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.
In recognition of Black History Month, CDFA Secretary Karen Ross sat down recently with State Food and Agriculture Board Member Doria Robinson, also Executive Director of Urban Tilth, a non-profit organization focused on providing urban farming opportunities in Richmond. Robinson is a newly elected member of the Richmond City Council and a prominent figure in the community through her work with young people, local farmers, and families in need.
Governor Gavin Newsom today signed an executive order to protect the state’s water supplies from the impacts of climate-driven extremes in weather. After years of prolonged drought, recent storms resulted in the wettest three-week period on record in California. The storms have been followed by an unseasonably dry February, however, and the state could see a return to warm and dry conditions during the remaining weeks of the wet season – just as heavy rains in fall 2021 gave way to the driest January-February-March period in over 100 years.
While recent storms have helped replenish the state’s reservoirs and boosted snowpack, drought conditions continue to have significant impacts on communities with vulnerable water supplies, agriculture, and the environment. The latest science indicates that hotter and drier weather conditions could reduce California’s water supply by up to 10% by the year 2040.
The frequency of hydrologic extremes that is being experienced in California demonstrates the need to continually adapt to promote resiliency in a changing climate. To protect water supply and the environment given this new reality, and until it is clear what the remainder of the wet season will hold, the executive order includes provisions to protect water reserves, and replace and replenish the greater share of rain and snowfall that will be absorbed by thirstier soils, vegetation and the atmosphere.
The order helps expand the state’s capacity to capture storm runoff in wet years by facilitating groundwater recharge projects. It also continues conservation measures and allows the State Water Board to reevaluate requirements for reservoir releases and diversion limitations to maximize water supplies north and south of the Delta while protecting the environment. Additionally, the order directs state agencies to review and provide recommendations on the state’s drought response actions by the end of April, including the possibility of terminating specific emergency provisions that are no longer needed, once there is greater clarity about the hydrologic conditions this year.
The text of the executive order can be found here.
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 taking 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, Governor Newsom is proposing an additional $202 million for flood protection and $125 million for drought related actions.
From the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service
The 2022 crush totaled 3,620,595 tons, down 6.7% from the 2021 crush of 3,880,141 tons. Red wine varieties accounted for the largest share of all grapes crushed, at 1,885,875 tons, down 7.2% from 2021. White wine varieties crushed totaled 1,463,787 tons, down 8.6% from 2021. Tons crushed of raisin type varieties totaled 103,812, down 24.8% from 2021, and tons crushed of table type varieties totaled 167,121, up 54.9% from 2021.
The 2022 average price of all varieties was $910.80, up 5.7% from 2021. Average prices for the 2022 crop by type were as follows: red wine grapes, $1,150.58, up 7.2% from 2021; white wine grapes, $682.07, up 1.0% from 2021; raisin grapes, $314.27, up 7.8% from 2021; and table grapes, $215.64, up 17.9% from 2021.
In 2022, Cabernet Sauvignon surpassed Chardonnay as the variety with the largest percentage of the total tonnage crushed at 15.4%. Chardonnay accounted for the second largest percentage of the total crush at 14.4%. Raisin grape varieties crushed for wine accounted for 2.9% of the total crush and table varieties crushed for wine were 4.6% of the total crush.
District 13 (Madera, Fresno, Alpine, Mono, Inyo Counties; and Kings and Tulare Counties north of Nevada Avenue (Avenue 192)), had the largest share of the State’s crush at 1,149,339 tons. The average price per ton in District 13 was $357.48.
Grapes produced in District 4 (Napa County) received the highest average price at $6,847.19 per ton, up 12.2% from 2021. District 3 (Sonoma and Marin counties) received the second highest average price at $2,858.39 per ton, up 6.4% from 2021.
The 2022 Cabernet Sauvignon average price of $1,892.40 was up 13.8% from 2021 and the Chardonnay average price of $1,014.63 was up 3.9% from 2021. The 2022 average price for French Colombard was $330.64, up 1.9% from 2021, while the Zinfandel average price was up 0.7% from 2021, at $651.06 per ton.
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross joined former CDFA and USDA secretary Ann Veneman this week for a circular bioeconomy roundtable discussion with local government, civic and academic leaders at Modesto Junior College as well as other activities. The discussion focused on the Stanislaus 2030 Investment Blueprint and the Northern San Joaquin Valley BioEconomy, Agriculture & Manufacturing (BEAM) Initiative.
By definition, a circular bioeconomy utilizes renewable resources that are sustainably managed, recovered, and reused as much as possible. In agriculture, that includes converting organic byproducts from crops, food and beverage processing to products for commodity inputs, soil amendments, renewable energy, and other potentially useful bioproducts that create value.
At the meeting, the Almond Board of California presented an overview of its almond byproduct research and the development and exploration of market opportunities.
The discussion was followed by bioeconomy site visits to an Aemetis biofuel production facility and a site visit to a dairy digester project funded by a CDFA grant. The renewable natural gas generated at the dairy goes into a pipleline at the Aemetis site for treatment and distribution by a utility company.
The secretaries also visited Travaille and Phippen Company to learn more about almond hulling and shelling operations that creat reliable sources of biomass as a key driver of the region’s bioeconomy initiative.
“This is exactly what we need for the future,” said Secretary Ross. “This is about solving problems and finding productive solutions for our renewable resources, and about creating sustainable, community-inclusive economic growth and jobs support families in the rural communities of the Central Valley.”
