http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/08/BABT1NVH29.DTL

Selling eggs in California isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

With Easter celebrated Sunday and Passover under way, the egg holds a prominent spot on the spring holiday table. And agricultural inspectors in the state want to make sure that before the eggs are sold, they’re not broken, dirty, rotten, out-of-date, underweight or in any way tainted. If the sleuths find a bad egg, they’re either dumped on the spot or sent back to the production facility.

Every county in California has an egg-inspection program funded through the state by the egg industry. Most counties rely on state inspectors to do the work. But in 15 jurisdictions, the California Department of Food and Agriculture contracts with the counties to handle the load.

San Francisco, which got $3,884 from the state this year to fund 198 inspections, has a pair of agriculture inspectors from the Department of Public Health who spend a few hours each week on an official egg hunt.

Last year, they examined 50,508 eggs at supermarkets, mom and pop shops, the Wholesale Produce Market and farmers’ markets. Of those, 15,120 eggs, or 30 percent, were rejected, said San Francisco Agricultural Commissioner Miguel Monroy.

Not every egg sold in the city is inspected, but every egg retailer or wholesaler chances a visit from Aldo Zuniga or the city’s other agriculture inspector.

“We don’t make appointments, we just show up,” Zuniga said.

Labeling violations

That’s just what he did last week at Produce Land on Clay Street in Chinatown. There, Zuniga found multiple labeling violations – no sell-by date, no packing date, no processing plant registration number, he said. The eggs also were “very dirty with manure, blood, dust and feathers” still on them, Zuniga noted.

The result: With permission from state regulatory authorities, Zuniga destroyed the eggs – 3,888 in all – dumping them in the trash and rendering the hens’ work wasted. If follow-up inspections uncover additional violations, the store could face civil fines.

But on an inspection earlier in the day at the mega Safeway store at Potrero Center in the Mission, the eggs passed.

Passing muster

Carrying the tools of his trade in an oversized briefcase Zuniga’s first stop was at the refrigerator case where he randomly pulled out a carton of eggs for each brand sold to make sure they were properly labeled. All passed muster.

Next, he notified a manager that he was on the premises and said he wanted to go in the back, where the extra eggs are stowed. With Easter and Passover just days away, the pallets were stacked high with eggs – various sizes, different grades, some white, others brown and a small showing of organic.

Just outside the walk-in cooler, Zuniga set up his candler – a high-powered light with a focused beam that, when an egg is pressed gently against it, illuminates the shell to display cracks and chips and allows the inspector to see inside the shell for defects – broken or discolored yolks, for example.

Candling also allows the inspector to see the air cell – the pocket of air between the shell and the egg white found at the larger end of the egg. The inspector uses a gauge to measure the size of the air cell, which helps determine the grade of an egg. The smaller the air cell, the fresher the egg and the better the grade, with AA being the best.

As part of the manual inspection, Zuniga weighs the eggs to make sure they’re properly labeled and he checks for dirt, manure, feathers and other unsavory elements on the shell.

Of the 100 eggs he inspected at the Safeway, three were cracked, well below the 7 percent allowance. Two or more “dirties,” or four or more underweight eggs, also would have led to rejection of the entire lot of eggs from which the sample selection came. The store passed the inspection.

Zuniga said some of the smaller markets have the biggest problems, among them unmarked cartons and improper refrigeration.

Concern over salmonella

Federal guidelines require eggs to be stored within 36 hours after they’re laid at a temperature no hotter than 45 degrees, whether during processing, transport or point of sale. The chief public health concern is salmonella, a fecal contaminant that can seep through the porous egg shells and cause intestinal and blood infections when ingested. If untreated, the contagion can lead to death.

While public health safety is paramount, it isn’t the only reason eggs are subject to government inspection.

“What we’re looking for is consistency and quality,” said Jay Van Rein, a spokesman for the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/04/07/BABT1NVH29.DTL#ixzz1rfPIGYfG

http://www.sgvtribune.com/editorial/ci_20331016/our-view-quarantine-key-citrus-health

The discovery of a bacterial disease in Hacienda Heights that could wipe out the citrus crop here is not as devastating a prospect for the San Gabriel Valley and Whittier areas as it would have been at the turn of the last century.

In those days, orange groves filled the Valley in particular as far as the eye could see. Though our economy had other rural aspects – some of the largest vineyards in the world, for instance – citrus was king. Prior to Florida’s dominance, especially in juice fruit, we fed the nation its vitamin C, with trainload after trainload heading East packed to the brim.

Now, from Pasadena to Covina to La Habra Heights, our citrus trees are mostly in our suburban backyards. Some of those specimens are actually left over from the commercial groves. Most are planted by homeowners as part of the landscaping – but it’s still a very edible part.

Valencias, navels, Eureka and Meyer lemons, grapefruit, tangelos, pomelos, kaffir limes, kumquats – you name it, we’ve still got the greatest climate for it.

But now, thanks to the discovery of huanglongbing, known as citrus greening or yellow shoot disease, our prize trees are in danger of dying off entirely.

We’d hate to lose our backyard, and frontyard, delight. But the fact is that citrus is still a major cash crop for California. The Central Valley has taken over from the San Gabriel. And we simply can’t afford to let citrus greening get there. Florida, where the disease is already prevalent, has lost an estimated 6,600 jobs and over $1 billion in economic activity to it.

And we can stop it. If local residents follow to the letter the quarantine set up this week by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, prohibiting the removal of any citrus fruit from the property on which it is grown unless it is cleaned and commercially packed, we can lock it down. If the CDFA comes spraying, welcome its workers.

