organic waste such as yard trimmings and leftover food are typically buried in land fills. As the waste breaks down, the landfills often emit methane gas — a potent greenhouse gas that contributes to smog and climate change. Municipal solid waste landfills are one of the largest sources of human-related methane emissions in the United States, according to the EPA, and represent a lost opportunity to capture a significant source of energy.

“The capture rate at most landfills is not efficient,” said Eric Herbert, CEO of Zero Waste Energy, which is based in Lafayette. “Methane is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide.”

Zero Waste’s anaerobic digestion facility, located near the southern tip of the San Francisco Bay, will be the first large-scale commercial operation of its kind in the United States. It’s being developed in three phases over the next several years, with each phase capable of processing 90,000 tons of organic waste each year. When fully operational, it will be one of the largest such plants in the world.

California utilities, including PG&E, are required to buy 33 percent of their electricity from renewable sources by 2020 via the state’s “Renewable Portfolio Standard.” Though much attention has focused on solar and wind power, electricity generated from biogas also qualifies for meeting the standard. So San Jose’s new facility could be replicated throughout the state by cities struggling to figure out how to handle their waste.

Other biogas projects are already operating in the Bay Area. Waste Management Inc., which recycles waste for several cities in Alameda County, is turning its decomposing garbage at the Altamont Landfill near Livermore into electricity and liquefied natural gas. The fuel is then used in the company’s garbage trucks.

“The interest in biogas is growing very quickly,” said Julia Levin, executive director of the recently formed Bioenergy Association of California. “In the long run, there’s a lot of potential for biogas to be used as transportation fuel. San Jose is on the cutting edge, but cities across California are trying to figure out how to better handle their waste. Biogas closes the sustainability loop on so many levels.”

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/09/21/222082247/trader-joes-ex-president-to-turn-expired-food-into-cheap-meals

Here’s some food for thought: One-third of the world’s food goes to waste every year. In the U.S., about 40 percent of our food gets thrown out. It’s happening on the farm, at the grocery store and in our own homes.

Lately, there’s been a lot of talk about what to do about it — from auctioning off food that’s past its prime to getting restaurants to track their waste.

Doug Rauch, the former president of Trader Joe’s, is determined to repurpose the perfectly edible produce slightly past its sell-by date that ends up in the trash. (That happens in part because people misinterpret the labels, according to a report out from Harvard and the Natural Resources Defense Council.) To tackle the problem, Rauch is opening a new market early next year in Dorchester, Mass., that will prepare and repackage the food at deeply discounted prices.

The project is called the Daily Table. Here’s what he shared with NPR’s Scott Simon, edited for brevity.

Simon: What gave you the idea?

Rauch: It’s the idea about how to bring affordable nutrition to the underserved in our cities. It basically tries to utilize this 40 percent of this food that is wasted. This is, to a large degree, either excess, overstocked, wholesome food that’s thrown out by grocers, etc. … at the end of the day because of the sell-by dates. Or [it’s from] growers that have product that’s nutritionally sound, perfectly good, but cosmetically blemished or not quite up for prime time. [So we] bring this food down into a retail environment where it can become affordable nutrition.

A retail environment is a store … or a food truck or something like that?

Yeah, it’s kind of a hybrid between a grocery store and a restaurant, if you would, because primarily it’s going to take this food in, prep it, cook it [for] what I call speed-scratch cooking. But the idea is to offer this at prices that compete with fast food.

Since the food is past its sell date, is it safe to eat?

Absolutely. As a matter of fact, if you have a product that says “sell by Sept. 1” or “Oct. 1” and, you know, it’s Oct. 2, most customers don’t realize you can eat that.

Still, is it a public relations problem to get people to buy stuff that is past due?

Well, we’ll see, won’t we? I think that the issue here is really how you talk about it and how you educate.

For instance, food banks for years have done this. I might say, without naming the names, one of the leading, best regarded brands in the large, national, food industry — they basically recover the food within their stores, cook it up and put it out on their hot trays the next day. That’s the stuff that we’re going to be talking about. We’re talking about taking and recovering food. Most of what we offer will be fruits and vegetables that have a use-by date on it that’ll be several days out.

Well, customers nevertheless have to consume the food pretty quickly.

As you know, when it comes to bread … we all know if you put it in the refrigerator it could last for weeks [even if it’s expired]. Milk lasts for days. It all depends on the temperature of your refrigerator, frankly.

Most people don’t know that, but you lose several days of shelf, whether it’s in code or out of code. Or do you leave the milk out on the counter while your kids are having breakfast? There’s all kinds of ways in which, if you handled it properly, you extend the life.

