Today is the day to Tweet, Facebook and Instagram a photo of California food, flowers or plants from California; or a closet with items containing California fiber. It’s #CAonMyPlate Day, so don’t forget the tag! Does your latte’ have some California milk? That steak salad lunch include some California greens and beef? What about your sheets? Are they made with California cotton? Post a photo with #CAonMyPlate
Tim Hearden, Capital Press
FRESNO, Calif. — State Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross told 5,000 FFA members here that California’s agriculture-related industries will need their energy and innovations in the challenging years to come.
Ross cited water shortages, food safety concerns and global population growth as problems that today’s students in FFA could someday help solve.
“Think about how you use your hand-held technology and your gaming technology,” Ross told a packed audience during the Monday morning session in Fresno’s Selland Arena. “Those are the very tools you may use for (assisting) the smart farm of the future.”
Ross also praised the FFA chapters for promoting the CDFA’s three-year-old agriculture-themed license plate program, which has generated nearly $500,000 for education. The department in January handed out $249,352 in the second round of grants from the CalAgPlate program, including $212,000 for FFA leadership and development programs.
“It’s going great, but one of the challenges of the special license plates program is they have to keep selling or the interest goes away,” Ross told the Capital Press after her speech. “The students’ energy (in promoting the plates) is really important for these ag programs. … It’s such an important way for people to know, ‘I’m making a contribution to ag education.’”
Ross’ appearance was among the highlights of the 88th annual California State FFA Leadership Conference, which continues through April 26. With the theme, “Electrify,” students in high school FFA programs throughout California converged to participate in contests, hear inspiring speakers, attend a career fair and take part in other activities.
Ross’ appearance excited members of the FFA’s state leadership team, including outgoing president Joelle Lewis of San Luis Obispo, who said she’s also met the secretary during visits to schools.
“I think having her come here and talk (about students’ potential for future leadership) makes a big difference in people’s minds,” Lewis said.
Ross has attended several state FFA conventions since becoming food and ag secretary in 2011.
She began her address by praising FFA member McKenzie Brazier of King City, Calif., who sang during one of the session’s talent segments.
“I would recommend her for ‘The Voice,’” Ross said to loud cheers. “Wouldn’t it be great if we had someone on ‘The Voice’ with a blue jacket? And then if somebody standing behind her would hold up a CalAgPlate sign?”
Ross told the students that among them could be sitting a future state lawmaker, water board member, agriculture secretary or even U.S. president. She said it’s important that California agriculture recognize its mission and the ability to feed the world.
“You cannot appreciate what you have until you don’t have it,” Ross said, noting that she missed fresh California produce when she shopped in Washington, D.C., during her stint as chief of staff for U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack.
“California can show the world how to grow food,” she said.
In the interview, Ross said she always tries to set aside time in her schedule to meet with FFA members.
“They’re curious, energetic and they’ve got new ideas,” she said.
View the original article online here.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the availability of $22 million in grants to help citrus producers fight Huanglongbing (HLB), commonly known as citrus greening disease. This funding is available through the Specialty Crop Research Initiative (SCRI) Citrus Disease Research and Extension Program (CDRE), which was authorized by the 2014 Farm Bill and is administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA).
“Since 2009, USDA has committed significant resources to manage, research and eradicate the citrus greening disease that threatens citrus production in the United States and other nations,” said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. “Thanks to the continued, coordinated efforts between growers, researchers, and state and federal government, we are getting closer every day to ending this threat. The funding announced today will help us continue to preserve thousands of jobs for citrus producers and workers, along with significant revenue from citrus sales.”
USDA has invested more than $380 million to address citrus greening between fiscal years 2009 and 2015, including $43.6 million through the SCRI CDRE program since 2015.
HLB was initially detected in Florida in 2005 and has since affected all of Florida’s citrus-producing areas. A total of 15 U.S. states or territories are under full or partial quarantine due to the detected presence of the Asian citrus psyllid, a vector for HLB. Those states include Alabama, American Samoa, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Guam, Hawaii, Louisiana, Mississippi, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Texas, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
USDA has employed both short-term and longer-term strategies to combat citrus greening. Secretary Vilsack announced a Multi-Agency Coordination framework in December 2013 to foster cooperation and coordination across federal and state agencies and industry to deliver near-term tools to citrus growers to combat Huanglongbing. The Huanglongbing MAC Group includes representatives from the USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), USDA NIFA, USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, Environmental Protection Agency, State Departments of Agriculture from California, Florida, Texas and Arizona, and the citrus industry.
