California State Veterinarian Dr. Annette Jones has granted a 24-hour permit clearing all brand inspection and health requirements for nine reindeer scheduled to visit California on the evening of December 24 and in the early morning hours of December 25.
The permit application was filed in person by a rotund, jolly man with a red suit, a white beard, and a pocketful of candy canes to share with CDFA staff. The signature on the paperwork reads, “K. Kringle.”
State law mandates that all animals entering California be individually identified. The nine reindeer named on the permit are: Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donder, Blitzen and Rudolph.
The permit was granted with two conditions: the nine reindeer may not co-mingle with other reindeer in the State of California, and the visiting reindeer may not be used for breeding purposes while in the state. They are, however, invited to partake of the Golden State’s famous and varied agricultural bounty if they need to refuel.
“We are pleased to issue this permit to Mr. Kringle,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “We wish him safe travels and plenty of California milk and cookies as he and his reindeer make deliveries to the good children of our state.”
It’s not quite New Year’s Eve yet, but I’ve already got the kernel of a resolution taking root in my mind for 2020. It’s about stories – stories about people. About farmers and ranchers. About the power their stories hold to illustrate the importance of the policies we create and enact and enforce as public servants.
The heartfelt words of a third- or fourth-generation farmer who shares the joy of being able to know that an easement ensures this family land will be there for the next generation and generations to come to grow food and fiber and care for that place provides a sense of what it means to live and work on the land.
One of my SGC colleagues thanked last week’s group of easement recipients for “feeding us – literally, and our souls with the values you shared with us today.” And I thought to myself, “These folks can tell a good story.”
My story starts with a deep-seated passion for the land where I grew up and the land we steward for agricultural production here in California. It comes from my Dad, who was enthralled with conservation and spent hours with our local soil scientist from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. It comes from my maternal grandmother who often said, “We can’t make more farmland” when she sadly reminisced about having to sell her family farm because of too many failed crops and increasing debt in the fifties.
My story continues and my passion is nurtured on an almost daily basis when I witness the amazing work I see farmers and ranchers doing to provide us so much more than just the crop they harvest utilizing conservation practices to improve air and water quality, open space, pollinator habitat and wildlife corridors in addition to beautiful spaces for agri-tourism!
In this holiday season may you, too, know the joys of what this land produces to feed us and may you be inspired knowing the great care our farmers, ranchers, and conservationists give to this land for future generations.
So, back to my resolution – I’ll do it if you will: As you travel and mingle with friends and friends-to-be over the holidays and throughout 2020, seek out the farmers in whatever room you find yourself in. You might have to draw them out a bit, but I promise it will be worth it. They have such great stories to tell.
A thin layer of compost is applied to grasslands in the Altamont Hills. Photo courtesy of UC Merced
By Lorena Anderson
A thin layer of compost applied to grasslands could help fight climate change by capturing carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in the soil, recent research shows.
UC Merced Professor Rebecca Ryals and a team of researchers, ranchers and public agencies will demonstrate this practice for the first time in the East Bay. The project, which began Dec. 3, is funded by a California Department of Food and Agriculture Healthy Soils Demonstration grant.
The collaboration between Ryals, the Alameda County Resource Conservation District and StopWaste (the Alameda County Waste Management Authority) is an example of a partnership that is working to advance the scientific understanding and demonstrate success of ecosystem-based climate solutions in California.
The project began with researchers applying a thin layer of compost on a 10-acre sloped section of rangeland in the Altamont Hills east of Livermore that is owned by StopWaste. Applying compost to rangeland is part of local and statewide efforts to engage agricultural producers in “carbon farming,” practices that help capture greenhouses gases such as carbon dioxide, bolster groundwater recharge, reduce erosion, and increase plant productivity. The state has identified carbon farming as a pillar of its approach to fighting climate change.
The researchers chose the sloping land to measure results and compare them to tests already conducted on flatter areas.
“Most grasslands in California occur in places with highly varied terrain,” Ryals said. “If the results of our study are positive, planners and landowners should feel more confident about applying compost to a wider array of locations, including hillsides, which would greatly expand the applicability of the practice throughout the state.”
