This week, CDFA will highlight the many ways the agency is addressing the climate crisis and finding solutions together with California’s farmers and ranchers.
In the video below, Secretary Karen Ross discusses CDFA programs available to
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions, including potent methane
Increase carbon sequestration to improve soil health
Support water and irrigation energy efficiency
Establish pollinator habitats
Provide technical assistance for farmers and ranchers, including communities that have been historically underserved
Three Sisters Farm founder Alfred Melbourne examines an ear of corn on one of his four urban farms in West Sacramento in 2020. His produce is part of the “farm-to-school” movement making its way through the Sacramento region and California. Jason Pierce/Sacramento Bee file
Alfred Melbourne tromped through Three Sisters Gardens’ half-acre urban farm on a recent Friday morning dressed in black Ray-Ban sunglasses, cut-off shorts and a black tank top showing off his lean build and many tribal tattoos. Hummingbirds flitted through bean plants in West Sacramento’s Broderick neighborhood, next to rows of tomatoes and eggplants poking out from tangled vines. There were bell and serrano peppers, purple and Thai basil, two types of melons and patches of cilantro.
Some of that produce, planted and harvested by volunteers as young as 11, will end up on West Sacramento school lunch trays. It’s part of the “farm-to-school” movement making its way through the Sacramento region and California as a whole, one Melbourne wants to see grow. “We want the kids to see where their food comes from. We want them to actually connect with the land,” said Melbourne, a Hunkpapa Lakota tribe member. “Being native, we know that the land, the mother, has healing properties, so just making contact and seeing (how) a handful of seeds can turn into a whole field of food growing … we want them to be a part of that magic.”
As downtown Sacramento’s annual Farm-to-Fork Festival draws approximately 150,000 visitors throughout September, the city’s children finally seem to be inching toward healthier meals at school. The days of Sysco chicken patties and freezer-burned raw broccoli could slowly be on the way out thanks to a new state-of-the art central kitchen in Sacramento, shifting state politics and growing relationships with local farmers.
Longtime farm-to-school proponents received a boost from California’s first couple, particularly First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who’s made the movement one of her priority issues. After years of slow progress, millions of dollars are flowing toward locally sourced school lunches, helping offset some of the costs associated with higher-quality food.
The 2022-23 state budget included $60 million in farm-to-school grants, up from $8.5 million in the inaugural program two years ago and well beyond the $12 million the USDA doled out nationwide last year. Gov. Gavin Newsom also approved $600 million in school kitchen upgrades, visible in the new combination ovens coming to every campus in the Sacramento City Unified School District.
“I think we have an opportunity to heal our state and our country through our emphasis on farm-to-school,” Siebel Newsom said. “There’s only an upside if we do this right.” BIG INVESTMENTS The United States was just starting to push its way out of the Great Recession in November 2012 when Sacramento voters overwhelmingly approved a $414 million bond package centered on the city’s schools.
Measure R, as the smaller of the bond package’s two elements was known, included $68 million to fix up playgrounds, improve school safety and fund construction of a central kitchen to feed the district’s children.
Ten years later, Sacramento City Unified has transformed a former dumping ground for unneeded desks and books into a 50,000-square foot industrial kitchen in Tahoe Park. It has another 50,000 square feet of warehouse storage, plus parking and gas for a fleet of delivery trucks.
The Central Kitchen produced daily meals for 4,000 students this summer. That’s a gargantuan feat in its own right, but the end goal is much larger: feeding all 43,000 Sacramento City Unified students freshly prepared free meals from The Central Kitchen in the next three to five years.
That means giant sous-vide cookers preparing tender chicken breasts and thighs to be sliced for soups, salads and enchiladas. Chef Tom Lucero, formerly the corporate executive chef over Sienna Restaurant and Land Ocean American Grill, will eventually oversee more than 30 cooks processing produce and baking bread, muffins and pizza dough.
A roving food truck will also make use of those fresh ingredients, serving junior high students breakfast 45 minutes before class begins. The district wants to make school meals appealing enough — cool enough, really — that kids will seek them out, said Sacramento City Unified Executive Director of Nutrition Services Diana Flores.
“A lot of students do not even participate in school meals because they don’t either like the taste, they don’t like the stigma associated with eating school meals or they’re frankly just too busy socializing at lunchtime,” Flores said. “We want to have a meal that’s so great that we’ll bring them in to eat, so they do better in the classroom.”
The Central Kitchen now sources from more than 45 area growers, purchasing directly when possible to cut out distributors’ costs. It buys out Rancho Cordova-based Soil Born Farms’ entire lettuce crop, purchases Perry & Sons watermelons from Manteca and gets tomatoes, squash and cucumbers from Root 64’s one-acre farm just down the street in Tahoe Park.