The HLB MAC group is charged with quickly putting practical tools and solutions into the hands of producers, allowing them to remain economically productive while longer term solutions continue to be developed. The Group invested $20 million into more than 30 projects over the past two years. The funding supports projects by universities, private industry, state and federal partners. Today, growers are benefiting from the use of thermotherapy, soil acidification, biocontrol and other tools funded through the first round of HLB MAC investment. The HLB MAC Group is now considering the best use of an additional appropriation from 2016 of more than $5 million and more information on the HLB MAC Group’s work can be found here.
Last year, the University of Florida and Washington State University received NIFA support for research on growing the putative pathogenic bacterium in artificial culture, which will greatly facilitate research efforts to manage HLB. Another project at the University of Florida will develop bactericides to reduce or eliminate pathogen populations in citrus trees, with the goal of recovering fruit production in orchards affected with HLB. Research at the University of California will use virulence proteins from the pathogen to detect its presence before symptoms appear and to develop strategies for creating citrus rootstocks that are immune to HLB. Information about all of the projects funded to date can be found online.
NIFA will give priority to CDRE grants projects that are multistate, multi-institutional, or trans-disciplinary and include clearly defined ways to communicate results to producers. Successful applicants will be expected to engage stakeholders to ensure solutions are commercially feasible. Projects should also include an economic analysis of the costs associated with proposed solutions. Based on consultation with the Citrus Disease Sub-committee of the National Agricultural Research, Education, Extension and Economics Advisory Board (NAREEE), only applications that deal with the HLB or its management will be considered.
Pre-applications that include a Stakeholder Relevance Statement are due on May 16. Applicants who are invited to submit full applications based on an industry relevancy review of the pre-applications will be required to submit full applications by Aug. 18. See the request for applications on the NIFA website for more information.
See the USDA press release here.
A rooftop greenhouse in Chicago – from the Wall Street Journal
By Ruth Simon
A crop of startups have emerged in recent years to grow vegetables on city rooftops or turn old factories into indoor farms. But their quest for locally grown lettuce is running into challenging business realities.
BrightFarms Inc. last year pulled the plug on a planned greenhouse in Washington, D.C., 10 months into the process of getting permits, and earlier exited an effort to develop a rooftop farm in Brooklyn, New York. FarmedHere LLC, which operates a farm in a former box factory outside Chicago, shut down for six months last August to revamp its strategy.
Building farms on city rooftops is “a foolish endeavor” because of the higher costs and the additional time for permitting, said Paul Lightfoot, chief executive of BrightFarms. The firm, which has raised more than $25 million in equity and more than $15 million in project finance, is now focusing on greenhouse farms in locations outside of urban centers.
“You would scale very slowly, and waste investors’ money,” Mr. Lightfoot said of city projects. The cost for the Washington, D.C., facility would have been nearly 20% more than an $8.5 million greenhouse it instead built in suburban Virginia, he added.
Venture-backed for-profit farming startups have sought to reshape agriculture by growing crops such as salad greens and herbs in or near big cities. The idea is that urban farms promise year-round supplies of greens, with less spoilage and lower transportation costs than soil-raised produce from California or Mexico.
The undertaking is a far cry from the community gardens on once-vacant lots that are typically associated with urban farming. Gotham Greens Farms LLC, which has raised about $30 million, said it currently sells more than 20 million heads of lettuce and leafy greens a year to restaurants, food-service companies and retailers such as Whole Foods Market Inc.
The company, started in 2009, operates four rooftop greenhouses, including a Queens, N.Y., facility that once housed Ideal Toy Co., a maker of teddy bears and Rubik’s Cubes.
High-tech indoor farming can involve millions of dollars in investments and a sophisticated mix of crop science, fertilizer know-how as well as expensive lighting and sensor systems to monitor temperature, moisture and other conditions.
“This is very much a technology play,” said David Rosenberg, chief executive of Newark, N.J.-based AeroFarms LLC, which currently operates one indoor commercial farm as well as a research and development farm and a farm in a local school.
AeroFarms said it has raised over $70 million in corporate and project financing. The company isn’t profitable but says it expects each of its farms to become cash-flow positive in its first year.
FarmedHere, which restarted its business in February, abandoned an aquaponic model that relied on a tilapia farm to generate fertilizer to grow lettuce, basil and other greens. Now the company, which has raised about $13 million, uses plant-derived organic fertilizers.
