California Grown and Visit California are teaming up to produce the #Farm2Fan video series, profiling farms throughout California and fans of those farms who stop by for a visit.

 

By Kari Barbic and Veronica Nigh of the American Farm Bureau Federation

America’s farmers and ranchers support free trade. And when you look at the numbers, it’s not hard to see why.

Between 2003 and 2015, U.S. agricultural exports to countries with which we have trade agreements increased more than 136 percent—from $24.1 billion to $57 billion. During the same time period, U.S. agricultural exports to countries where we don’t have trade agreements (excluding China) only increased by 84 percent.

Here are three key reasons farmers support free trade:

1. Trade agreements generate more agricultural business—a lot more.Farmers and ranchers do more business where the U.S. has established free-trade agreements. More customers equal more business: Logic alone makes that case. But the numbers backing up the facts and logic are staggering.

   In the 20 years following the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement, our total exports to Canada and Mexico have quadrupled, growing from $8.9 billion in 1993 to $38.6 billion in 2015. The U.S. enjoys a 65 percent market share in the NAFTA market, compared to our market share in countries where we don’t have a trade agreement, 11 percent.

   Before NAFTA, Canada was the fourth-leading U.S. market. It is now the No. 1 market for our agricultural exports, and by far the largest U.S. market for high-value, consumer-oriented products. Mexico’s imports of feedstuffs from the United States are closely linked to its quickly growing poultry and pork industries. It is the top market for U.S. corn, soybean meal and poultry, as well as the second largest market for U.S. pork.

   But North America isn’t the only place agricultural business has picked up, thanks to free-trade agreements. In Asia-Pacific countries such as Singapore and Australia, where we have trade agreements, U.S. agricultural exports have more than doubled and tripled, respectively.

2. We need trade agreements to level the playing field for our goods abroad.Though American-grown food, fuel and fiber are prized around the world for quality and value, high tariffs and non-scientific trade barriers place our products at a disadvantage in countries where we have no free-trade agreement. Why buy the best, when you can get second-best at half the cost?

   We don’t have to look far from our shores to see how this plays out. In Cuba, financing restrictions on U.S. products have placed us behind other countries in trade there. The U.S. share of the Cuban market has slipped dramatically, from a high of 42 percent in the 2009 fiscal year to only 16 percent in fiscal year 2014. The United States is now Cuba’s third-largest supplier, after the European Union and Brazil.

   Without agreements that look out for American business, other countries quickly turn to more accessible markets. Other countries will, and do, trade freely without us. The negotiating table, not the podium, is the place for tough talk that protects American businesses and increases our reach to markets abroad. But it’s harder to be taken seriously in those negotiations if we don’t swiftly pass deals that have been hammered out for the overall good of the U.S. economy.

3. Agricultural exports support jobs on U.S. soil, beyond agriculture itself.Increasing trade is good for U.S. farmers and ranchers, as well as for the jobs and industries agriculture supports. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that every $1 billion in exports supports 7,550 American jobs throughout the economy. That means increased exports to FTA partners have added nearly 250,000 jobs to the U.S. economy.

   Agriculture is not an isolated industry: It’s integral to thousands of businesses. Consider a bottle of Kentucky bourbon. Beyond the farmers growing the corn from which bourbon is distilled, there’s white oak barrel construction for aging the spirits, and glass-making for the final bottling and distribution. Each is a separate industry representing skilled workers—workers who probably wouldn’t identify themselves as part of the export business. But that’s just what they are as soon as a batch of Maker’s Mark is shipped to Japan.

   Increasing international trade also benefits consumers, with access to more competitively priced products, new varieties of food and offseason supplies of fresh produce.

   Farmers and consumers alike can look at the numbers and do the math. Free-trade agreements make sense if we want to see more competitive prices, a variety of goods in our own marketplace and greater yields for American-grown businesses.

Link to article on California Farm Bureau federation web site

Note – October is Farm-to-School Month. CDFA’s Office of Farm to Fork works to connect consumers, school districts, and others directly with California’s farmers and ranchers. The office also is committed to reducing food insecurity.   

This is National School Lunch Week 2016, as proclaimed by President Obama, a time to reflect on the positive steps our nation has taken to make nutrition a priority in every U.S. school. This also coincides with the month-long celebration of Farm to School Month, which recognizes efforts to bring local foods into schools and onto students’ trays.

