Today (October 9) is Indigenous Peoples Day, a time to celebrate and honor indigenous peoples and commemorate their histories and cultures. In this video, CDFA profiles Three Sisters Gardens, an urban farm in West Sacramento led by Alfred Melbourne. The garden incorporates sustainable Native American farming practices and works to bring the local community together to grow food.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qpJmY0vRMI

National Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15) continued this week with CDFA’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee hosting a panel of Hispanic leaders working at the California Department of Food and Agriculture. CDFA Undersecretary Christine Birdsong moderated the panel, which included CDFA Marketing Services Director Kathy Diaz-Cretu and two veterinarians with CDFA’s Animal Health Branch, Dr. Everardo Mendes and Dr. Ricardo Gaitan.

They shared stories about their unique paths to CDFA from families originally from Ecuador, Brazil and Mexico, and they spoke about how their public service includes protecting and preserving the varied cultures and backgrounds of California licensees and consumers through their work. They recounted fulfilling assignments like emergency response at California’s fairgrounds, and the inspection of custom slaughterhouses that serve the state’s diverse population by observing and safeguarding religious and cultural practices relating to the preparation of meat and other animal products.

CDFA urges statewide partners to celebrate October as National Farm to School Month and is inviting them to attend the 2023 California Farm to School Conference on October 24-25 in Palm Springs. CDFA, in partnership with the office of California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and the Alice Waters Institute, will host the conference.

California’s farm-to-school leadership includes awarding $34 million to 120 projects over the past two years through the Farm to School Incubator Grant Program, and the conference is an opportunity to learn more about those projects, brainstorm good ideas, and continue to plan outreach to young people that encourages them to foster lifelong relationships with nutritious produce.

Day one of the conference will feature a shared meal, farm tours, and facilitated innovation sessions for sharing best practices. Day two will feature education sessions and a farmers’ market lunch with California produce.

This year’s event is open to school nutrition leaders, educators, farmers, and farm to school support organizations. Space is limited and spots will fill quickly, so please register soon! Scholarships are available. Click here for more details.

National Farm to School Month is a chance for thousands of schools, farms, communities, and organizations across the country to celebrate food education, school gardens, and lunch trays filled with healthy, local ingredients.

CDFA joins the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in recognizing today as the fourth observance of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste.

According to the FAO, 13 percent of the world’s food is lost in the supply chain and an additional 17 percent of food is wasted in households, food services and retail. This day is intended to make a call to action for public and private entities to reduce food loss and waste, which can play a key role by increasing the availability of food worldwide.

CDFA’s commitment to helping Californians reduce food loss and waste includes the CDFA Commercial Feed Regulatory Program, promoting human food byproduct diversion to create animal feed; the CDFA Rendering Program, promoting the process of breaking down animal byproducts for industrial uses; the CDFA Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation, promoting composting through the Alternative Manure Management Program and the Healthy Soils Program; and the CDFA Office of Farm to Fork, which is committed to increasing food access points.

Visit the FAO website for additional resources and publications about the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste.

Check out this video that shows how CDFA is involved in food recovery and how all Californians can join the effort:

https://youtu.be/kMAw7gR0L6s?si=tXQ_3_EieCVkOm9q

(*Figures mentioned in this video may have changed since the video was created in 2020. Please reference the cited sources for accuracy.)

CDFA undersecretary Christine Birdsong and deputy secretary Rachael O’Brien this week joined Assembly speaker Robert Rivas, Assemblymember Esmeralda Soria, Cal-EPA secretary Yana Garcia, and Department of Pesticide Regulation director Julie Henderson on a tour of farms along California’s central coast. The objective was to to learn more about sustainable pest management and the collaborative work needed to support safe, effective and sustainable pest management in agriculture.

The tour was also an opportunity to discuss California’s Sustainable Pest Management Roadmap, a plan that utilizes the principles of integrated pest management (IPM) as well as community and equity to achieve sustainability through a whole-farm approach.

At one of the stops, Taylor Farms, the group learned about on-farm IPM practices that include the rearing of beneficial insects to control invasive species, a biocontrol approach CDFA utilizes widely in statewide programs.

This week (Sept 25-30) has been designated as Delta Week, according to a Senate Concurrent Resolution introduced by State Senator Bill Dodd of Napa.

California’s Delta is formed by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and supports more than 750 species of plants (including agriculture) and wildlife, as well as more than 55 species of fish. The Delta hosts more than 12 million visitors a year.

According to a report prepared for the Delta Protection Commission, more than 70 crops are harvested from 415,000 farmed acres in the Delta, including wine grapes, almonds, asparagus, corn, alfalfa and rice.

Speaking of rice, CDFA’s Healthy Soils Program is introducing a new eligible practice for grant funding in the Demonstration Projects category — taking land in the Delta previously used for non-rice annual crops and re-saturating it for rice cultivation, with the purpose of reducing organic matter oxidation and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. Learn more about this practice.