Aquaponics “sounds pretty elegant,” said Nate Laurell, who recently took over as CEO. But “it’s a much simpler process to use organic nutrients than to manage a school of fish and all that biology and chemistry.” He said the change will also reduce the total cost of raising crops by 30%.
Most startups grow lettuce and herbs that have short growing cycles and thrive in controlled environments. Brooklyn-based Edenworks says it can produce many varieties of baby lettuce in its indoor farm in just 18 to 21 days compared with 28 to 35 days for field-grown products.
“We are getting better unit economics than a farmer farming 1,000 acres in Salinas, Calif.,” said Edenworks CEO Jason Green, noting that a shorter growing cycle and a 12-month operation allows the startup to turn over its crop more often than soil-based farms. By locating close to purchasers, the company cuts transportation and warehouse costs, he added.
Still, the economics are challenging. In a second facility, not yet under construction, Edenworks plans to cut labor costs by more than 50% by automating seeding, harvesting, washing, drying, packaging and labeling. “The numbers would not work out if we didn’t do that,” Mr. Green said.
Flavor is also tricky. Industry participants disagree about what combination of lighting, fertilizer and growing methods produces the tastiest greens at the lowest cost. Some startups operate greenhouses, while others stack trays of plants in so-called vertical farms that rely on lighting systems instead of sunlight.
“It is more difficult for hydroponic growers to achieve the same taste as soil-grown products or herbs,” said Elly Truesdell, a buyer for Whole Foods, which buys produce from several high-tech farmers. In hydroponic farming, plants are grown in nutrient-rich water.
Ms. Truesdell said customers are willing to pay a premium for locally grown produce.
In New York, Whole Foods typically sells a 5-ounce package of Gotham Greens lettuce for $3.99, about the same price as a slightly larger package of store-brand organic greens grown in California and $1 more than a head of soil-grown organic romaine lettuce.
Gotham Greens CEO Viraj Puri said the company had to experiment with dozens of varieties of kale before settling on one that would thrive in its greenhouses without turning bitter and struggled to find a variety of green leaf lettuce that wouldn’t “bolt,” or shoot up and take on a sharp taste, just before harvesting.
“Plants are not widgets,” said Mr. Puri. “There are a lot of dependent variables.”
Happy Earth Day from CDFA! This video provides a brief look at just a few of the programs and projects at the California Department of Food and Agriculture that help farmers protect the environment. From healthy soils and dairy digesters to alternative fuels and beneficial bugs, we are working toward a future when every day is Earth Day.
On Wednesday, April 20, California Air Resources Board Chair Mary Nichols led a rally of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles with Energy Commissioner Janea Scott and Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz) Deputy Director Tyson Eckerle on a 400-mile journey from Los Angeles to ARB headquarters in Sacramento in celebration of Earth Day. The rally highlights the fact that these ultra-clean vehicles are now available for sale or lease, and there is a rapidly growing statewide network of hydrogen filling stations to support them.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Division of Measurement Standards plays an important role in the ongoing rollout of hydrogen fueling stations by certifying hydrogen fuel meters and regulates fuel quality, advertising and labeling in the consumer marketplace.
For more background on the event: Hydrogen Car Rally video – from SCTV in Santa Clarita
By Lori Pottinger
Farmers use the lion’s share of California’s groundwater, but they also do the most to rebuild depleted reserves of this critically important water source. We talked to Graham Fogg—a groundwater expert at UC Davis and a member of the PPIC Water Policy Center research network—about farmland groundwater recharge.
PPIC: How do farms recharge groundwater?
Graham Fogg: Crops don’t use all the water they get through irrigation—a lot seeps into underlying groundwater. Farms also move water from place to place through leaky ditches. The type of irrigation can affect the amount of recharge. For example, with flood irrigation a large fraction can end up back in the aquifer—commonly as much as a third or more. With micro-irrigation, a larger fraction of applied water is taken up by plants, and less ends up recharging groundwater.
Many farmers have adopted micro-irrigation technology. Farmers prefer groundwater when using drip systems because it’s free of sediment that can clog emitters, and groundwater is available whenever the farmer needs to run the system, sometimes multiple times a week. The result is that drip-irrigated farms may pump more groundwater—and they’re not recharging the aquifer as much. It’s an unintended consequence of more efficient irrigation.
PPIC: Are farmers being encouraged to recharge groundwater?
