CDFA Secretary Ross and agricultural delegates meeting with Director General Mizuno Masayoshi at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
As California’s trade mission to Japan kicked off this week, CDFA Secretary Karen Ross participated in a series of meeting and events underscoring the deep cooperation between California and Japan.
One of first stops was a meeting with Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF). Here, Secretary Ross was able to recognize Japan’s strong trade partnership and collaboration on market access for agricultural products, as well as focusing on organic certification. Discussions also covered California’s Sustainable Pest Management Roadmap.
Panelist in the climate discussion included: (Left to right) Nicole Van Vleck, California Rice Commission; Dr. Shori Yamamato, NARO; Secretary Ross; Mr. Satoru Harada, Yamanashi Prefecture; and Glenda Humiston, UCANR.
Following the meeting with the MAFF, California hosted a California-Japan Climate Summit which highlighted climate opportunities related to renewable energy, hydrogen, port infrastructure and agriculture. As part of the Summit, CDFA hosted a Climate Smart Agriculture and Working Lands panel discussion with speakers from Japan’s National Agriculture and Food Research Organization (NARO), the Agricultural Department of Yamanashi Prefecture, California representatives from the University of California’s Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the California Rice Commission. The panel underscored research, on-farm practices and technical assistance as key approaches in helping farmers and ranchers address climate change.
The schedule this week has also included visits to key agricultural customers, featuring California Grown supermarket promotions and a tour of the Toyosu Central Wholesale Market for fresh fruits and vegetables.
Secretary Ross is in Japan as part of a California Trade Mission led by Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis and Dee Dee Myers, director of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development. Japan is California’s fourth largest agricultural export market, valued at more than $1.6 billion. It is the leading destination for California raisins, the second largest destination for walnuts and prunes, the fourth for figs, and the fifth leading market for almonds.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to enable local water agencies and other water users to capture water from the latest round of storms to recharge state groundwater supplies.
The order suspends regulations and restrictions on permitting and use to enable water agencies and water users to divert flood stage water for the purpose of boosting groundwater recharge. The order includes wildlife and habitat protections, ensuring that any diversions would not harm water quality or habitat or take away from environmental needs.
WHAT GOV. NEWSOM SAID: “California is seeing extreme rain and snow, so we’re making it simple to redirect water to recharge groundwater basins. This order helps us take advantage of expected intense storms and increases state support for local stormwater capture efforts.”
This executive order follows Governor Newsom’s order in February to protect the state’s water supplies from the impacts of climate-driven extremes in weather.
Allowed the State Water Project to conserve 237,000 acre-feet of water while providing protections for Delta smelt.
Allowed the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to divert over 600,000 acre-feet of floodwaters for wildlife refuges, underground storage, and recharge.
California has bolstered supply and storage, including a combined 1.1 million acre-feet of water – enough for 2.2 million households’ yearly usage:
The State Water Board has authorized nearly 790,000 acre-feet in diversions for groundwater recharge and other purposes since late December 2022.
The State Water Board streamlined the permitting process for temporary groundwater storage permits to fast-track efforts to capture floodwater to recharge groundwater basins. So far this winter it has authorized 186,153 acre-feet for recharge under those processes.
DWR has awarded $68 million to 42 groundwater recharge projects that provide nearly 117,000 acre-feet of potential recharge capacity. Ongoing applications include 52 groundwater recharge projects worth $211 million.
Since 2020, the State Water Board has provided $1 billion for 13 projects to bring 88,000 acre-feet per year to the state’s water supplies.
Leveraging the more than $8.6 billion committed by Governor Newsom and the Legislature in the last two budget cycles to build water resilience, the state is continuing to take aggressive action to prepare for the impacts of climate-driven extremes in weather on the state’s water supplies. In the 2023-24 state budget, the Governor is proposing an additional $202 million for flood protection and $125 million for drought related actions.
Today is International Women’s Day, a day celebrated to specifically recognize the achievements of women. This day was officially designated by the United Nations in 1977.
In California and throughout the world, women play a pivotal role in shaping policy decisions in agriculture, running farming operations, and comprising a considerable number of California’s farmworkers. In this video, CDFA Secretary Karen Ross takes a moment to recognize the contributions of women in agriculture—around the world and here in the Golden State.
