The White House this morning announced that the Fresno-Merced Future of Food Innovation Initiative (F3) is an awardee in the US Economic Development Administration’s Build Back Better Regional Challenge, which seeks to boost economic recovery from the pandemic and rebuild American communities, including those grappling with decades of disinvestment. The F3 initiative is receiving $65 million for expansion of the region’s agrifood tech industry, to support growth of small farms, and to provide training opportunities for thousands of Valley residents.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross: “This initiative is well on its way to being a glowing success story for the Central Valley. Diverse stakeholders have come together to envision a future centered on equity, inclusion and opportunity, and we have established a pathway that will enhance the sustainability and productivity of climate smart agriculture; further workforce development for the jobs of the future; and develop food entrepreneurship, agroecology, and the viability of small farms. I wish to thank our partners – UC Merced, CSU Fresno, the UC’s department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, the Central Valley Community Foundation, a total of eight Central Valley community college campuses, and local community leaders in agriculture, business, economic development, and environmental justice. ”  

Two members of CDFA’s State Board of Food and Agriculture are from the Central Valley and are praising the announcement:

“This federal award is a critical investment for the future of the Central Valley – providing communities and farmers increased opportunities to support high quality jobs, training and small businesses. The Fresno – Merced Future of Food Innovation (F3) initiative will be transformative for the region and will further progress on our state’s climate resilience. I applaud the Central Valley Community Foundation and F3 coalition for their leadership and vision. California’s farmers and ranchers are eager to be part of the process.” – Don Cameron, President of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture.

“As a resident and business owner in Merced, I’m eager for the opportunities the F3 Initiative can provide. Our local communities can greatly benefit from investments in education, increased training and the upscaling of the agricultural workforce. The Central Valley is a treasure to this state and our nation, and this award recognizes the value of the region and it’s communities.” – Mike Gallo, Joseph Farms and Board Member – California State Board of Food and Agriculture.   

Public input is sought at two workshops focused on discussing the development of California’s Carbon Sequestration and Climate Resiliency Project Registry.  

In accordance with Senate Bill 27 (Skinner, 2021) the California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) will create a registry to facilitate funding of nature-based solutions and air-capture projects that deliver on California’s climate goals. 

CNRA is seeking public input to inform its approach to developing the registry. CNRA, in partnership with CDFA and other agencies, will hold two sessions:

1. Wednesday, September 7 from 4 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. PT
2. Thursday, Sept. 8 from 10 a.m. until 11:30 a.m. PT.  

The public is invited to listen and participate in English or Spanish. 

For more information and to register, please visit the following links: 

• Wednesday, Sept. 7: https://ca-water-gov.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEsduuupz0uH9MyEeEThcqpI9H454J1-MpU 
• Thursday, Sept. 8: https://ca-water-gov.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvcuyorTMiEtCJRRWMCo-omQ1FbT4pkzxT 

With a heat wave in the forecast through the Labor Day weekend and into next week, CDFA has notified local fairs throughout the state that they could be activated as cooling centers, a role they have filled in the past as part of their mission as community resources. Already this year several fairgrounds have served as base camps for crews fighting wildfires.

To build on that relationship with fairs, CDFA is working with a $94 million current-year budget appropriation to expand their capacity as community resilience centers in multiple ways, including in times of fire and extreme heat.

Additionally, staff at CDFA’s Division of Animal Health and Food Safety Services is closely monitoring heat impacts on farm animals in the dairy and poultry sectors over the next week, and staff is ready to step in to help coordinate any necessary response.

Study highlights a changing climate’s impact to water resources and recommends evaluating adaptation strategies to address these vulnerabilities to the water supply

News release from the Bureau of Reclamation

The American River Basin in central California expects to see increasing temperatures and a declining snowpack through the end of the 21st century. The Bureau of Reclamation has released the American River Basin Study, which also found an increased variability of fall and winter precipitation that will amplify the severity of droughts and flooding in the basin. The report is available on Reclamation’s Basin Study website.  

“Water management in the basin is expected to be more challenging in the future due to climate pressures that include warming temperatures, shrinking snowpack, shorter and more intense wet seasons and rising sea levels,” said California-Great Basin Regional Director Ernest Conant. “We are excited for the partnerships and collaboration within the basin and look forward to working with them on the identified adaptation portfolios to address the vulnerabilities and maintain a balance between supply and demand in the basin.”

The American River Basin Study found that maximum temperatures are projected to increase throughout the year, with the most significant increase of 7.3°F during the summer months by the end of the 21st century. While projections of average annual precipitation are uncertain, climate projections indicate a change in precipitation timing and variability. Precipitation is projected to be increasingly variable into the future with the timing of the moisture shifting with fall and spring precipitation declining and winter and summer precipitation increasing. In addition, the snowpack will decrease due to warming, moving the peak runoff by more than a month by the mid to late century.

