In partnership with the State of California’s drought awareness program Save Our Water, international pop superstar and five-time Grammy winner Lady Gaga has released a Public Service Announcement (PSA) asking Californians to join the effort and take extraordinary measures to save water during the drought. The PSA is available on SaveOurWater.com, a new site designed to help Californians find ways to conserve at home and at work every day.

The campaign comes as the State Water Resources Control Board voted to adopt mandatory water conservation measures for urban water users and suppliers, including prohibitions on outdoor irrigation more than two days per week, washing hardscapes, sidewalks and driveways with water and using hoses without shutoff nozzles to wash cars.

Lady Gaga PSA – Save Our Water from ACWA on Vimeo.

By Veronica Rocha

Two picnic baskets packed with 67 live giant African snails were seized by federal authorities at Los Angeles International Airport, authorities said Monday.

The snails, which weighed a total of more than 35 pounds and reportedly were intended for human consumption, was apparently the largest seizure at LAX of the mollusks, which are sometimes fried and served as a snack.

The snails were discovered July 1 in two picnic baskets, which weighed more than 35 pounds, said Lee Harty of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The snails arrived from Lagos, Nigeria, and were headed to San Dimas, she said.

In the past, federal inspectors have discovered one or two of the large snails hidden in luggage, but this marked “the first time this pest has been encountered in such large quantity and as a consumption entry” in Los Angeles, said Todd C. Owen, director of field operations for the customs agency.

Giant African snails, also known as land snails, can live as long as 10 years and grow up to eight inches long. The snails can carry parasites harmful to humans.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture deems the large snails as a damaging species, consuming more than 500 types of plants, according to federal authorities.

But when the snails can’t find fruits and vegetables to eat, they will “eat paint and stucco off of houses,” the customs agency said in a statement.

The incident remains under investigation.

Link to story

A new report from the University of California, Davis, shows that California agriculture is weathering its worst drought in decades due to groundwater reserves, but the nation’s produce basket may come up dry in the future if it continues to treat those reserves like an unlimited savings account.

The UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences study, released today at a press briefing in Washington, D.C., updates estimates on the drought’s effects on Central Valley farm production, presents new data on the state’s coastal and southern farm areas, and forecasts the drought’s economic fallout through 2016. The study found that the drought — the third most severe on record — is responsible for the greatest water loss ever seen in California agriculture, with river water for Central Valley farms reduced by roughly one-third. Groundwater pumping is expected to replace most river water losses, with some areas more than doubling their pumping rate over the previous year, the study said. More than 80 percent of this replacement pumping occurs in the San Joaquin Valley and Tulare Basin.

The results highlight California agriculture’s economic resilience and vulnerabilities to drought and underscore the state’s reliance on groundwater to cope with droughts. “California’s agricultural economy overall is doing remarkably well, thanks mostly to groundwater reserves,” said Jay Lund, a co-author of the study and director of the university’s Center for Watershed Sciences. “But we expect substantial local and regional economic and employment impacts. We need to treat that groundwater well so it will be there for future droughts.” Other key findings of the drought’s effects in 2014:

• Direct costs to agriculture total $1.5 billion (revenue losses of $1 billion and $0.5 billion in additional pumping costs). This net revenue loss is about 3 percent of the state’s total agricultural value.
• The total statewide economic cost of the 2014 drought is $2.2 billion.
• The loss of 17,100 seasonal and part-time jobs related to agriculture represents 3.8 percent of farm unemployment.
• 428,000 acres, or 5 percent, of irrigated cropland is going out of production in the Central Valley, Central Coast and Southern California due to the drought.
• The Central Valley is hardest hit, particularly the Tulare Basin, with projected losses of $810 million, or 2.3 percent, in crop revenue; $203 million in dairy and livestock value; and $453 million in additional well-pumping costs.
• Agriculture on the Central Coast and in Southern California will be less affected by this year’s drought, with about 19,150 acres fallowed, $10 million in lost crop revenue and $6.3 million in additional pumping costs.
• Overdraft of groundwater is expected to cause additional wells in the Tulare Basin to run dry if the drought continues.
• The drought is likely to continue through 2015, regardless of El Niño conditions.
• Consumer food prices will be largely unaffected. Higher prices at the grocery store of high-value California crops like nuts, wine grapes and dairy foods are driven more by market demand than by the drought.