“On average, groundwater provides roughly half the water we use as Californians, so implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act is crucial to achieving future water resilience. The Groundwater Sustainability Plan determinations released today demonstrate the extremely complex issues within critically overdrafted basins and the importance of collaboration to secure a future of reliable groundwater supplies. Though more work is needed to address difficult conditions in some of the subbasins, important progress is being made in a part of the state facing the biggest challenges of balancing water availability and demand. Agriculture, communities, and local economies will all benefit from California’s commitment to sustainable groundwater management as we face a hotter, drier future in a changed climate.“
– Secretary Karen Ross, California Department of Food and Agriculture
By Kristin Macey, Director of CDFA’s Division of Measurement Standards
This is one week out of the year where we shine a light on the ultimate touchpoint in your life – weights and measures. Think about where you would be without the essential measurements you rely on every day.
Have a smart watch that woke you up? That’s a time measurement. The shampoo you used comes in a bottle labeled by volume. On the way to the office, you stopped to get gas; that’s sold by volume too. On the way home you got a loaf of bread, but a loaf could be multiple sizes, right? Exactly! That’s why bread is sold by weight. Got an electric vehicle? You’re buying kilowatt hours (energy) as your fuel. How cool is that!?!
Yep, nearly everything, including services you purchase, is sold by weight, measure, or count. You should get what you pay for, but just so you know, businesses rely on accuracy too.
That package you sent to a relative in another state? It, along with thousands of other packages are loaded into airplanes, and the weights and balance of loads in an aircraft are crucial for safety.
You own a gas station, restaurant, or hardware store? You want accurate deliveries for inventory and sales calculations.
Errors in measurements anywhere along the supply chain, from manufacture to retail sales, could result in monetary gains or losses of pennies or thousands of dollars, market disruptions, or absolute tragedy.
CDFA has a division dedicated to accurate weights and measures – the Division of Measurement Standards (DMS)! The work that DMS does supports local weights and measures jurisdictions, and the combined state and county programs impact all our lives, every day.
Each county has a department of agriculture/weights and measures. They’re checking all the grocery scales, gas pumps, advertising, and labeling for accuracy. They test thousands of packages to ensure accurate quantities; they even make sure the air and water equipment at gas stations is operating properly.
There’s diversity, equity, and inclusion in weights and measures protection. Everyone benefits – folks in urban and rural settings; the financially well-off, the poor, those in underserved communities, U.S. citizens, undocumented persons, and even visitors spending time in the Golden State.
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross speaks to a crowd gathered for a Farm Bill listening session in Fresno in 2022 as CDFA Undersecretary Christine Birdsong (right), Cal-EPA Undersecretary Serena McIllwain and CDFA Deputy Secretary Arima Kozina (far left) look on.
California has submitted recommendations to Congress for the 2023 Farm Bill, to inform upcoming deliberations by members of the House and Senate Agricultural Committees and their colleagues in national leadership.
“California’s recommendations reflect the vital role that our state’s farmers and ranchers proudly play in our national economy and in the health of our citizens, as well as the importance of continued management of risks due to the volatility presented by climate change and other threats to our land, our food and our future,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “As Congress deliberates the reauthorization of this essential legislation, we urge full consideration of the tremendous efforts of farmers and ranchers to be responsible stewards of national food security and the truly unique natural and human resources that make California both a bounty and a beacon for our country.”
California’s Farm Bill recommendations represent the participation and input of more than 100 diverse stakeholder organizations, gathered through five statewide public listening sessions as well as various individual submissions and additional contributions from state government agencies. Without exception, we received strong support for keeping the nutrition title as part of the Farm Bill.
Other key investment areas identified priorities that support economic opportunities for agriculture and rural communities, as well as opportunities to improve the health of farmworkers, agricultural communities and the environment while supporting the nutrition of all Americans. The recommendations reflect the scope of California’s agricultural diversity and the themes shared by the organizations and individuals who participated in the process.
The full document includes detailed recommendations under these subjects:
Robust funding for food and nutrition programs
Expanding conservation programs and climate and ecosystem investments
Ensuring equity and accessibility
Managing risk, including disasters due to climate volatility, by ensuring access to the farm safety net
Safeguarding marketing and trade programs, including specialty crops
Strengthening national security through animal and plant health programs
Investing in research
Investing in sustainable pest management to better protect the health of farmworkers, agricultural communities, and the environment
Supporting organic agriculture
Maintaining forest health
The Farm Bill is an omnibus, multi-year legislation for major food and farm programs. The current Farm Bill, also known as “The Agricultural Improvement Act of 2018,” was enacted in December 2018, authorizing $867 billion in spending over the next ten years.
Did you know that CDFA’s Fertilizing Materials Inspection Program (FMIP) conducts routine inspections to ensure fertilizing materials meet the quantity and quality guaranteed by the manufacturer?