The more than 50 million children who attend schools that participate in the National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs are experiencing school environments that are healthier than ever. These students have access to balanced meals that reflect the latest nutrition science in the Dietary Guidelines for Americans as well as recommendations from pediatricians and National Academy of Medicine. The meals feature more fruits and vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and low-fat milk. Many of these items can be locally-sourced through farm to school programs.

The fresh, local foods offered through farm to school programs help school meal programs provide healthy, appealing, and diverse offerings. Results of the 2015 USDA Farm to School Census show that more than 42,000 schools nationwide have a farm to school program. These schools report reductions in food waste, higher school meal participation rates, and increased willingness of the students to try new foods, notably fruits and vegetables. In the 2013-14 school year alone, these programs invested nearly $800 million back into local economies, helping 23.6 million students develop healthy eating habits and learn where their food comes from.

Building on the progress around the country, this summer, USDA issued two additional final rules: Smart Snacks in Schools and Local School Wellness Policy. For the last few years, schools have been serving breakfasts and lunches that meet the updated standards under the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010; in fact, more than 99 percent of schools nationwide currently report meeting those new nutrition standards. The recent regulations put in place by the Smart Snacks in Schools Final Rule and Local School Wellness Policy Final Rule take healthy school environments one step further by holding snacks served in schools and food or beverage marketing students are exposed to during the school day to standards that are consistent with those for school meals.

Healthy school meals are particularly important for the more than 13 million U.S. children who live in food insecure households; for some, school meals may be all nutrition they receive in a day. To help reduce hunger, USDA’s Community Eligibility Provision (CEP), an optional cost-sharing partnership between the federal government and school districts in high-poverty areas, allows eligible schools in lower income areas to serve nutritious lunches and breakfasts to all students at no cost. Not only does CEP help break down barriers that can prevent children in need from accessing school meals, it also greatly reduces the administrative burden on schools and families. Close to 8.5 million students from more than 18,000 schools across the country participated in the program in school year 2015-16.

Link to USDA News Release

By Tsvetana Paraskova,

California’s Santa Monica is home to more than three miles of beaches and fresh breeze from the Pacific, and is one of National Geographic’s top 10 beach cities in the world. Santa Monica Beach boasts more than 300 days of sunshine a year, but it has a striking shortage of a critical resource: drinking water.

Now in its fifth year of drought, California has made water conservation a state policy and priority, and its governor is issuing executive orders to continue saving water, with droughts expected to be more frequent and persistent due to climate change.

This drought-stricken area is hosting this year the biennial Land Art Generator Initiative, where engineers and designers submit projects for large-scale art installation projects for the Santa Monica Pier that would generate clean energy and/or drinking water. Winning submissions will be announced in October, with the first-place submission getting US$15,000 and the second-placed project receiving US$4,000.

Winning the contest does not necessarily mean the awarded installation will be built, and the project would require more than just the prize money to complete and implement. It would likely require years of designing, construction, permits, and state and local county collaboration and regulation.

Nevertheless, this year’s entries include several ambitious artwork/power plant projects for desalinating water using solar and/or tidal wave power.

One short-listed submission aims to make sea water drinkable, called The Pipe. The Pipe is a 2,000-foot-long floating tube covered with solar panels that would have annual capacity of 10,000 MWh that would generate 4.5 billion liters of drinking water. That’s some 40% of the average daily usage of Santa Monica residents, according to Business Insider.

That’s also more than the amount of water that Santa Monica is importing to meet demand.

The Pipe proposes to use solar-generated energy to pump seawater and filtrate it via an electromagnetic field that removes the salt. The floating device is also planned to welcome tourists on board, and ticket sales could be used to pay for the construction.

That said, ticket sales would hardly suffice to pay for this technology of electromagnetic desalination, which its inventor, Canada-based electrical engineer Aziz Khalili, has already filed for patent. Electromagnetic forces in desalination would need less electricity and at the same time, create less waste and less water pollution than conventional desalination, Khalili told Business Insider.

Another short-listed finalist is The Clear Orb project, which proposes to use transparent luminescent solar concentrators and a wave energy converter for solar distillation. Annual capacity is planned at 3,820 MWh and 1.9 million liters of drinking water. Compared to The Pipe, The Clear Orb is smaller in its ambitions to help provide drinking water in Santa Monica.

All projects are ambitious and help to raise awareness about California’s drought. They all plan to blend art with renewable energy to the benefit of the environment and the people.