“The goal of our project is to demonstrate to ranchers that they can adopt new practices or adapt existing practices to sequester carbon,” Alameda County Resource Conservation District biologist Hillary Sardiñas said. “Many farmers and ranchers already use climate-beneficial practices, but they may not recognize that what they’re doing can help mitigate climate change.”
The Resource Conservation District recently developed a Carbon Farm Plan for StopWaste’s 1,600-acre property. The plan outlines practices — from compost application to riparian restoration — that would sequester carbon while supporting the grazing operation and enhancing wildlife habitat. Spreading compost is viewed as the first phase in several designed to capture carbon.
Over the next three years, Ryals and her lab will measure changes in the amount of carbon stored in the soil and greenhouse gases that are emitted from soil. The team will also measure the co-benefits provided by higher levels of soil carbon, including better water infiltration and forage production.
The partners plan to continue implementing carbon farm practices, measuring the results, and inviting the public, farmers and ranchers to learn how they can get involved.
“This is just the first step,” said Kelly Schoonmaker of StopWaste. “Carbon farming shows a lot of promise in helping to reverse climate change impacts while returning organic matter back to the soil. We’re also excited about the potential for improved forage for the cows, increased water holding capacity in the soil, and being a model for other landowners in the state.”
By Jeanette E. Warnert, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources
Hedgerows bordering farmland – plantings with native trees, shrubs, bunch grasses and wildflowers – support bug-eating birds, which helps with on-farm pest control, according to research by recent UC Davis graduate Sacha Heath and UC Cooperative Extension advisor Rachael Long. The study was published in the October 2019 issue of the online journal Ecosphere.
The authors glued codling moth cocoons to walnut tree trunks and covered some with cages that exclude birds to test the effect that bird predation has on controlling moth pests. If moths emerge from cocoons, they produce larvae that feed on the nuts the following spring, causing significant and costly damage to the crop.
“Permitting bird access to cocoons during the wintertime increased codling moth predation from 11% to 46%, and predation increased with an increasing amount of natural habitat within 500 meters (one-third mile) of the orchard,” the researchers wrote.
Long was not surprised by the finding. She often walks in her family’s almond orchard, where a large hedgerow of native California plants grows on the field edge.
“When I walk past the hedgerow,” she said, “I hear birds singing. I see white-crowned sparrows, goldfinches and mocking birds. It’s so alive. It’s really important to provide habitat to ensure birds have a place to live on farms.”
Songbirds are voracious predators of bugs, including aphids, whitefly, scale, caterpillars, ants and earwigs, especially early in the season when they are feeding baby birds.
Heath said they were surprised to find that the walnut orchards also provided habitat for birds. Woodpeckers and codling moth reduction were highest in orchards where big, old walnut trees were retained.
Currently, 34% of earth’s arable land is managed for agriculture. With the human population projected to reach nearly 11 billion by 2100, increased food demand will require increased agricultural area and intensity that will further diminish birds’ natural habitat. Providing habitat along field crop borders benefits songbirds, which in turn helps farmers with natural pest control on farms.
Birds’ suffer a reputation as agricultural pests. But Long said that planting hedgerows along field edges won’t attract more pest birds.
“Birds like crows, that can damage crops like walnuts, are not cuing in on hedgerows, they’re cuing in on the crops,” Long said.
Heath added, “Insect-eating birds – like chickadees, nuthatches and woodpeckers – move along hedges, riparian streams, old oak trees, and among crops to feed on pests.”
Maintaining hedgerows of native plants on farms has the side benefit of attracting natural enemies and native bees for better pest control and pollination in adjacent crops.
CDFA veterinarian Dr. Katie Flynn received the American Association of Equine Practitioners President’s Award last week during the organization’s annual meeting in Denver. The President’s Award, selected by the sitting AAEP president, is given for contributions beneficial to the health and welfare of horses. Dr. Flynn serves as chair of the AAEP Infectious Disease Committee and has developed in a short time a number of new and important vaccination guidelines and biosecurity educational opportunities.
