A cherry orchard in the Silicon Valley.
Photo by Santiago Mejia, SF Chronicle

By Sam Whiting

For four generations Chris Borello’s family has been farming cherries in the Santa Clara Valley, hopscotching their orchards south as developers bought out their land for housing.

So it was no surprise when a white van came up the long dirt driveway to his orchard in early February. The visitors were interested in his 115 acres, sure enough, but not as developers or speculators. They were farm preservationists looking to buy his development rights, in what is called an agricultural conservation easement.

“We could farm it forever,” Borello said, “if we can work out an easement.”

The van carried members of the Santa Clara County Planning and Development Department and the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. They’ve partnered up to use cap-and-trade funds earmarked for mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions and loss of land to high-speed-rail to keep farmers farming. The statewide program, called the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Project, has committed $76 million, and high-speed rail $20 million, all to be disbursed through the Department of Conservation.

“This creates a huge possibility to take the southern part of our county and build an economic model that redeploys agricultural uses in a modern way,” said Dave Cortese, a third-generation San Jose apricot and prune farmer, a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors.

The Santa Clara Valley Ag Plan, as it is known, is the first of its kind to merge protection of farmlands with California’s climate strategies, by replacing the incentive for growers to cash out to land speculators.

Any day now, the first deal is set to close, Fountain Oaks Ranch, a 70-acre bell pepper and sweet corn farm next to a golf course in Morgan Hill. The price was $7 million, split between the city of Morgan Hill and the state. It is probably the most expensive agricultural easement ever purchased by a public entity in California.

We have a tremendous agricultural heritage here,” Cortese said, “and we’ve lost thousands and thousands of acres and it continues to happen.”

When Cortese’s grandfather came here from Italy, the orchards and rows of crops extended from Los Altos to Gilroy. It was called the Valley of the Heart’s Delight, and the area’s canning operation was said to be the largest in the world.

Then the computer industry arrived and began its march southward from Stanford University through Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and San Jose. Today, the next area in its path is Coyote Valley, a long and narrow belt of 7,500 acres on a patchwork of borderlands between the city limits of San Jose and Morgan Hill.

One-third of this acreage was annexed by the city of San Jose decades ago, and a freeway exit off Highway 101 is already there, four lanes and an overpass at Bailey Avenue. This was the exit intended to service a 700-acre Cisco Systems campus that never got built on city land north of Bailey. It was recently one of the areas proposed to Amazon for its second headquarters, but San Jose did not make the cut.

“Bailey Avenue was built for the city that never came,” said Andrea Mackenzie, general manager of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. “It is zoned for industrial development, but it can be saved still.”

The acreage north of Bailey Avenue is designated for a tech campus, but for now the freeway exit leads only to farm roads to the west of Highway 101 and the Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve to the east. Standing on the frontage road, Mackenzie looks north and west across nearly 2,000 acres. “Last Chance Valley” she likes to call it.

“Speculation has been hanging over Coyote Valley for decades,” she said. “It was supposed to be developed so many times over the years.”

The larger valley south of Bailey Avenue would appear to be safe because it has been designated an urban reserve through 2040 under the general plan of the city of San Jose. Farther south is an unincorporated greenbelt that serves as a buffer between San Jose and Morgan Hill.

But Silicon Valley was built by paving reserves and greenbelts. To further protect Coyote Valley, the Ag Plan has identified 33 growers, all but three below Bailey Avenue. They raise alfalfa, oats, wheat, grain, mushrooms, cut flowers, and a broad array of vegetables, nuts and fruit. One by one, these growers will be visited by the same white van with a county seal that visited Borello.

The county agents are not looking for a quick sale, and they are not lowballers. They will pay the full appraised value as reviewed by the state’s Department of General Services.

“We have just one tool. We will approach them and say, ‘Can we buy a conservation easement on your property?’ said Rob Eastwood, planning manager for Santa Clara County. “The goal is to get easements on thousands of acres from willing sellers.” Once the easements are in place, they last into perpetuity. If the land is sold, the easement goes with it.