Santa Monica is on track to achieve the state regulation target to reduce its water consumption by 20% from its 2013 baseline usage, but Santa Monica still imports 30% of its water sources to meet demand, although it has planned measures to eliminate the need to import water by 2020.

Regarding industrial-scale renewable energy for the grid, solar installations in the U.S. are well on track to reach record highs this year, with the volume of solar installations in the second quarter surging 43% over the same quarter of 2015.

Regarding art-meets-clean-energy projects, from a primary-resource point of view, Santa Monica’s sun, waves and seawater are abundant and will not be depleted any time soon. The question is, will technology, project feasibility and costs be sustainable enough to allow the art-solar-tech installation see the light of day.

Link to article

 

 

Note – CDFA’s Office of Farm to Fork works to connect consumers, school districts, and others directly with California’s farmers and ranchers. The office also is committed to reducing food insecurity.   

The USDA’s Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion has released the MyPlate, MyState toolkit for teachers looking to introduce their classes to the interrelationship between nutrition and agriculture. The toolkit is available in connection with National Farm-to-School Month, which continues throughout October.

The resources include lesson plans about gardening, agriculture and nutrition, as well as new MyPlate, MyState activity sheets that can be used throughout the school year.

Through MyPlate, MyState, USDA is working to make the connection between healthy eating and more than 160,000 farmers and ranchers nationwide that are selling into local markets through schools and other institutions, farmers markets, farm stands, community supported agriculture (CSA) programs, grocery stores, and local restaurants. MyPlate, MyState is part of USDA’s efforts to support local and regional food systems and galvanize the important role that American agriculture plays in feeding American families.

MyPlate, MyState page for California

A new report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that in 2014, the biobased products industry contributed $393 billion and 4.2 million jobs to America’s recovering economy. The report also indicates that the sector grew from 2013 to 2014, creating or supporting an additional 220,000 jobs and $24 billion over that period.

“When USDA released the first-ever Economic Impact Analysis of the U.S. Biobased Products Industry last year, we were thrilled to see what a positive impact this sector was having on our economy,” said USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack. “This updated analysis shows that the sector is not just holding strong, but growing. America has an appetite for everyday products-including plastic bottles, textiles, cleanings supplies and more-made from renewable sources, and that demand is fueling millions of jobs, bringing manufacturing back to our rural communities, and reducing our nation’s carbon footprint.”

The latest report analyzes revenue and jobs created by the biobased products industry at the national and state level in 2014. The industry directly supported 1.53 million jobs in 2014, with each job in the industry responsible for generating 1.76 jobs in other sectors.

In addition to their contribution to the rural economy, innovative biobased materials also have key environmental benefits including the reduction of the use of fossil fuels and reduced associated greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The production and use of biobased products replacing petroleum-based products had the potential to reduce GHG emissions up to 10 million metric tons of CO2 equivalents in 2014.

These materials are increasingly being used as substitutes for petroleum-based materials that have been used extensively for many years. The increased use of biobased products currently displaces about 300 million gallons of petroleum per year – the equivalent to taking 200,000 cars off the road.

Link to full news release

A great meeting late Friday with Vietnam Vice Minister Tran Thanh Nam and his delegation. They were in California for farm visits, time with UC Davis and to continue discussions on climate smart agriculture that began during my visit to Vietnam in April. Vietnam is also suffering from a drought and the group was very impressed with our on-farm water efficient drop and sub-surface micro-drip technologies. We both agreed it would be spectacular to be able to foster farmer-to-farmer exchanges!

By Matt Stevens

There were high hopes going into water year 2016.

To hear some forecasters and scientists tell it, El Niño was coming to save California. With a little luck and a lot of rain, the drought might finally recede in its fifth year — or at least loosen its grip on the state.

The weather phenomenon did show up, fueling some storms in Northern California. But it fell far short of the lofty expectations.

On Friday, water year 2016 ended with a whimper.

“If you had to put a one-word descriptor on this water year, it would be ‘dry,’” said Doug Carlson, a spokesman for the California Department of Water Resources.

“The [precipitation] indexes have been flat-lining since June,” he said. “If this was a body, it would be in cardiac arrest.”

And if weather-watchers learned anything from the latest cycle, it’s not to guess about what might come next.

“Anybody who tells you what’s going to happen next year is a liar or delusional,” said Felicia Marcus, chairwoman of the State Water Resources Control Board. “The best they can say is what the trends might be and what the odds might say.”