Adaptation strategies are already underway in the basin to increase agricultural and urban water use efficiency, water transfers and exchanges within the basin and improving headwaters and forest health. New adaptation strategy portfolios were also developed for further evaluation by Reclamation and the collaborators to maintain a balance between supply and demand. For example, one adaptation portfolio highlights the importance of long-term Central Valley Project contracts for regional reliability. Other adaptation portfolios included evaluating:

• The use of high elevation, off-stream storage to replace lost storage from reduced snowpack and earlier snowmelt.
• The use of existing diversion facilities on the Sacramento River and exchange water supply to reduce reliance on Folsom Reservoir and the American River.
• The raise of Folsom Dam other upstream flood control space through facility modifications to increase flood control space.
• Releasing flood water earlier to recharge groundwater creates additional regional water supply and ecosystem benefits.
• The effectiveness of the flow management standard for the Lower American River in the 2015 update of the Sacramento Water Forum Agreement to reduce the effects on the river’s ecosystem and fisheries from climate change.

The basin study was selected in 2017 and built upon the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers Basin Study completed in 2016. The American River Basin and the area covered by this study consists of 3,600 square miles in central California from the valley through the foothills to the top of the Sierra Nevada. It includes the City of Sacramento and the surrounding area, including Auburn, Citrus Heights, Elk Grove, Folsom, Placerville, Rancho Cordova, Roseville and Shingle Springs.

Reclamation developed the basin study in collaboration with the Placer County Water Agency, City of Roseville, City of Sacramento, El Dorado County Water Agency, City of Folsom, and Regional Water Authority. The non-federal partners also coordinated with the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency to address the flood risks. Key contributors to the report included the California Department of Water Resources, University of California-Davis, The Water Forum, Sacramento Municipal Utility District and El Dorado Irrigation District.

For more than 100 years, Reclamation and its partners have developed sustainable water and power solutions for the West. This funding is part of the Department of the Interior’s WaterSMART Program, which focuses on collaborative efforts to plan and implement actions to increase water supply sustainability, including investments to modernize infrastructure.

To find out more information about the Basin Study Program, please visit Reclamation’s WaterSMART program webpage.

Cherthai Xiong grows more than 60 varieties of Asian vegetables on his farm in Del Rey, Fresno County, including three varieties of eggplant (Chinese, Indian and bitter), Thai hot peppers, and bitter melon. All of his crops are sold at farmers markets throughout Los Angeles. 

Xiong says he appreciates the incentives from SWEEP for drip irrigation systems as well as technical assistance. He says his water savings have in turn helped him save time and money. Read more about CDFA’s SWEEP program.

By Spencer Chase

The National FFA Organization’s top staffer says its diversity and inclusion efforts are key facets of a new strategic plan and value statements currently guiding the group and its newly announced record membership.

It’s a charge that FFA CEO Scott Stump says is critical not only for the future health of the organization, but also for the workforce American agriculture will need in coming years. 

Agriculture “is currently in need of more employees, in need of individuals that are capable of working across differences in the workplace to solve really difficult problems,” he said.

“We going to need all hands on deck and there is talent out there that we have not sourced yet,” Stump added. “And our goal is to bring that to bear for our industry, and to make sure that all students are ready to go and thrive in inclusive and diverse work environments as we move forward.”

FFA leaders are being guided by both a three-year strategic plan and value statements ratified at the organization’s most recent annual convention.

The value statements include four main tenets: The organization respects and embraces every individual’s culture and experiences, welcomes every individual’s contribution to advance their communities and the industry of agriculture, cultivates an environment that allows every individual to recognize and explore their differences, and creates leadership opportunities for every individual to enhance their personal and professional endeavors.

Some 475 delegates approved the value statements in November 2021 at the group’s 94^th Annual Convention in Indianapolis. 

The three-year strategic plan’s main goals involve aligning the organization’s programs with modern agriculture, engaging with outside interests to make sure students are prepared to be employed in diverse workplaces, and empowering state and local leaders in the organization, Stump said. 

While the group’s national convention in Indianapolis is a very visible event to the general public, FFA members will spend the majority of their time in the group’s signature blue jacket a little closer to home at local chapter-level activities or in their school’s ag education classroom. While FFA’s largest chapters remain in urban areas, many of the group’s members hail from rural communities that are predominantly agricultural, frequently small, and can be primarily – if not exclusively – Caucasian. 

But for Stump and other FFA leaders, diversity efforts are necessary for not only the aforementioned workforce preparation but also to ensure the comfort of the growing number of students who might not fit into the rural, white demographic. 