The Santa Clara program is lacking a clever acronym but is otherwise a copy of MALT, the Marin Agricultural Land Trust, begun in 1980. Now a national model, MALT buys conservation easements on farms and ranchlands and assists landowners with stewardship, mostly in the remote areas of unincorporated West Marin. In late January, MALT closed on a 609-acre easement in Marshall, to take it beyond 50,000 acres total.

Last year, MALT spent $3.5 million on conservation easements, funding largely by a quarter-cent sales tax approved by Marin County voters in 2012. The Santa Clara County Ag Plan might also need a voter initiative to attain a dedicated stream of funding. A two-year study, accepted by the county Board of Supervisors in January, identified 28,391 acres of farmland at risk of development to add to 21,171 acres that have been paved over in the past 30 years. To save what is still green might cost $100 million, which will far exceed funds available from the state.

“If agriculture is to not only survive but thrive in Santa Clara County, we need a coordinated set of strategies that recognize the contribution of working lands to a resilient and sustainable region,” Mackenzie said.

The test case for the Ag Plan is Borello’s cherry orchard, which is zoned agricultural and sits 3 miles south of the San Jose border and 2 miles north of Morgan Hill.

“We are ranchers,” Borello, 36, said of his family business, “but we are also real estate developers.”

Most recently, his family went through the entitlement process for 120 acres in Morgan Hill that it then sold as Borello Ranch Estates to Toll Bros. It is being chopped into 244 homes, starting at 3,000 square feet. Borello won’t give the price he got, but flat farmland in Morgan Hill that has already been entitled goes for $1 million an acre.

In July, he and two partners then bought this mature 115-acre cherry grove in Coyote Valley from another cherry farmer. The land, which might be on the route of the high-speed rail line, is so expensive that every dollar he can pull out of his cherry crop will service the debt. The only profit is in entitling the land for residential or industrial use.

But that could take 10 to 15 years, he says, and there are no guarantees. If he could come to terms with the Ag Plan, the deal could be done in less than a year and he could get $10 million. That could keep him farming cherries, and he’d be willing to consider public access to the land, via trails.

“I love the idea of keeping the land open,” he said. “But if everybody wants to look at it, everybody should pay for it.”

Borello sits on the Board of Directors of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau. If he sells his development rights to the agricultural easement it might persuade other growers to look at the Ag Plan.

But it might not save the 220 acres of cherries contiguous to his land. That property is owned and farmed by Chris Marchese, who has been in Coyote Valley long enough to watch all the farm infrastructure disappear. The nearest packing house for his cherries is now in Lodi, 100 miles away.

The orchard is within the San Jose city limit, though it has no city services, and he says it has long been zoned for housing. Only tradition and guilt have kept Marchese farming, but they have worn thin. In January, he filed for preliminary review to pursue development of his property into 270 homes.

It may be a long battle because the San Jose general plan designates Marchese’s land for agriculture, and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo said in his recent State of the City speech that he favors exploring conservation opportunities in Coyote Valley. But Marchese is adamant that his zoning supersedes the city general plan.

“We need housing, and housing can be had here,” he said. “That Ag Plan is too little too late.”

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By Cara Rosenbloom

If you’ve noticed a positive change in food trends over the last 10 years, thank a millennial. Loosely defined as people born from the early 1980s until about 2004, millennials are the largest U.S. age demographic, and as such they are key tastemakers. Their food preferences are helping determine what you’ll find in grocery stores and restaurants across the country.

Millennials are in college, starting new jobs, getting married or having kids. Right now, there are more millennials in the workforce than any other age bracket, and their consumer choices matter. Here’s how this generation is influencing the way we eat. ( These are generalizations based on statistics, and not necessarily true for every millennial you know.)

They want the truth from food manufacturers. Big food producers are starting to listen to consumer demands for transparency about ingredients and sources, and this request is largely driven by millennials who want to know how their food is made. We all benefit from seeing more informative food labels on grocery store products.