GF: The drought has helped many farmers realize the importance of better groundwater management, and some are figuring out how they can do more recharging on their land. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act will require better management and balanced water budgets in each basin. This can be achieved with decreased groundwater pumping or increased recharge. In essence, we need to start managing groundwater systems in ways that are similar to surface storage reservoirs and use recharge as a hedge against future drought.
If we continue to rely on irrigation for most of our recharge, it raises questions about groundwater quality. Water that goes through farmland is more likely than non-farm recharge to be tainted with salts, nitrates, and some pesticides.
PPIC: What practices can improve California’s groundwater supplies?
GF: We need to do a variety of things to bank groundwater or face the prospect of having to reduce pumping in dry years and in depleted basins. One solution with high potential is “spreading basins.” These are flat places with the right soils and geological conditions for ponding water so it can infiltrate the aquifer. We need to map these surface and subsurface features and take steps to protect them for recharge purposes.
The Central Valley is not only home to some of our most over-tapped groundwater basins, but also to lands with good potential for fast infiltration. One promising approach is routing excess winter runoff onto farmlands, where irrigation infrastructure can be used to spread the water and recharge groundwater. This practice is gaining much interest from farmers.
We also can manage rivers to encourage recharge, bringing benefits to entire basins. Rivers can recharge groundwater with seepage through their beds. And when rivers overflow their banks, water spreads across the floodplain. Two approaches with high potential to improve groundwater conditions are moving levees back to reconnect rivers with their floodplains, and managing groundwater and surface water as an integrated system. When groundwater systems fill to the point of spilling over, rivers and wetlands stay wet, and there’s a natural exits for groundwater contaminants. Without such exits, these basins will become increasingly polluted over time.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced the availability of $4.7 million in grants for food safety education, training, and technical assistance projects that address the needs of owners and operators of small to mid-sized farms, beginning farmers, socially-disadvantaged farmers, small processors, small fresh fruit and vegetable merchant wholesalers, food hubs, farmers’ markets, and others. The grants, offered through the Food Safety Outreach Program and administered by USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), are designed to help these stakeholders comply with new food safety guidelines established by the Food and Drug Administration under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
“As growing demand for local food creates new economic opportunities for small farms, beginning farmers, and others, we are committed to ensuring that all types of farmers and businesses have the tools they need to be successful,” said Agricultural Secretary Tom Vilsack. “By supporting projects that offer tailored training, education, and technical assistance for producers and processors of local food, these grants will benefit producers, the entire food supply chain, and consumers.”
This year, NIFA will fund three types of projects to help producers comply with FSMA. Pilot projects will support the development and implementation of new and potentially high-risk, high-impact food safety education and outreach programs in local communities that address the needs of small, specialized audiences from among the various target groups. Community outreach projects will focus on the growth and expansion of already-existing food safety education and outreach programs that are currently offered in local communities. Multistate Education and training projects will support the development and implementation of multi-county, state-wide, or multi-state food safety education and outreach programs where there are common food safety concerns, but the states are not necessarily located within the same regions.
Applications are due June 2. See the request for applications on the NIFA website for more information.
An almond tree
By John Holland
First you steal a truck driver’s identity. Then you show up at an almond processing plant and make off with a semi load worth perhaps $100,000.
That happens more and more these days in the San Joaquin Valley’s nut industry, an expert told a Modesto audience Thursday.
Almond, walnut, pistachio and pecan companies are at risk from sophisticated thieves who know the industry and can elude security measures, said Scott Cornell, a cargo theft specialist with the Travelers insurance company.
“It’s high profit, low risk for them,” Cornell said at a summit on nut theft at the DoubleTree Hotel, sponsored by the Western Agricultural Processors Association and American Pistachio Growers.
The event happened on the same day the state Assembly Committee on Agriculture approved a bill that would create a task force to improve tracking and prosecution of people who steal nuts and other farm products by the truckload. It was introduced by Assemblywoman Kristin Olsen, R-Riverbank.
“Every coordinated and successful attempt at cargo theft is a direct hit on not only the pockets of hardworking farmers and farmworkers in California, but on our state’s economy,” Olsen said in a news release.
More than 30 nut cargo thefts were reported in the last six months, a loss of more than $10 million, said Roger Isom, president and CEO of the processor group.
Cornell said thieves create fake ID cards, insurance certificates and other documents and look for loads to steal on websites advertising per-trip trucking jobs.
“People believe that that (legitimate) guy picked up the load, when in fact it was a bad guy who picked up the load,” he said.