Opinion Piece by Judith Redmond and Julie Finigan Morris
When you think about farms at the front lines of climate-related challenges, you may think of extreme weather, floods or drought. But did you know we’re also at the front lines of wildfire?
Both of our farms — Full Belly Farm in the Capay Valley and Morris Grassfed in San Benito County — have felt the stress of climate change. At Morris Grassfed, we’ve had to cut back our herd numbers so as not to overgraze during drought. Last June at Full Belly we came face to face with the Sand Fire, prompting mandatory evacuations and burning some of our farm buildings and 25 acres of heirloom wheat. One year before that, we were up-front observers of the fight to put out the County Fire that burned more than 90,000 acres, leaving still-prominent scars in the hills surrounding our farm.
Farms, ranches, dairies and rural communities can help protect our neighbors by creating wildfire buffers around urban areas. And well-managed agricultural land offers additional climate-smart solutions, like recharging groundwater tables, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and storing carbon, all while producing healthy food.
At Morris Grassfed, we manage our cattle grazing to optimize soil health, plant biodiversity and water quality. The benefits to our community include carbon sequestration, improved watershed health, wildlife habitat and breathtaking views of open space, a vanishing part of the California landscape.
At Full Belly Farm, where we produce more than 100 organic products, we are experimenting with a combination of cover crops, compost, reduced tillage and hedgerows of trees and shrubs to maximize soil carbon storage which also improves yields, disease resistance and water-holding capacity.
We think these high-impact, low-cost practices are worthy of investments to encourage farmers and ranchers to take the risk of trying new practices. And many of our elected officials seem to agree.
The state has invested more than $330 million in the past five years on climate smart strategies. More than 320 grants totaling about $50 million have been made for soil health practices like the ones we use, turning farms and ranches into carbon sinks. And these aren’t the only agricultural climate solutions the state funds.
Farmers and ranchers can conserve water and energy by improving irrigation efficiency, installing state-of-the-art soil moisture monitoring equipment and converting to solar. Dairy producers can reduce potent methane emissions and turning manure into compost. Protecting agricultural land from urban sprawl development — and creating those critical wildfire buffers — is another powerful climate solution.
The state programs have all been very popular and but there has not been enough funding available to meet the demand.
With larger investments, more of our farms and ranches could soak up carbon, reduce air and water pollution to create healthier people, and increase their resilience to the droughts, fires and floods that threaten our food supply and communities. Farmers and ranchers need the support of the governor and legislature to unleash the many climate solutions they can contribute so that all Californians benefit.
Let’s scale up California’s climate smart agriculture solutions by advancing policies and public investments so we can manage for the outcomes we want — healthy people, thriving landscapes and robust rural economies.
Judith Redmond is co-owner of Full Belly Farm, a diversified organic fruit, nut and vegetable operation in Guinda, CA.
Julie Finigan Morris is co-owner of Morris Grassfed, a grassfed beef operation in San Juan Bautista, CA.
Long-time CDFA employee Tammy Sulli is honored by Secretary Karen Ross (R) and Division of Measurement Standards director Kristin Macey as she prepares for retirement after 34 years at CDFA. Tammy worked in several other divisions during her career, including Animal Health and Food Safety Services, Human Resources, and the Executive Office. Best wishes, Tammy!
The USDA is investing a total of $237 million throughout the US to help farmers, Ag producers and rural businesses lower energy costs. More $7.6 million of that is coming to California for 12 different projects. The funding is provided through the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP).
Recipients can use REAP funding for energy audits and to install
renewable energy systems such as biomass, geothermal, hydropower and solar. The
funding can also be used to increase energy efficiency by making improvements
to heating, ventilation and cooling systems; insulation; and lighting and
refrigeration.
The California recipients are:
RP Napa Solar 1 LLC – $4,500,000 for a solar power generation facility
IP Malbec LLC – $1,900,000 for a solar power generation facility