Is there any concern among, let’s say the people who might own a Trader Joe’s or some other food store today that, somehow, your places are going to be potentially underpricing them?

You’d have to ask them. But most of what we’ll be selling will be fruits and vegetables, freshly prepared product, stuff that’s really not brand-driven. And [we’ll be doing it] in areas that, frankly, are underserved. There aren’t Trader Joe’s in the inner-cities in America, at least to my knowledge.

This is about trying to tackle a very large social challenge we have that is going to create a health care tsunami in cost if we don’t do something about it. I don’t regard Daily Table as the only solution — there are wonderful innovative ideas out there — but I certainly think it is part of and is an innovative approach to trying to find our way to a solution.

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-turkey-beer-20131108,0,4258790.story#axzz2lDIvUHnY

By Ricardo Lopez

Turkeys will eat just about anything. Just ask Joe Morette.

In 1993, the New Hampshire farmer and his workers popped open a few cans of beer after work one summer day. When one his birds knocked over a can, it quickly began guzzling the spilled suds.

Ever since, Morette gives his flock of turkeys beer and swears the grain-based diet improves their taste, the Associated Press reports.

“Oh, yeah, it’s noticeable,” Morette told the wire service. “It’s not a strong, gamey flavor, it’s a nice turkey flavor.”

He’s currently raising about 50 birds for Thanksgiving Day.

Switching poultry and livestock to unconventional diets isn’t new. During last summer’s massive drought, for instance, one Kentucky farmer began feeding his cattle candy because the price of corn skyrocketed.

In France, some farmers have plied their cows with wine. They swear it gives their beef a more textured taste.

But what about PETA?

The animals rights group told the AP that Morette’s actions were questionable, criticizing the practice as profit-motivated. But poultry experts said the birds were probably not drinking enough to make them sick or even tipsy.

http://www.modbee.com/2013/11/18/3039532/farm-exports-hit-record.html

By John Holland

The world’s appetite for what the United States grows has increased again, pushing the nation’s farm exports to an estimated $140.9 billion in the last fiscal year.

Soybeans, corn and other Midwest crops played the biggest role, but the San Joaquin Valley found plenty of foreign buyers for its nuts, wine, dairy goods and other products.

“It’s a really good time for the industry,” said John Mundt, owner of Alpine Pacific Nut Co., a walnut processor east of Keyes. It exports about 60 percent of its 40 million or so pounds of annual production, mainly to China, Japan, Europe and the Middle East.

Agriculture continues to perform well in a Valley economy still feeling the effects of the housing market collapse that started in 2006. And it’s good for the nation’s economy, experts say, to have a sector that exports heavily, helping to make up for imports of electronics, clothing and many other consumer goods.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture Economic Research Service reported the $140.9 billion in exports for the year that ended Sept. 30, up 3.8 percent from $135.8 billion the previous year.

“American agriculture achieved record exports once again in fiscal year 2013, and the period 2009-2013 stands as the strongest five-year period for agricultural exports in our nation’s history,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a news release. “We need to remain focused on keeping up the incredible momentum we’ve seen over the past five years.”

Soybeans were No. 1 by far, followed by corn, wheat, livestock feed and pork – mostly products of the nation’s midsection. Then came tree nuts – mainly almonds, walnuts and pistachios from California.

Mundt said demand is strong in part because of reduced harvests in other countries that grow walnuts, such as China and Chile. He also noted the growing number of people in China and India who have entered the middle class and have money to spend. And then there is the publicity about the health benefits of the nuts.

“People are just eating healthier in general,” Mundt said.

Walnut prices have risen to about $2 per pound for the Chandler variety, and a little less than that for other types, processors report. Just five years ago, prices averaged 64 cents, according to the USDA.

The almond industry, which is several times bigger than the Valley’s sizable walnut industry, also is taking advantage of the health message and rising middle class. Growers are seeing prices around $3 per pound, compared with the 2008 average of $1.45.

Export shipments from August through October were up 6.5 percent versus the same period in 2012, according to the Almond Board of California, based in Modesto.

U.S. wine exports hit a record $1.43 billion in 2012, rising 2.6 percent over 2011, the Wine Institute in San Francisco reported earlier this year. About 90 percent of the total came from California, and much of the state’s volume was at the big wineries in and near Stanislaus County.

The figures show the gross income to food and drink producers, but they do not account for the much-larger ripple effect on the region’s economy. Farmers spend much of their money on labor, fertilizer, fuel, equipment and other costs that go into producing a crop. Tens of thousands of people work at wineries, cheese plants, canneries and other processors, and their spending creates still more jobs.

