May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and CDFA recognizes that stressors felt by farmworkers, farmers and ranchers are real and may require outside assistance. The agency maintains a webpage with mental health resources for those in need.

Suicide rates among farmers and ranchers are well above the national average, while mental health services are less available and accessible in rural areas, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Mental health can be an often-overlooked challenge facing farm communities nationwide, due to factors like farmland loss, land access issues, rising production costs, and plummeting farm incomes that have ripple effects in communities. 

CDFA’s Mental Health Resources Page includes a variety of referral resources as well as tips on stress management, including the importance of healthy relationships, a nutritious diet, consistent exercise, and good sleep.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross (center in photo) today welcomed a delegation from the Western Cape of South Africa as it begins a week-long visit to California. The meeting included a discussion of a memorandum of understanding between the Western Cape and CDFA signed in March of last year.

The MOU focuses on expanding exchanges of information about on-farm practices and technologies to support a robust and climate-resilient agriculture sector, and a pledge to work collaboratively to further international engagement by sub-national governments on climate-smart agriculture initiatives.

The delegation has meetings scheduled this week with various government agencies, legislative representatives, and academic partners.

CDFA recently visited Sweet Mabel’s Farm in West Sacramento, owned by Elle Huftill, an urban flower farmer. She takes us through her journey in farming and her passion for sustainable agriculture, as well as her commitment to community with fresh, locally-grown flowers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ-KiAzqtXg&t=22s

The US Supreme Court has upheld California’s Proposition 12, an animal confinement initiative approved by voters in 2018 and subsequently challenged. 

Californians voted to adopt Proposition 12 by an overwhelming margin (63%-37%), which established minimum confinement standards for the sale of certain animal products within California borders. CDFA issued the following statement in response to the Supreme Court decision:

“CDFA is grateful that the United States Supreme Court has firmly upheld the people’s will in its decision in the National Pork Producers case. Throughout the country, many pork distributors have already begun complying with Proposition 12 by registering with the Department – including a large number of new registrations that were submitted following the release of the Court’s decision yesterday.  

“As it has since the beginning of 2022, CDFA’s Animal Care Program will continue to focus on implementation of distributor registration requirements, accreditation of third-party certifiers, and outreach and technical assistance to businesses throughout the supply chain.

“As we approach July 1, when a previous court order suspending Prop 12 enforcement expires, CDFA looks forward to engaging with industry representatives to further discuss what is needed to achieve a smooth transition to compliance.  

“CDFA appreciates the investments made by many pork producers and packers across the nation over the past couple years to ensure that California will have Prop 12-compliant pork, and looks forward to continuing to assist businesses with implementation of all regulatory requirements.”

Did you know that inspections of imported table grapes are conducted annually by California county and state personnel to ensure they meet the same high standards of California-grown fruit? Inspections ensure that table grapes look good, taste good, are nutritious; and that labels accurately describe what consumers are purchasing.  

(PHOTO — Standardization Southern District Supervisor Anna Carrasquillo conducts table grape field training in Los Angeles County by demonstrating the process used to determine the sugar and acid content of the grapes.)

In the first quarter of 2023, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Standardization Program oversaw the inspections of more than 3.7 million containers of imported table grapes. Standardization Southern District Supervisor Anna Carrasquillo also conducted training sessions with county personnel to ensure they have the knowledge and practical experience necessary to perform these types of inspections.

The Standardization Program is part of the Inspection and Compliance Branch in CDFA’s Inspection Services Division.

The California dairy sector is on a mission to innovate how manure is recycled—boosting water quality outcomes and soil health. An initial roadmap has been drawn. Several projects are already under way. Millions of additional public and private investments will soon support the adoption of more advanced manure management practices on California dairy farms.

(Photo — worms in use to filter liquid effluent)

Dairy manure is a valuable resource. However, many dairies have more manure than they can use to grow their crops. This surplus creates both a challenge and an opportunity that the dairy sector is working to address. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) convened a Manure Recycling and Innovative Products (MRIP) Task Force—a collaboration of farmers, academia, and public partners. The task force’s report suggests concrete steps to guide innovation and advancement.

“The [MRIP] Task Force has succeeded in developing recommendations for strategies to capture and enhance the value of dairy manure,” wrote Secretary Karen Ross in the forward of the report. “The value highlighted by these strategies includes building healthy soils and sequestering carbon, offsetting industrial fertilizer use, protecting water and air quality, and reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint in California. These benefits impact not just farmers, but the state, our consumers, and our environment.”

The report outlines a comprehensive game plan—to explore how conventional strategies and cutting-edge or emerging technologies can all be tapped into as solutions. MRIP will continue to meet this year and into the future to discuss progress and identify more ways to innovate. Today, California dairy farms apply liquid or solid manure nutrients to forage fields. One goal is to develop pathways for these nutrients to be transformed into valuable products, such as soil amendments that can be used to nourish other crops across California’s rich agricultural landscape.