They love customization. Millennials don’t want the same sad burger that everyone else is eating. They want to custom-design the flavor and personalize their meal. And why not? They are paying for the food; it may as well be exactly what they want. If you notice more quick-service restaurants offering customizable options that you love, thank a millennial for that.

They want easy. According to the International Food Information Council’s 2017 Food and Health Survey, 55 percent of millennials say convenience is a top driver when buying food, while baby boomers say taste matters more. Millennials are the drivers behind meal kits, grocery delivery services, food trucks, online ordering and the growth of heat-and-eat options at grocery stores.

They are redefining “healthy.” If you ask a millennial what a “healthy” restaurant food is, they won’t say low-fat or high-fiber. According to statistics, they may tell you it’s food that’s natural, organic, locally sourced or sustainable . That’s why many menus now list the farm where your lettuce was grown or offer organic options.

They want better baby food. When my daughter was born 11 years ago, feeding a baby was all about powdered rice cereal and jars of mashed green beans. Have you strolled down the baby food aisle lately? You’ll find gourmet blends in convenient pouches — organic chicken risotto and portabella mushrooms, anyone? Becoming a parent changes food habits more than any other milestone, and millennials tend to focus on food quality once they realize they are responsible for feeding a little person. While some of the products are outlandish, the variety and quality has certainly improved because of demand.

They value the planet. While older shoppers still read labels for information about calories and fat grams, millennials are more interested in how the food was sourced and grown, and how that affects their carbon footprint. Sustainability is a priority for them when buying food at grocery stores or restaurants. Millennials’ awareness of environmental issues has influenced food manufacturers to institute better earth-friendly practices.

They love to snack. Because some millennials graze instead of eating large meals, snack options have exploded, and there are many healthy offerings, such as chia seed pudding, roasted chickpeas and popped sorghum. Millennials have also pushed food companies to meet their need for convenience by demanding food packages that are resealable, easy to open and portable.

They love the keto diet. According to IFIC, 47 percent of millennials say animal protein is healthy, whereas just 26 percent of older cohorts say this. And millennials are more likely than older cohorts to say saturated fat (found in keto-friendly coconut oil, cream and butter) is healthy. Whether you love or loathe the high-fat keto diet, millennial interest is driving researchers to take a closer look at it, so we will have some evidence-based answers about its efficacy soon.

They will try anything. Millennials are described as open-minded and curious. They like trying new flavors, love ethnic cuisine and won’t shy away from vegetarian and vegan options. As menu choices expand and you try new things, know that’s driven by millennials.

While there are many positive changes in food and nutrition because of millennials, there is one troublesome statistic to note. According to IFIC, about 40 percent of millennials say that friends and family are a top source of their nutrition information (only 21 percent of boomers give that answer — they trust doctors and dietitians more).

There’s no way to know how trustworthy someone’s sister’s nutrition information is. Plus, millennials rely heavily on websites, bloggers and social media fitness professionals for health information. This can spread nutrition myths (like their love of organic food), and can be harmful for future generations, including their very well-fed babies.

Registered dietitian Cara Rosenbloom is president of Words to Eat By, a nutrition communications company specializing in writing, nutrition education and recipe development. She is the co-author of “Nourish: Whole Food Recipes Featuring Seeds, Nuts and Beans.”

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Photo courtesy of AgNetWest

Note – This beginning farmer training program received funding from CDFA’s Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

A recently developed beginning farmer training program has officially been approved by the California State Division of Apprenticeship Standards.  The California Farm Academy Beginning Farm and Ranch Manager Apprenticeship Program has been established by the Center for Land-Based Learning (CLBL) as a means to increase the number of young people who are prepared to take on managerial roles on the farm.

There is an increasing need to further develop the next generation of farmers and ranchers to become skilled farming professionals.  As older farmers begin contemplating retirement, those management positions will need someone to step in and take over.  There have also been other efforts in recent years aimed at enabling young and beginning farmers to start their own operations.

“Having an accredited apprenticeship like this for agriculture in California is a big milestone,” said CLBL Executive Director Mary Kimball. “California is facing a shortage of qualified farm managers and operators, as an entire generation is on the cusp of retirement. This is also incredibly helpful to beginning farmers in the state, who finally have a legal, formal apprenticeship program approved by the State that trains to one standard,” Kimball noted.