Dairy products also were high on the latest list of U.S. exports, rising 7 percent. Here too, California and the Valley played big roles.

“Reliance upon exports is not just an aspiration in our industry; it’s a reality,” said Tom Suber, president of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, at its annual meeting in Chicago last month. “Looking ahead, the reality is that exports must not just continue, but continue to grow.”

http://www.modbee.com/2013/11/20/3042330/blue-diamond-growers-rings-up.html

By Mark Glover

California-grown almonds continue to be a red-hot commodity for Blue Diamond Growers, which will report record income of $1.2 billion at its annual meeting in Modesto today.

President and CEO Mark Jansen will talk about the performance in the fiscal year that ended Aug. 30. The revenue is up $189 million from 2012, the first time Blue Diamond crossed the billion-dollar threshold. Income totaled $825 million in 2011.

Blue Diamond, a 103-year-old cooperative owned by Central Valley growers, also will report record grower payments of $828 million during today’s formal presentation at the DoubleTree Hotel. Per-pound almond prices have been strong in recent months for this and other processors.

The annual report includes the first few months of processing at Blue Diamond’s plant in Turlock, which opened in June. The Washington Road plant slices, dices, grinds and blanches almonds after they get initial processing at plants in Salida and Sacramento.

In 2011, Jansen predicted that Blue Diamond would become a billion-dollar company in two or three years. It happened in one. Now, the company has taken a big step toward Jansen’s next target, the $2 billion level, and its growth track shows no signs of slipping.

“I have been surprised by how quickly it has happened, but on the upside, that’s the power of the Blue Diamond brand,” Jansen said. “We’re growing at a 20 percent compound annual growth rate.”

Blue Diamond’s rapid rise is attributed to a proliferation of new almond-based products and an aggressive expansion of those products into international markets. The push was envisioned by Jansen, a marketing/brand specialist, when he came to Blue Diamond three years ago with a goal of transforming Blue Diamond into a “global branded food company.”

To that end, it has unveiled a blizzard of products over the past several years, everything from its Almond Breeze nondairy beverage (including iced coffee variants) to various Nut Thins crunchy crackers to fruit-flavored almonds (blueberry, strawberry and raspberry). Several coffee-flavored almond snacks also are offered.

As products have diversified, Blue Diamond has expanded its reach into China, Japan, the United Kingdom, Australia and France to name a few. It has been cited as a primary reason that almonds are now California’s No. 1 food export.

During its international push, Jansen said, the cooperative has discovered that different countries have varying tastes when it comes to almond products. What is popular in one country might not be in another.

And Blue Diamond has succeeded in creating demand in markets that previously were not acquainted with almonds. In the United Kingdom, for example, Jansen said the popularity of Blue Diamond-branded items has grown through steadfast product introductions and marketing. Jansen said Blue Diamond has won over a UK population that long snacked on cashews and peanuts.

“We’re taking what we learn in different areas and replicating it in various markets,” Jansen said. “We’ve discovered interesting things across geographic categories … coming up with new ideas.”

Blue Diamond also has drawn attention with surgical marketing campaigns. The cooperative launched a TV/marketing blitz during the 2012 Summer Olympic Games in London. Jansen said that “Get Your Good Going” campaign resulted in a 43 percent spike in Blue Diamond sales during the games.

Blue Diamond has similar plans for the upcoming 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. The cooperative just announced a partnership with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association to serve as the official snack nut of the U.S. ski, snowboarding and freeskiing teams. Expect a commercial blitz during Olympic qualifying events leading up to the games and during the Feb. 7-23 Winter Olympics coverage worldwide.

Blue Diamond’s growth at home and abroad also was fostered by two significant milestones this year.

In March, the cooperative opened a new, 6,500-square-foot Almond Innovation Center amid its sprawling complex of buildings along C Street in Sacramento. That center aims to lead Blue Diamond’s development of even more new almond products. Blue Diamond also wants it be a destination for global food companies exploring the potential benefits of almond products worldwide.

In June, Blue Diamond christened the first phase of its new plant in Turlock. The 200,000-square-foot segment represents 40 percent of a three-phase project on 88 acres purchased by the cooperative in 2011. The first phase supports growth of the cooperative’s almond-ingredients business, and the second phase will be developed as demand for Blue Diamond products increases.

Jansen said the state-of-the-art Turlock plant has prompted repeated questions about Blue Diamond’s future in Sacramento, where it employs about 900. This week, he said “we are absolutely not moving our headquarters out of Sacramento.”

Blue Diamond employs about 1,300 overall.