If you are used to bringing lemons over to Aunt Jane’s, get unused to it. It’s probably best to consider our whole region a quarantine zone for two years. Just invite the neighbors in for your citrus rather than taking it out.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/25/4363882/lemon.html

The Meyer lemon tree in front of Will Reichmann’s house is small, but official.

Shortly after buying it, Reichmann registered his humble sapling online as part of a new campaign aimed at proving that even one of the country’s most densely populated cities can learn to feed itself, one crop at a time.

“When the tree gets bigger we’ll participate in gleaning programs and help with food banks,” said Reichmann, a retired social and environmental activist. “There are so many lemon trees around the city and you can’t consume all that you grow.”

The Just One Tree campaign was started by Isabel Wade, an environmental planner who’d been thinking of ways to nudge the city toward greater agricultural independence since leaving her post as executive director of the Neighborhood Parks Council, which she founded. She zeroed in on Meyer lemons after reading a study on San Francisco’s “food watershed” – a 100-mile radius around the city where food is grown and raised. The assessment, conducted by three nonprofits, concluded that some commodities, including citrus, wheat, corn, pork and potatoes, weren’t produced in large enough quantities to satisfy local demand.

Hog farms and wheat fields didn’t seem practical for the city. But the Meyer lemon tree, which doesn’t need much heat to mature, flower and bear fruit year round, seemed an ideal first crop to promote. The fruit already is the citrus rock star of farmers markets and upscale grocery stores, where it’s prized for a signature yellow radiance and fragrant sweet tang.

Technically, the Meyer lemon is believed to be a combination of a mandarin and lemon, first cultivated in China. Its skin is thinner than other lemon varieties, making it hard to ship. But it adapts and grows easily, making it suitable for all of San Francisco’s microclimates.

Based on an estimate from the city’s Department of Public Works, San Francisco already has as many as 4,000 Meyer lemon trees. The city would need 12,000 trees, producing 461 tons a year, to be self-sufficient, according to “foodshed” calculations.

The first phase of Wade’s project involves asking Meyer lemon tree owners to register on Just One Tree’s website. The tree locations will be mapped, creating a hyper-local picture of where they’re growing. The project will also encourage planting, and when crops are sufficient, distributing lemons around the city.

More than 50 tree guardians have already signed on, some of them also posting snapshots of large backyard specimens bearing dozens of lemons, or dwarf plants with still-green fruit. Like a proud parent, Reichmann sent in a picture of his dwarf tree in a terra cotta pot – his second, after his first was stolen, pot and all.

Jeffrey Betcher registered the tree that was a housewarming gift from a boss 14 years ago. Though he’s donating the next crop to a friend for lemonade at her wedding this summer, he hopes to give future bushels to the community.

“The project is interesting because it applies technology to the urban agriculture movement,” said Betcher, executive director of the Quesada Gardens Initiative, a community building organization in Bayview Hunters Point, where his tree is located. “The notion that we can use urban spaces has been around, but what’s new is the trend of asset mapping.”

Wade, who founded the state’s Urban Forestry Program in the 1970s, sees Just One Tree as emblematic of what the city, considered one of the nation’s greenest, can do. San Francisco already supports community gardens that share and donate produce, a fruit gleaning program and a small fruit tree planting project designed to offset carbon emissions.

“We’re very interested in her project,” said Mei Ling Hui, urban forest coordinator at the city’s Department of Environment, which manages the carbon offset project. “It’s a way to frame self-sufficiency and tree stewardship and planting in San Francisco.”

Just One Tree plans to promote a “soda-free summer” and to partner with restaurants to serve water flavored with local lemons. Wade sees other public benefits, including business opportunities in low-income neighborhoods, where there is little available fresh produce, to make and sell lemon products.

“This is something that will show people they can make a difference,” said Wade.

http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/egov/Press_Releases/Press_Release.asp?PRnum=12-010

The California State Board of Food and Agriculture will address farm to school programs at its upcoming meeting on April 3rd in Sacramento. The meeting will be held from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the California Department of Food and Agriculture, 1220 ‘N’ Street – Main Auditorium, Sacramento, CA 95814.

Farm to school programs are a continuing trend in California and provide marketing opportunities for a wide array of farmers and ranchers within the state. However, a variety of challenges are involved in incorporating local farm products within school lunch programs. The state board meeting will focus on these issues, with presentations and discussion by a variety of leaders in the farm to school movement, including Alice Waters, chef, author and proprietor of Chez Panisse in Berkeley. Ms. Waters is an American pioneer of culinary philosophy that maintains cooking should be based on the finest and freshest seasonal ingredients, and she is founder of the Edible Schoolyard Project, which focuses on creating an “edible education” as part of core curriculum in schools.

“Alice Waters is passionate about improving access for all children to healthy school lunches,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “Her vision and experience with the Edible Schoolyard Project, combined with the great work school districts are achieving in developing farm to school programs, is a positive step in connecting farmers to local communities.”

Additional speakers at the meeting will include: David Binkle, Los Angeles Unified School District; Rodney Taylor, Riverside Unified School District; Barbara Grimm, Grimmway Academy/The Edible Schoolyard at Buena Vista School; John Young; Yolo County Department of Agriculture; Sean Leer, Gold Star Foods; Robert Knight, Old Grove Orange; and Delaine Eastin, former California Superintendent of Public Instruction.

“School lunch programs are an opportunity for farmers and school children alike,” said President Craig McNamara, California State Board of Food and Agriculture. “However, challenges exist in allowing local farm products to be included within school lunch programs and we need to identify opportunities and solutions to this issue.”

The California State Board of Food and Agriculture advises the governor and the CDFA secretary on agricultural issues and consumer needs. The state board conducts forums that bring together local, state and federal government officials, agricultural representative and citizens to discuss current issues of concern to California agriculture.

Follow the board on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/Cafood_agboard