The Beginning Farm and Ranch Manager Apprenticeship provides professional training for producing specialty crops.  The program requires 250 hours of coursework and another 3,000 hours of paid on-the-job training on a farming operation.  Participants will receive hands-on experience under the mentorship of a seasoned farmer.  After completing the program, apprentices will have the necessary education and business management skills to advance their professional agricultural career.

The effort to get the beginning farmer training program approved was a collaboration between CLBL, Soil Born Farms and the Division of Apprenticeship Standards. The California Department of Food and Agriculture was also integral to the two-year process with grant funding provided by their Specialty Crop Block Grant Program.

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Joint ACP Biocontrol Task Force honorees this month at the Department of Pesticide Regulation’s annual integrated pest management awards ceremony. From left, Dr. Mark Hoddle of UC Riverside, Dr. Gregory Simmons of USDA, Dr. David Morgan of CDFA, Department of Pesticide Regulation director Brian Leahy, and Jim Gorden, chair of the task force.

From a California Department of Pesticide Regulation news release

The California Citrus Research Board (CRB) has received an Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Achievement Award for its work in establishing biological controls for the Asian citrus psyllid.

The awards, bestowed annually by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), recognize organizations that use IPM to address the diverse pest management needs throughout California. IPM is a tool that allows the management of pests by using natural and preventative strategies, and thus reducing the use of chemical pesticides.

Each time I drive through California’s Central Valley I am in awe of how much food it produces. The Valley is responsible for almost 10 percent of the country’s agriculture value and is home to many of California’s most productive dairies. In fact, 90 percent of California’s milk is produced in eight counties – all located in the center of our great state. California is the country’s number-one milk producer and our dairy farmers work diligently to provide the highest quality milk for America’s families.

A great many of these dairies are family run. They have been passed from one generation to the next and have become a staple of the Valley’s landscape. But along with milk, Central Valley dairy farmers are increasingly producing something they never have before – renewable energy – and are doing it using manure from cows.

Earlier this month I joined hundreds of dairy farmers, industry representatives, public officials and academics for a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the opening of the Lakeview Dairy Digester and two other digester facilities in Kern County.  The mood was electric (although that might have been the electricity buzzing through the digester system!)

As I spoke with our partners who helped make this project a reality, I could not help but appreciate a genuine synergy.  When we were developing the Dairy Digester Research and Development and Program that helped fund the project, we knew that sister agencies like the California Energy Commission, the Air Resources Board, and the California Public Utilities Commission as well as private partners like California Bio Energy would be integral in bringing these projects to life and having them stay operational for many years to come. It was refreshing and energizing to see dairy families working with public and private partners to create something that produces benefits for all Californians.

Digesters work by capturing methane released by manure in covered lagoons. The captured methane is then broken down in a high-efficiency generator, where it produces renewable electricity. By using this system, the Lakeview Dairy Project is expected to cut methane emissions by approximately 75 percent and produce 6.7 million kWh of electricity annually – enough to power 757 homes for one year!

Along with energy production, these three projects will collectively reduce an estimated 503,990 metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent over 10 years, which is equal to taking 107,921 passenger vehicles off the road. In total, the 24 projects supported by the DDRDP will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide-equivalent.

The Lakeview project also serves as an excellent example of California’s innovative “hub and spoke” model for meeting our low carbon fuel standards, reducing emissions, and upgrading California’s transportation infrastructure. The concept is simple. One centrally located operation (the hub – in this case Lakeview) collects raw dairy biogas through low pressure PVC pipelines (spokes), from a group of existing dairies. The hub then serves as focal point for cleaning, conditioning and upgrading the gas to be used as fuel for transportation.  Not only does this model significantly reduce construction costs and environmental impacts, but also demonstrates how cooperation and collective action helps us modernize transportation to meet our climate goals.