Groundwater a “slow-moving train wreck”

If the drought continues for two more years, groundwater reserves will continue to be used to replace surface water losses, the study said. Pumping ability will slowly decrease, while costs and losses will slowly increase due to groundwater depletion. California is the only state without a framework for groundwater management.

“We have to do a better job of managing groundwater basins to secure the future of agriculture in California,” said Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which largely funded the UC Davis study. “That’s why we’ve developed the California Water Action Plan and a proposal for local, sustainable groundwater management.”

Failure to replenish groundwater in wet years continues to reduce groundwater availability to sustain agriculture during drought — particularly more profitable permanent crops, like almonds and grapes — a situation lead author Richard Howitt of UC Davis called a “slow-moving train wreck.”

“A well-managed basin is used like a reserve bank account,” said Howitt, a professor emeritus of agricultural and resource economics. “We’re acting like the super rich who have so much money they don’t need to balance their checkbook.”

To forecast the economic effects of the drought, the UC Davis researchers used computer models, remote satellite sensing data from NASA, and the latest estimates of State Water Project, federal Central Valley Project and local water deliveries and groundwater pumping capacities.

The analysis was done at the request of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which co-funded the research with the University of California. The report’s other co-authors include UC Davis agricultural economists Josué Medellín-Azuara and Dan Sumner, and Duncan MacEwan of the ERA Economic consulting firm in Davis.

California produces nearly half of U.S.-grown fruits, nuts and vegetables and nearly a quarter of the nation’s milk and cream. Across the nation, consumers regularly buy several crops grown almost entirely in California, including tomatoes, carrots, broccoli, almonds, walnuts, grapes, olives and figs.

Read the full report

Link to news release

Link to archived news conference

TURLOCK – Some fairgoers came for the barbecue, washed down with beer floats. Others lined up for deep-fried, bacon-wrapped pickles, cheesecake on a stick or a dozen forms of fried potatoes.

But it’s lobster corn dogs, doughnut sandwiches, deep-fried frogs legs and a mega loaf of curly fries that will be the most memorable morsels of this year’s Stanislaus County Fair, thanks to a Food Network episode of “Carnival Eats” filming in Turlock this weekend.

“Vegas has its secrets. The fair has its calories. It’s the guilty place you go once a year,” said host Noah Cappe between takes Saturday. The show has crisscrossed the country since April, filming Cappe gamely learning to cook everything from gumbo in Louisiana to deep-fried rattlesnake in Oklahoma.

“I appear to be a slow learner. But I’m definitely getting comfortable around the friers,” Cappe said with a grin.

“It’s silly. The guy can barely slice an onion, but he loves to eat,” said show director Spencer Ramsay while his crew set up cameras at the Monster Grill.

“Setup takes a couple of hours,” he noted. “That’s always what takes the time.”

Outside, cameramen taped a black cloth hood around a window in front of the main cooking area to block reflections. One camera would be shooting there while two others stood inside with Ramsay to capture Cappe’s foray into monster corn dog and curly fries cooking. Each item is cooked at least twice, giving a variety of wide-angle and close-up views to be stitched together later.

“It’s a huge process,” said producer Topher McFarlane. The Monster Grill trailer, which has a second trailer attached with walk-in refrigerator and office space, is one of the larger venues they’ve filmed, he noted. Filming inside tents and tiny booths each take their own engineering for lighting, sound and camera angles.

During filming, Cappe’s slim, 6-foot-3-inch frame swiveled expertly to stay in the photo frame as owner Tom Stroud maneuvered bulky packages and oversize equipment in the small space. The booth can run through 14 tons of potatoes in one fair, Stroud said.

Stroud’s 18-inch corn dogs and 5-pound serving of curly fries, both $8 items, were the menu for his segment. It takes custom-built, extra-deep deep-fry bins to cook both. The corn dogs take custom-cut sticks because of their weight, Stroud said. Some people share the mega meal, others dive in alone, he said.

“You get people trying to outdo each other. It’s really comical,” he said.

On Saturday the crew also filmed Cappe making lobster corn dogs that sell for $10 at Sharky’s Fish Fry, owned by two generations of Delahoydes. Phillip Delahoyde said his dad invented the batter-fried lobster sausages and lobster fries to be featured on the show. Other quirky offerings include deep-fried avocado and, at another booth, a chicken sandwich made with raspberry-jelly-filled Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

“If we had to think about calories, that would be scary,” Delahoyde said with a laugh.