Dave Phippen, an almond grower and processor north of Ripon, said he supports the task force idea. His security measures already include a thumbprint from the hauler, a copy of the driver’s license and a photo of this person taken by one of Phippen’s employees.
“We pretty much interrogate the driver who comes here to pick up a load,” he said.
His company, Travaille and Phippen Inc., has not had a theft since 2006, when two semi containers with a total of about 88,000 pounds of almonds were taken. That time, the thieves broke through a fence.
Almonds, walnuts and pistachios are among California’s top farm products and have an even larger share of agricultural exports. They sell for much more per pound than, say, tomatoes or alfalfa, and global demand has boomed thanks to research on their health benefits.
Food and drink are the largest category for cargo theft at 31 percent, said summit speaker Cameron Roberts, a Long Beach attorney who specializes in transportation. Electronics is second at 12 percent.
Cornell, who is based in Phoenix, said cargo thieves used to ignore some low-value goods, such as pellets used in making plastics and clay used in construction. They have since found markets for them, he said.
Olsen’s measure, Assembly Bill 2805, passed the committee 10-0. It next goes to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
Don Cameron
By Ian James
Don Cameron expects farmers will see some of the biggest effects as the climate changes, and he says growers need to take proactive steps to prepare.
For 35 years, he has been the vice president and general manager of Terranova Ranch near Fresno, and he has noticed rising temperatures are starting to push up the times of plantings near the end of the winter. He expects that in the future, climate change will mean less reliable water supplies for farms in California and elsewhere.
Cameron, who is also a board member of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture, manages more than 7,000 acres of farmland growing a variety of crops from tomatoes and peppers to wine grapes and almonds. He is one of several featured speakers at the upcoming One Nation: Climate Change forum at the Sunnylands Center and Gardens in Rancho Mirage.
The April 20 event, hosted by The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY NETWORK, will bring together scientists, policymakers, artists and others to discuss climate change and what can be done to address it. Other speakers will include Steve Beissinger, a professor of conservation biology at the University of California, Berkeley; Kelly Sanders, a water and energy expert from the University of Southern California; and Jeff Grubbe, chairman of the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.
To set the stage for the event, The Desert Sun posed several questions to Cameron by email about climate change and what he thinks can be done to prepare for the impacts on agriculture.
Q: In your experience managing a farm in the Central Valley, how is the warming climate starting to affect agriculture? And in what ways do you think climate change will impact the country’s farms in the future?
A: In managing a farm in Fresno County, one of the most productive agricultural areas in the world, I have seen firsthand the effects of climate change. In 2015, the chilling hours needed for dormancy for pistachios was lacking. In other words, the winter was too warm for the trees to adequately rest during the winter, which disrupted pollination of the trees. The result was that yields were off 35-40% from expected yield. We have also taken advantage of longer, warmer weather in the fall by planting peppers that are not harvested until late October and early November – something unheard of before.
Q:What do you think are the most important steps that should be taken to prepare for the effects of climate change on agriculture?
A: As farmers, we need to be aware of the changes and shift our selections to varieties that are more tolerant to warmer temperatures. There is a wide genetic variety within species and new varieties within crops each year. We need to be looking for varieties that perform well in warmer climates. The selection of crops may have to change as well.
Q: What have you done on your farm to try to prepare for the additional strains that climate change will place on water supplies?
A: In 2011 we initiated a trial for “on-farm recharge” to capture floodwater and place it on actively farmed land with the intent of recharging our underground aquifer. We followed up on the successful trial and now are engaged in a project that when complete will bring up to 1,000 acre-feet of floodwater per day to farmland for recharge of the aquifer. We know that we will see more flood and drought and less snowpack in future years, and that will make our project key to replenishment of groundwater in our basin.
Q: Farms are major water users, and in many areas of the country overpumping of groundwater has led to declining aquifers. What sorts of changes in farming practices or policies do you think hold the greatest potential for helping make agriculture more sustainable in the long run?
A: When we talk about the overpumping of groundwater in California, in 2014 the state legislature passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. What SGMA does is to require local agencies to formulate long-term plans that will be monitored by the California Department of Water Resources to ensure sustainability of their underground water supplies. Simply put, farmers will not be able to pump more water out of an aquifer than can be replaced by either natural recharge or some sort of direct recharge. Replacement of underground pumping with surface water also is possible if surface water is available. However, new sources of surface water are extremely difficult at best to find and have been extremely expensive.