I am particularly proud of the environmental rigor in these projects. These digesters have met the strictest water and air quality requirements by double-lining their lagoons to meet the San Joaquin Valley’s strict NOx air quality limits and ensure protection of groundwater from nitrates. These technologies also help reduce odors and reduce overall dairy operating costs.

It was heartening to hear the experience of Cal Bio Energy’s management team explain their appreciation and positive experience in meeting the new requirement for community outreach. According to them, this turned into a great opportunity to understand any existing concerns, answer questions, and explain to employees, neighbors and other local community stakeholders how the project operates.

I want to applaud the leadership of all the parties involved in making these projects possible. Achieving our ambitious greenhouse gas reduction goals will require cooperation between industry, government agencies and the public.  To quote Governor Jerry Brown, “Taking significant amounts of carbon out of our economy without harming its vibrancy is exactly the sort of challenge at which California excels.”

Photo courtesy of Cultivate California

By Danielle A. Martin

Rick Borges knew at a young age that he was going to be a farmer.

It was something his great grandfather, grandfather and father did before him.

“As I grew up, raised on the farm, every weekend all summer I spent it out in the open, on the farm helping my dad and my grandfather,” Borges said. “When I went to school, going though classes and being indoors made me realize I don’t like being indoors. I do not want to be in an office, I want to be out in the open and that is what solidified my role in life.”

Borges now continues the legacy generations before him started with his son, Greg. The family farms cotton on the west side of Tulare.

“We are two years away from being on the same piece of property for 100 years,” Borges said, “It makes me so proud having him here and wanting to continue this on. He had different aspirations when he was away in college but when he came back he realized, as I did early on, out on the ranch back home is the best place to be.”

Whether it’s the memories Borges creates with his son or the nostalgia he gets from farming with his father and grandfather, he truly appreciates the simple joys farming gives him.

“…going back old school, going back to when I grew up, in the open air, with the smell of fresh cut hay, fresh-tilled soil and sitting on a tractor with no radio, alone with your thoughts, just makes me feel great,” Borges said. “That’s why my heart drew me to stay in agriculture.”

Each member of the Borges family was at the World Ag Expo Show (earlier this week) either as volunteers or exhibitors.

The Borges family is also part of the 97 percent of farming operations owned by families. Farmers agree it’s the tradition and the bond that has kept businesses in the family generation after generation.

“Those of us who have been in agriculture, especially here in Central California, are some of the luckiest people in the world,” said Steve Malanca, creator of My Job Depends On Ag campaign. “We would like people to realize that agriculture is family farms.”

But, keeping a family farm alive is becoming another challenge farmers are facing. Individuals in the agriculture industry are also fighting battles with regulations, foreign competitors, trade and in California, water.

Young adults born into a family farming operation or the agriculture industry are seeking careers with fewer hurdles, Malanca said.

“I can tell you that the generation that created these millennials today have a perception that agriculture things are so tough, especially in this state and the thing that we deal with is almost insurmountable,” Malanca said.

For those interested in a career in agriculture, Malaca compared opportunities in the Central Valley to tech opportunities in Silicon Valley.  He argued because of its diversity, the Valley is a great place for first time farmers.

Programs such as Future Farmers of America and universities with agriculture programs encourage students that the industry can be just as rewarding and is filled with opportunity.

Genevieve Regli, California FFA state officer, is a fifth-generation dairy farmer.

“The day after I was born I was dragged home to the farm and since then part of my daily routine was feeding calves, getting up at 6 a.m., moving irrigation, milking cows, you name it, we did it,” Regli said. “Ever since then, I’ve had such a passion for agriculture and that background really helped foster that.”

She used her story as a dairy farmer and student to educated and promote the industry to young people at the farm show.

“The actual average age of a farmer is 58 years old. And while you see young students interested in agriculture, it’s not the actual production side of things,” she said. “It could be ag marketing or ag lobbying.”

Her family motto is simple.

“Faith, family and agriculture was our way of life,” Regli said. “…97 percent of the world’s agriculture is family-owned and operated and that plays such a huge factor in making sure the youth know, maybe they aren’t a fifth-generation farmer, but they can be a first-generation farmer.”

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