Rice comes from SunWest Foods in Yuba City, while Sierra Sun Fruit Marketing supplies peaches from outside Fresno and Miller Citrus Grove hooks the district up with Penryn mandarins.
Statewide farm-to-school efforts began building since the mid-2000s, but typically lacked funding, district Assistant Director of Nutrition Services Kelsey Nederveld said. Sacramento voters helped remedy that with Measure R in 2012, and the state has prioritized it as of late.
New this year as well: free breakfast and lunch for all California public school students regardless of family income, thanks to a budget bill Newsom signed into law in July 2021.
A bounty of studies indicate students’ diets are a major factor in their academic performance. Nourish the stomach, nourish the mind, Siebel Newsom said — with the climate-friendly appeal of local sourcing a cherry on top.
“We have this huge opportunity in front of us to benefit not just children’s health and well-being and academic prowess, but also climate change by reducing transportation, reducing emissions through a circular economy,” Siebel Newsom said.
GROWN BY KIDS, EATEN BY KIDS
Melbourne’s story has become famous in local farm-to-fork circles. After serving 18 years in prison, he turned to gardening as a form of therapy. With support from the West Sacramento Urban Farm program, he eventually founded the nonprofit Three Sisters Gardens on the corner of 5th and C streets in 2018.
Three Sisters has since expanded to four urban farms, including one across the street from Elkhorn Village Elementary School, all with a holistic approach meant to benefit the earth and community. Melbourne eventually wants 50 farms in West Sacramento, part of a “land back” approach he says Native Americans need to flourish.
“We want to give them a sustainable food system in our own community using the land that we have available to us,” Melbourne said.
Three Sisters donates 40% of what it grows to local food banks or community members, and sells much of the rest at area farmers markets. The Natomas Unified School District was its only wholesale client up until the beginning of summer.
But Natomas isn’t as close as Melbourne would like, despite being just a 15-minute drive from the main farm. He’s ended that contract and beginning another one with Washington School District in West Sacramento, hoping to keep his produce as close to his historically-underserved community as possible.
“We’re working in the communities where the help is needed the most,” Melbourne said. “We’re trying to show people how to grow their own food at the same time as we’re giving food to the community … showing them how to fish as opposed to just giving them a fish.”
Eight California horses have tested positive for West Nile Virus in recent weeks, as far north as Tehama County and as far south as Kern County. Two of the horses are deceased, six were unvaccinated, and the vaccination status of the other two is unknown.
Horse owners are encouraged to have their animals vaccinated to make sure they are maximizing protection against the disease. And once vaccinations occur, horse owners should be checking regularly with their veterinarians to make sure they stay current.
Californians can also do their part to prevent the disease by managing mosquitoes that carry West Nile Virus. Here are some tips:
Draining unnecessary standing water found in wheelbarrows, tires, etc.
Cleaning water containers at least weekly (i.e., bird baths, plant saucers)
Scheduling pasture irrigation to minimize standing water
Keeping swimming pools optimally chlorinated and draining water from pool covers
Stocking of water tanks with fish that consume mosquito larvae (Contact local mosquito control for assistance) or use mosquito “dunk” available at hardware stores.
It’s important to remember that mosquitoes become infected with the virus when they feed on infected birds. Mosquitoes then spread the virus to horses. Horses are a dead-end host and do not spread the virus to other horses or humans. For more information on West Nile Virus, please visit this link.
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. With that in mind, Secretary Karen Ross spoke with Carmen Carrasco of the agency’s Farmer Equity Program and discussed key programs at CDFA.
https://youtu.be/jZ_Gxqz6Si0
Video in Spanish with Carmen Carrasco and Artemio Armenta
The USDA is investing up to $2.8 billion in 70 projects under the first pool of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunity, with projects from the second funding pool to be announced later this year. Ultimately, USDA’s anticipated investment will triple to more than $3 billion to help create market opportunities for American commodities using climate-smart production practices.
These initial projects will expand markets for climate-smart commodities, leverage the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity production, and provide direct, meaningful benefits to agriculture, including small and underserved producers. Applicants submitted more than 450 project proposals in this first funding pool, and the strength of the projects led USDA to increase its investment in this opportunity from the initial $1 billion that Secretary Tom Vilsack announced earlier this year.