As Forbes recently described it, one strategy that’s in motion is to “send in the worms.” Vermifiltration was first demonstrated on a dairy in Hilmar in 2014 and has since been demonstrated on another dairy in Washington state. Essentially, these farms use worm beds to filter liquid manure effluent. The worms absorb the water, and the bacteria in their guts convert the nitrogen into nitrogen gas (N2) which is a harmless gas that makes up about 78 percent of our atmosphere. Worm castings and decomposed wood chips from the beds offer potential value as fertilizer and soil amendments. CDFA’s Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP) has provided funding support for another dairy vermifiltration project that’s under way, aiming to further demonstrate the potential of worms.

Another method being explored is the use of an algae raceway system. The system has been piloted on a California dairy, where it works in conjunction with a digester to both reduce methane, remove nitrogen, and purify remaining water. Like with vermifiltration, algae raceways show great promise for improving water quality outcomes.

Nitrogen capture systems represent a particularly innovative type of dairy manure management. Evaporative systems can provide environmental benefits and create pathogen-free solid and liquid fractions, which can be marketed as fertilizers. The system has been implemented on a few dairies in other states. An evaporative liquid manure processing project is in the works, coming to a California dairy soon.

With all of these new technologies, research is needed to ensure economic viability. This includes the cost to implement and maintain projects, and the marketing of post-treatment products, such as carbon credits, vermiculture compost, or raw materials for products, such as bioplastics. Through additional studies, the environmental outcomes can be independently confirmed, and economic models can be validated, allowing for widespread adoption on California dairies.

These efforts to advance manure management are about to get a big boost. The California Dairy Research Foundation (CDRF), and the CDFA, along with Dairy Cares and other industry partners, have been awarded up to $85 million by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities program. The funding will leverage additional matching state funds and private capital investments, for a total of more than $300 million in new investments. Incentive funds provided through the “Dairy PLUS+ Program,” to be administered by CDFA, will help bring more full-scale projects to California dairies, reducing methane and improving groundwater protection. The practices will be measured and monitored by university researchers to quantify emission reductions and improved water quality outcomes. NOTE — The first solicitation for project applications is expected to be released soon.

“The Dairy Plus+ Program brings together organizations throughout the value chain to the benefit of our hard-working dairy farmers and the environment,” said Denise Mullinax, Executive Director of the California Dairy Research Foundation. “We look forward to working with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the California Milk Advisory Board, Dairy Cares, the universities and others to implement this advanced climate-smart ag project in California’s dairy sector.”

Worms, algae, and evaporative technologies are just a few of the technologies and strategies being explored. The California dairy sector and its public and private partners will continue their important work to identify and verify ways to best serve the manure management needs of individual family dairy farms and bring environmental benefits to communities. Researchers and entrepreneurs are on board in this mission to discover dairy manure’s full potential as part of a more circular and sustainable California agriculture industry.

Link to article on Dairy Cares website

The USDA today announced investments in 12 Regional Food Business Centers–including one in California–that will provide coordination, technical assistance, and capacity building to help farmers, ranchers, and other food businesses access new markets and navigate federal, state, and local resources. In addition, the USDA announced a Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program (RFSI) to fund innovative projects designed to invest in processing and distribution capacity to build resilience across the middle of the supply chain and strengthen local and regional food systems

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross:

“We are very encouraged by today’s announcement by the USDA. The investment in the University of California’s Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (ANR) as a Regional Food Business Center brings tremendous expertise and technical assistance to support our Ag Vision goals of building healthy communities and local, resilient climate-smart food systems. 

“The total USDA investment of $820 million creates a tremendous opportunity for collaboration and partnerships throughout the state to expand opportunities for every Californian to have access to healthy CA Grown food as well as job opportunities in local food systems. 

”I appreciate Secretary Vilsack’s commitment to making investments like these so meaningful for rural communities.”

Link to USDA news release

See this fact sheet and this FAQ document about Regional Food System Partnerships

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross (at lectern) and CDFA Deputy Secretary for Climate and Working Lands Virginia Jameson (inset) welcome attendees to the State of the Science Summit: Feed Strategies to Reduce Enteric Emissions, at UC Davis this morning.

This was the start of a two-day conference co-hosted by CDFA and the UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences to identify opportunities for collaboration and research that will help animal agriculture meet climate goals for a reduction of methane emissions.

Conference objectives include providing an overview of the need and opportunities for enteric methane reduction strategies to achieve state, national and global methane reduction goals; exploring producer and supply chain support for adopting methane-reducing feed strategies; and hearing agency and producer perspectives.