CDFA joins in the recognition of the Delta as a treasured resource in our state and is honored to share in the celebration of Delta Week!

CDFA staff members today joined partners from the state Department of Pesticide Regulation and the University of California’s Agriculture and Natural Resources division to discuss invasive species at the 56th annual Native American Day at the State Capitol. Topics of interest included citrus health, the state’s Sustainable Pest Management Roadmap, and best practices for handling firewood.

CDFA is committed to building partnerships with California Native American Tribes and ensuring that agency programs and policies are reflective of tribal priorities. In 2023, CDFA has partnered with the Intertribal Ag Council to conduct four listening sessions statewide to understand priorities and barriers to accessing CDFA grant funds and technical assistance programs.

Note — the cockroaches in the third photo are plastic.

With National Hispanic Heritage Month underway (Sept 15 — Oct 15), CDFA wishes to acknowledge the extensive contributions of Hispanics in California.

According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, California has a total of 14,597 Hispanic producers. CDFA recognizes that diversity in agriculture is a critical strength and is committed to working with underserved farmers, ranchers, and farmworkers in meeting the challenges ahead to help ensure a more equitable and prosperous future. 

In this video, we meet a teenager from Newcastle (Placer County) who farms with her mother and plans to stay in agriculture as a profession.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFBHrpTaRoY

News release from Office of the Governor

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: California is taking its climate action around the world and launching a new pledge to cut global methane emissions.

NEW YORK – Governor Gavin Newsom today announced California is launching a new pledge for governments around the world to commit to cutting global methane emissions, one of the worst climate pollutants. The pledge is aimed at subnational governments – like California – and builds on the Global Methane Hub’s Global Methane Pledge that focuses on countries.  

Nine jurisdictions from across the globe have signed on so far, including signatories from Mexico and South Africa. 

“The climate crisis knows no borders.

We’re partnering with governments around the world to tackle methane emissions, a dangerous pollutant that has 80 times the warming power of carbon dioxide.

By working together on strategies informed by science, like deploying methane detection satellites, we can help address this global threat.“

Governor Gavin Newsom

How We’re Fighting Dangerous Methane Emissions 

California set a goal to reduce 40% of its methane emissions by 2030 compared to 2013 levels, and is leading the country with innovative solutions, including $100 million in funding to support a constellation of satellites that can monitor for large methane plumes. 

Last year, the Governor initiated new efforts to aggressively plug idle oil wells at risk of leaking methane and launch a network of satellites that would provide near real-time data on large scale methane leaks, leaks from oil and gas infrastructure, landfills, and other sources to track upwards of 40% of global methane emissions.

Why Methane? 

Tackling methane emissions is key. While the impacts of other emissions reductions may not be felt until later, it only takes a decade for methane to break down. That means methane reductions can dampen the effects of climate change in the short term, and are critical for helping put the world on a path to 1.5°C – the amount that scientists estimate would avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Read more about CDFA’s dairy digester and alternative manure management methane reduction programs

The annual Climate Week NYC is occurring this week in New York

Earlier this month several members of CDFA’s Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation (OEFI) traveled to Mexico City for meetings and informational exchanges on strategies to adapt to a changing climate.

Scientists Tawny Mata, Kevi Mace, Carolyn Cook and Michael Wolff each participated and helped show the many ways OEFI and CDFA are helping farmers and ranchers adapt.

The subjects included irrigation, drought, and CDFA’s SWEEP program; incentives for farmers and ranchers to embrace the agency’s Healthy Soils Program; sustainable pest management and biodiversity, including California’s Sustainable Pest Management Roadmap; the increasing importance of natural and working lands, a discussion that included greenhouse gas reductions guided by the California Air Resources Board’s Scoping Plan; and the continuing development of technical assistance programs as a key resource.

“Technical assistance is essential for agriculture to effectively adapt to our changing climate,” said Tawny Mata, chief of OEFI. “I was very impressed with how Mexico’s Soil Doctors program trains local farmers in soil health practices and soil health testing so they can share information in their communities and become local resources. I hope we can take this example to heart as we evaluate what we do in California.”

A climate-smart ag workshop brought together researchers, government representatives and academia to focus on opportunities related to water-use efficiency, healthy soils and sustainable pest management. The CDFA team was joined by representatives from UC Merced and UC Davis. The workshop was a follow-up to a Memorandum of Agreement CDFA signed with SADER, Mexico’s agriculture agency, in 2019.

CDFA continues international collaboration and engagement on climate smart agricultural policies and practices to strengthen connections between academia, government and farmers on climate resilience. Partnerships such as the one with SADER strengthen research collaboration and ag tech innovations while furthering the adoption of on-farm practices to advance sustainability and soil health.