California agricultural interests are partnering in projects drawing nearly $800 million of this investment, for transitioning to climate-smart practices or expanding them. Commodities that are benefitting include fruits, vegetables, rice, dairy, beef, nuts and cotton. The complete California funding package may be viewed here: https://www.usda.gov/climate-solutions/climate-smart-commodities/projects
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross: “We are grateful to have a federal partner in the USDA that is focused on the fundamental challenge of sustainability, not just of agriculture but life itself on Earth. These investments are much needed and greatly appreciated, and they will strongly support our innovative efforts in California to address the climate crisis. It is gratifying to see the broad scope of projects being funded across the nation, and the emphasis on tribes and historically-underserved farmers and ranchers. I wish to add that I am very proud of the work we have done so far to lead on climate smart food and agricultural systems.”
CDFA’s State Organic Program (SOP) contracts with 54 county agricultural commissioner’s offices to conduct enforcement activities on behalf of CDFA. The enforcement activities include conducting inspections and collecting organic samples for pesticide testing.
Pictured are recent SOP organic sampling trainings of county staff at (clockwise from top right) a basil farm in San Mateo County, an apple ranch in Tuolumne County and a strawberry farm in Santa Clara County. Visit the California State Organic Program webpage to learn more about how CDFA protects the organic label through enforcement, education and outreach.
In 2021, California’s farms and ranches received $51.1 billion for their output. This represents a 3.6 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to calculations by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), in partnership with CDFA.
California’s agricultural abundance includes more than 400 commodities. Over a third of the country’s vegetables and three-quarters of the country’s fruits and nuts are grown in California. California’s top 10 valued commodities for the 2021 crop year are:
Dairy Products, Milk — $7.57 billion
Grapes — $5.23 billion
Almonds — $5.03 billion
Cattle and Calves — $3.11 billion
Strawberries — $3.02 billion
Pistachios — $2.91 billion
Lettuce — $2.03 billion
Tomatoes — $1.18 billion
Walnuts — $1.02 billion
Rice — $1 billion
Note: California’s top 10 agricultural commodities list is updated every year in September. A comprehensive report of agricultural statistics for the 2021 crop year, including agricultural exports and organic sales, will be available in early 2023 when the California Agricultural Statistics Review is published.
Today is California Biodiversity Day, falling on September 7 of each year. CA Biodiversity Day celebrates our state’s unique biodiversity and encourages actions to protect it. Protecting biodiversity is fundamental to CDFA’s mission, given that biodiversity underpins the world’s food supply.
Pollination is a key mechanism in the maintenance and promotion of biodiversity and life on Earth. Pollinators directly link wild ecosystems with agricultural production systems, and they are critical for food production, with at least 1/3 of human-consumed foods dependent on pollination. CDFA is focused on protecting biodiversity and pollinators in a number of ways:
The Pollinator Habitat Program provides grant funding for the establishment of pollinator habitat on agricultural lands via practices like hedgerows and windrows
The Healthy Soils Program also funds practices that provide pollinator habitat, while sequestering carbon and helping with water retention
CDFA’s Animal Health and Pest Exclusion Branches work cooperatively with other agencies, including California’s Department of Fish and Game and the United States Department of Agriculture, to prevent the introduction and spread of harmful pests and diseases into California. These branches also provide certification that our animal and plant exports to other states and countries are free from pests and diseases; these actions protect California biodiversity as well as our food supply and natural lands.
CDFA serves as co-chair of the Invasive Species Council of California. The goal of this Council is to guide efforts to keep invasive species out of the state, find invasions before permanent establishment occurs and take steps to eradicate incipient populations of undesirable species.
CDFA is a participant in the Monarch Interagency Work Group Technical Advisory Committee, which works to protect and establish monarch habitat throughout the state, recognizing that such actions will also benefit other pollinators.
In pursuit of its mission to support agriculture and healthy food systems, CDFA partners with other state agencies on biodiversity and pollinator protection, including the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. In this video, Fish and Wildlife biodiversity specialist Kim Tenggardjaja discusses the critical importance of pollinators such as bees; for example, California is home to about 1600 species of native bees.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRHf5v1Ga_Q&t=1s
On this Biodiversity Day, CDFA invites all producers to learn more about how these programs can help support biodiversity efforts on their farms and ranches.
Left to Right: California State Board of Food and Agriculture President Don Cameron; New Zealand Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor; CDFA Secretary Karen Ross; Hana Kajimura, Allbirds; and Tim Brown, Co-Founder, Allbirds.
On Tuesday, CDFA Secretary Karen Ross and State Board of Food and Agriculture President Don Cameron met with New Zealand Minister of Agriculture Damien O’Connor to discuss a variety of agricultural issues related to climate and trade. The meeting also included a discussion with Allbirds Co-Founder Tim Brown on the company’s carbon neutral commitment, which extends to agricultural producers in New Zealand.
In May 2022, a Memorandum of Cooperation between California and New Zealand was signed to tackle the climate crisis, reduce pollution, and bolster the clean economy, while emphasizing community resilience and partnership with indigenous leaders. The MOC establishes a new climate partnership between Governor Newsom and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern focusing on common objectives to achieve carbon-neutrality by the mid-century.