For example, in the accompanying photo a CDFA inspector is taking a sample of commercial fertilizer at the manufacturing firm’s location just before the material is delivered to a grower. The sample is then sent to the CDFA Center for Analytical Chemistry for lab analysis. If there are violations, such as if the composition falls below or differs from what is purported on the product label, FMIP will follow up by taking another sample or move toward administrative enforcement action, depending on the seriousness of the violation and the firm’s history.
In addition, the grower who purchased the material will receive a copy of the lab analysis. By receiving a copy of the lab analysis, growers gain confidence that the material they are purchasing meets its guarantees.
The inspection program demonstrates to growers and consumers that FMIP field staff are working on their behalf by protecting them from purchasing non-compliant products.
CDFA Undersecretary Christy Birdsong met this week with Director General SUI Pengfei of the Chinese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs to discuss climate smart agriculture and trade collaboration. Representatives from the USDA, the Almond Board of California, the Wine Institute, and the Culinary Institute of America were also in attendance.
In 2022, California and China’s Ministry of Ecology and Environment were signatories to a Memorandum of Understanding pledging a shared commitment to protect the environment, combat climate change and advance clean energy development.
China is California’s third largest agricultural export destination, with a value of more than $1.9 billion.
Aaron Cuthbertson, engineering geologist with the California Department of Water Resources, measures groundwater levels at designated monitoring wells in Yolo County on March 10, 2020.
(Department of Water Resources News Release)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Department of Water Resources (DWR), in coordination with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, today awarded $25 million in financial assistance to three groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) through the LandFlex Program. The funding will help preserve critical groundwater supplies in Central Valley communities.
LandFlex is a tool for GSAs to help provide immediate protection of drinking water wells in underrepresented communities impacted by prolonged drought and overpumping of groundwater supplies. The program also helps GSAs accelerate efforts to better manage and protect groundwater supplies for long-term sustainability as required by the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) of 2014.
DWR has awarded grants to the following three GSAs:
Madera County Groundwater Sustainability Agency – $9.3 million
Greater Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency – $7.0 million
Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency – $7.0 million
With these grant funds, GSAs will work directly with interested growers to temporarily idle agricultural lands to provide immediate benefits for vulnerable domestic wells. This one-year drought relief measure is expected to keep 1,500 to 5,000 acre-feet of groundwater in the ground to avoid impacts on vulnerable drinking water wells. The program will also help permanently eliminate the use of groundwater overdraft on each enrolled acre. This longer-term benefit of the LandFlex program is designed to prevent the extraction of an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 acre-feet of groundwater, accelerating each GSA’s efforts towards sustainable groundwater management.
The program incentivizes participation by small- and medium-size farm operations where a reduction in agricultural pumping would help keep household and small community water system wells from going dry.
“LandFlex will help incentivize responsible groundwater and land use sustainability practices by encouraging growers to mitigate the impacts of groundwater overdraft in vulnerable areas. This program not only has the potential to be an effective tool for GSAs and their growers to push towards sustainability but to provide a much needed helping hand to our vulnerable communities in the San Joaquin Valley whose drinking water is being severely impacted by overdraft and the state’s prolonged drought,” said DWR partner Eddie Ocampo with Self-Help Enterprises.
Although a series of storms in January helped recover some reservoir levels, groundwater supplies are slower to recover and drinking water wells throughout California are still at risk of going dry because groundwater is being pumped faster than it can be replenished.
“Many California communities, especially those located in the Central Valley, rely on groundwater and drinking water wells for their water supply needs, particularly during extreme drought. LandFlex is an example of the State taking proactive steps to protect drinking water supplies for California’s most vulnerable communities,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “We are proud of the partnerships we’ve formed to make this program a reality.”
In order to reach vulnerable communities in need and provide small or disadvantaged farmers access to the program, DWR is partnering with Community Alliance with Family Farmers, Self-Help Enterprises, Western United Dairies Foundation, and the Almond Alliance to assist GSAs with providing outreach and engagement to growers.
“This program demonstrates how collaboration and leadership are essential to meeting the challenges of climate change and bringing our aquifers into balance,” said Karen Ross, Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture. “I am encouraged by the initial interest of farmers in this approach and appreciate the innovation and commitment they bring to healthy food production and the wellbeing of their communities every day.”
More information about the LandFlex program. Learn more about SGMA, which addresses issues of over-pumping and provides a framework for local agencies to better manage and protect groundwater supplies for long-term sustainability.
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross joined California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot this week at Colonel Allensworth State Historic Park in Tulare County. The secretaries met members of a foundation working to help make improvements to the property and local community, and also joined together with the group to recognize Black History Month.
CDFA is supplying grant funding that will help establish a teaching farm at Allensworth.