The organization recently announced a new record membership, topping 850,000 students for the first time. About 230,000 – some 27% of the organization’s membership – identify as persons of color, Stump said. The gender profile of the organization continues to evolve as well; male students make up about half the membership, with the other half being female (43%), nonbinary (0.5%) and those that either did not disclose their gender or (4.7%) or left that space on their membership application blank (1.2%). 

“What we see post-value statement is us expanding our work in the space of reaching out to and providing access to underrepresented and marginalized populations, and equipping all of our students to work in a quickly and rapidly diversifying workplace,” Stump said. 

But those efforts are not without their concerns inside the organization.

FFA is currently looking for a new national adviser following the resignation earlier this year of James Woodard.

Woodard, who held the position for about two and a half years, specifically cited the organization’s diversity efforts in the letter announcing his departure. 

In a copy of the letter obtained by Agri-Pulse, Woodard both praised the diversity efforts of the organization – specifically the value statements – but also offered criticism of the direction of some conversations on the subject.

“The unfortunate part of this journey is the continuing efforts of certain sectors of our culture to further divide OUR youth organization,” Woodard wrote. “I am appalled that adults in our organization continue to bring forth celebrations which highlight only certain backgrounds of diversity.”

But the value statements, Woodard said, were “the right approach to reset the fundamental belief of respect for everyone as individuals in a microcosm of diversity.”

Woodard’s letter did not offer a specific instance of the kind of divisive dialogue he cited. When reached by an Agri-Pulse request for comment, Woodard deferred questions to Stump and Cheryl Zimmerman, who is currently serving as the organization’s acting adviser.

Stump said Woodard was “instrumental” in crafting the value statements and also offered his input on the position description set to be used by the National Council for Agricultural Education; the position is no longer required to be housed within the Department of Education following a recent rewrite of the organization’s federal charter passed by Congress.

As for Woodard’s comments about only certain forms of diversity being recognized by the organization, Stump said FFA plans to be guided by an expansive definition of underrepresented and marginalized populations.

“That includes not just race and ethnicity, it includes gender, it includes sexual orientation, it includes socioeconomic status, it includes students differently abled, geographic. It is the widest swath so that we can have a true picture of who is and who is not being served by FFA and who then do we need to be inviting in to grow as a leader that’s going to change the world,” he said.

It’s not the first time the issue – and the changing climate of diversity and inclusion dialogue – has been front and center for the organization.

In 2020, Lyle Logemann was removed from the organization’s national officer team following the emergence of what FFA called “concerning” social media posts that offered commentary on race, religion, and immigration issues. Logemann sued over his removal, and Agri-Pulse has learned the case has been settled out of court “to the mutual satisfaction of both sides,” according to separate statements from an FFA spokesperson and a representative for Logemann.

But the saga came as nationwide protests over the murder of George Floyd were prevalent in the news, igniting conflicts at kitchen tables and across social media platforms as discussions about the nation’s race relations approached a fever pitch. About five months after Logemann’s lawsuit was filed, Mark Poeschl – FFA’s CEO at the time – stepped down, telling organizational stakeholders “I know I haven’t always made everyone happy; I know there have been challenges we have faced during my tenure, but my intentions have been for the best interests of FFA and our student members.”

FFA responded by beefing up its screening process for national officer candidates, a new procedure that Christine White – FFA’s chief program officer – tells Agri-Pulse has not “precluded anybody from being a part of the process.” The organization wants to have Woodard’s successor in place by the FFA convention in October.

The organization is currently drafting the metrics it plans to use to track progress on its three strategic plan goals. Stump said the goal is to have those benchmarks defined by the end of the year. But in the meantime, steps like encouraging more teachers of color to consider agricultural education – and better reach the students of color FFA is pursuing – are underway.

The small-town makeup of FFA chapters across the country will continue, but will be coupled with growth in new areas in search of students poised to address agriculture’s next challenges.

“Wherever students are, we need to grow … In many (rural communities), we are at the fullest amount that we can get from that community,” Stump said.

Conversations with agribusiness leaders have reinforced the organization’s push for a more diverse and inclusive membership that will someday “need to be able to work in an ever-growing diverse environment, and … be able to collaborate and work with students that don’t look like them or identify like them,” he said.

For more, go to www.Agri-Pulse.com.

CDFA’s Healthy Soils Program provides grants for farmers and ranchers to adopt practices that boost organic matter in soils for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and increases in water-holding capacity. These projects are valuable tools for drought and climate change. Read more here: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/oefi/healthysoils/

Learn more about all of CDFA’s Climate Smart Agriculture programs here: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/oefi/