Ag-focused objectives in the MOC include building climate resilience and increasing reductions of greenhouse gas emissions within the agricultural sector, and accelerating environmental stewardship through enhanced waste, water and recycling programs as well as through nature-based solutions.
The staggering, oppressive heat wave that has brought the Bay Area to its knees has caretakers of farm animals getting creative in their efforts to keep their charges relatively cool.
Most farm animals don’t have the luxury of escaping the heat inside air conditioned barns, coops or houses. Instead, they rely on shade, plenty of water and whatever methods humans can think of to ease the pain.
Sheila Murphy, who owns Alma Bonita Animal Rescue in Morgan Hill, has started putting ice in her pigs’ mud puddles, which the pigs find delightful. Her horses are a bigger concern.
“Our horses don’t enjoy getting hosed down, so we’ve had to get creative,” Murphy says.
Murphy and caregivers are soaking towels in cool water to drape on the horses and feeding them frozen carrots.
“If we can’t cool them down on the outside, we’re trying to cool them on the inside,” she says. “Ice in their water has been a godsend, but today, we can’t find any ice.”
Caregivers and even the office staff at Animal Place, a farm animal sanctuary in Grass Valley, are making hourly checks on the more than 300 animals in their care, looking for signs of heat distress. The classic sign: open mouth breathing.
Kimberley Sturla, sanctuary executive director and cofounder, says they have invested heavily in swamp coolers — units that take advantage of evaporative cooling — which they’re running around the clock to cool down the barns.
Sturla says they have a lot of oak trees for shade, and they use hoses and misters to provide some relief for animals outside the barns. The most at risk, she says, are the pigs, turkeys, some chicken breeds and rabbits, none of which seem to tolerate the high heat very well.
On the other hand, Sturla says, the cows, goats and donkeys are coping fairly well in the heat. Some of the cows will even seek out the sun, and Murphy says she has an alpaca who spends almost all day basking in the sizzling rays of the sun.
Oakland Zoo animals have been suffering, too. Erin Harrison, communications vice president at the 100-year-old zoo, says animal keepers have been filling kiddie pools with cool water and ice, using water misters and sprays, and making special, giant ice pops from frozen, watered-down juice, coconut milk and Gatorade.
California’s State Veterinarian, Dr. Annette Jones, says shade and water are the two most vital requirements for any animal enduring the heat.
Shade is essential, she says, but closed structures must also include good ventilation.
Water, too, is important, Jones says, but people should be aware that water sitting in the sun in heat like this can get too hot. Jones recommends flushing hoses and waterlines in the late afternoon and providing shade over the water source. Large troughs do OK in the sun, she says, but small bowls and drippers get too hot, too fast. If your animals depend on well water, she says, it’s best to have a back-up plan in case you lose power.
For dogs and pet pigs, a plastic kiddie pool set in the shade works well for cool-down dips, Jones says. And misters and fans help outdoor animals stay cool, although their use should be balanced with the need to conserve electricity.
For poultry, it may be necessary to increase ventilation by opening all the doors and windows in their roosts on nights when it just doesn’t cool down much. Consider adding a fan, too, Jones says.
Domesticated animals aren’t the only ones suffering in the heat, but Ken Paglia, with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, says we shouldn’t do anything extraordinary to help wild creatures.
“First and foremost, please do not leave food and water out for wildlife,” Paglia says. “Most people have the best intentions when they do this, but in most cases, ‘problems’ with wildlife occur as a direct result of people feeding them and even providing sources of water. Animals learn to associate humans with a food-reward and expect that reward from every human they encounter.”
Attracting or keeping wildlife around homes and developed neighborhoods, Paglia says, even rural properties, increases their chances of being hit by vehicles or getting trapped and tangled up in all sorts of home-related dangers, from chicken feeders to volleyball nets, discarded fencing and hammocks.
Paglia also warned motorists to be even more cautious in this heat wave and look out for wildlife trying to cross highways in search of water or food.
Buffy Tarbox-Martin, communications manager for the Peninsula Humane Society and SPCA, says not to forget about pets, especially those that spend most of their days outside. If possible, they should be brought indoors during this heat wave.
Provide ample shade for outdoor pets, Tarbox-Martin says, and plenty of cool, fresh water for both indoor and outdoor pets. Adding a few ice cubes to their water dish can help.
She recommends limiting daily walks to the early mornings or late evenings, when temperatures usually are cooler, and to avoid walking on hot pavement. If you wouldn’t walk barefoot on it, she says, you shouldn’t force your dog to. And never leave pets in parked cars.