Filming wraps up today, with segments on deep-fried frogs legs with deep-fried okra at the Southern Comfort Express booth and homemade doughnut ice cream sandwiches from Sweet Cheeks Fair Treats.

Sacramento’s Cal Expo and the Stanislaus fair will be the California contributions for the first season of “Carnival Eats,” due to start mid-August on the Cooking Channel and Great American Country in the United States, and the Food Network in Canada. The show will mix and match locations, making Turlock’s air date a toss-up right now, Ramsay said.

The fair has a week still to run, giving fairgoers a chance to taste the real thing and dozens of other only-at-the-fair foods.

At the Knights of Columbus booth, volunteers in red T-shirts that say “Keep Calm and Eat Linguica” will be fundraising for scholarships and extras for Sacred Heart School. After more than 60 years of selling linguica sandwiches, they’ve added a linguica corn dog, french fries and sweet potato fries this year, said volunteer Kevin Crivelli.

Rotary’s beer booth has $8 beer floats this year, said volunteer Don Gonsalves. One pairs a dark Guinness with chocolate and another adds orange cream soda to Blue Moon beer. Both come with ice cream and whipped cream.

“We’ve had people try it that don’t drink beer and love it,” Gonsalves said.

Doughnuts are big sellers throughout the fair, even showing up as stuffed toys winnable at games along the midway. Castle Mini-Donuts offers a doughnut sundae, eight doughnuts topped with whipped cream, chocolate or caramel sauce and a cherry on top, said worker Jackie Barrera.

Fried bread has been dubbed “elephant ears” at one booth offering a number of toppings. An Indian Fry Bread booth has s’mores bread, a fry bread dribbled with melted marshmallows and chocolate sauce.

The classic cinnamon rolls, a fair staple for 37 years, have added a cinnamon roll sundae – a few more irresistible fair calories.

Link to story

By David Siders

Californians can start sipping wine at farmers markets.

Immediately.

Gov. Jerry Brown announced Tuesday he has signed an urgency measure allowing winegrowers who bottle their own wine to conduct instructional tastings at California’s numerous farmers markets. Assembly Bill 2488, by Assemblyman Marc Levine, D-San Rafael, was approved by both houses of the Legislature without dissent.

The bill expands a provision of state law allowing the sale of estate-grown wine at farmers markets. Wine industry groups said the inability to offer samples hurt sales in an industry in which customers are accustomed to a taste.

Brown, a Democrat, signed the legislation without comment. It was one of 10 bills the governor announced signing Tuesday.

The measure requires wine tasting areas to be separated from the rest of the farmers market by a rope or other barrier, and it limits tastings to three ounces per patron per day.

Proponents of the bill said it would help small wineries build their brand. Opponents, including the California Council on Alcohol Problems, opposed the measure, according to a legislative analysis.

Link to California Grown ‘Snap a Selfie’ page.

Alameda County Fair
6/18/2014 to 7/6/2014
Pleasanton, CA

Amador County Fair
7-24-14 to 7-27-14
Plymouth, CA

California State Fair
7-11-14 to 7-27-14
Sacramento, CA

California Mid-State Fair
7-16-14 to 7-27-14
Paso Robles, CA

Del Norte County Fair
7-31-14 to 8-3-14
Crescent City, CA

Lassen County Fair
7-16-14 to 7-20-14
Susanville, CA

Marin County Fair
7-2-14 to 7-6-14
San Rafael, CA

Mother Lode Fair
7-10-14 to 7-13-14
Sonora, CA

Napa County Fair
7-4-14
Calistoga, CA

Napa Town and Country Fair
7-16-14 to 7-20-14
Napa, CA

Orange County Fair
7-11-14 to 8-10-14
Santa Ana, CA

Redwood Empire Fair
7-31-14 to 8-3-14
Ukiah, CA

San Diego County Fair
6/7/2014 to 7/6/2014
Del Mar, CA

Santa Maria Fair Park
7-9-14 to 7-13-14
Santa Maria, CA

Solano County Fair
7-30-14 to 8-3-14
Vallejo, CA

Sonoma County Fair
7-14-14 to 8-10-14
Santa Rosa, CA

Stanislaus County Fair
7-11-14 to 7-20-14
Turlock, CA

Ventura County Fair
7-30-14 to 8-10-14
Ventura, CA

Yuba-Sutter Fair
7-31-14 to 8-3-14
Yuba City, CA

CDFA’s Division of Fairs and Expositions