Though the rain and snow that California got did help refill reservoirs and replenish groundwater basins, the precipitation also may have muddied the state’s drought messaging in ways that did harm to conservation efforts.

Experts track the state’s hydrology based on a calendar that begins on Oct. 1 — when the rainy season begins — and ends on Sept. 30. Officials say water year 2015 was among the driest on record, so to some, 2016 may have left the impression of being a drought-buster.

Indeed, one highly cited index of eight weather stations in the northern Sierra Nevada shows the area got about 116% of normal precipitation during the last water year.

But officials are quick to point out that other indexes show about average rainfall in the San Joaquin Valley area and below average in the Tulare Basin.

Meanwhile, the state’s reservoirs — fed by the summer snow-melt — currently are at about 80% of their average storage.

According to water officials, warm temperatures melted a below-average snow pack earlier than usual. And since the water contained in California’s snow pack measured only about 85% of average this spring, the state actually had suffered a “snow drought.”

As of Friday, Lake Shasta had slightly more water in it than the historical average, but the San Luis Reservoir continued to hover near its lowest level in years. About 62% of the state remains in severe, extreme or exceptional drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

“It’s more of a patchwork picture,” Marcus said. “It’s still a drought — it’s just not that unprecedented, historic level.”

Because the situation has eased somewhat, the water board relaxed mandatory conservation requirements across much of urban California during the 2016 water year.

For 12 months beginning in June 2015, each of the state’s more than 400 urban water suppliers was required to reduce usage by a certain percentage. But as more and more rain arrived, regulators lowered many of the savings targets. Eventually, the majority of suppliers were released from mandatory conservation altogether.

Californians have continued to save water under the eased restrictions, but at a lower rate than in the summer of 2015.

Regulators have warned that they could impose high water conservation levels again if California experiences another dry winter. And the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Prediction Center has suggested that weak La Niña conditions — which correlate with those dry winters — could develop.

But officials need not look back far to be reminded that forecasts can be wrong.

“Last year,” Marcus said, “people predicted we’d get the Godzilla of El Niños, and we got Mr. Stay Puft.”

Link to article

 

 

Note – CDFA’s Office of Farm to Fork works to connect consumers, school districts, and others directly with California’s farmers and ranchers. The office also is committed to reducing food insecurity.   

By Deborah Kane, National Director, USDA Farm to School Program

Along with brilliantly colored hard squash, crisp apples, and hearty greens, October ushers in National Farm to School Month, a time to raise awareness about and celebrate the impact of farm to school programs on children, producers, and communities. Each year we have more to celebrate: more USDA funds awarded to schools, agencies, and organizations to advance these programs; more money ending up in the pockets of local producers; more school gardens in which students can learn and grow; and more healthful school meals that feature local foods.

A new report, announced by Agriculture Secretary Vilsack earlier this month, helps quantify our celebration. An analysis of grant-making over the last three years reveals that USDA has awarded $15.1 million through 221 grants in 49 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Fifty percent of funded projects included expanding healthy menu options offered in the cafeteria; 46 percent included training for food service staff about menu planning, meal preparation, and cooking with local and regional foods; and 65 percent included nutrition education activities. These funds have helped 12,300 schools improve nutritious meal options made with local ingredients for 6.9 million students, while expanding market opportunities for family farmers and ranchers in their communities.

Of course, these numbers really come to life through the stories behind them. Through the USDA Farm to School Grant Program and our other training and technical assistance efforts, we have had the privilege of hearing countless stories of farm to school success firsthand. We have learned that farm to school works. Within the FNS there is a growing recognition that community food systems – those in which food production, processing, distribution and consumption are integrated and proximal—are a boon to our programs. That’s why this month we’re also celebrating the creation of a new office, the Office of Community Food Systems, within the FNS’ Child Nutrition Programs.

The establishment of the office allows us to extend our current focus on local foods beyond theNational School Lunch Program and its associated programs to include both the Summer Food Service Program and Child and Adult Care Food Program and embed this approach in on-going programmatic activities throughout all child nutrition divisions.

When USDA’s Farm to School Program was first established by the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, we set a goal that one day every child that participates in our nutrition assistance programs would have daily access to local foods. With the creation of a new Office of Community Food Systems, and the work of countless community partners that we’re honored to fund, we’re closer than ever to making that vision a reality. Happy Farm to School Month indeed!

Link to USDA blog post