By Hannah Getahun

Tucked behind the First Congregational Church, in one of Santa Ana’s oldest neighborhoods, are verdant rows of spinach, Brussels sprouts and other leafy greens dotted with the orange hues of marigolds.

Six-year-old Diana Bautista, a mainstay and unofficial tour guide at the CRECE Urban Farms Co-op in the Orange County city, takes care of the lavender, tends to the oyster mushrooms and teaches patrons the difference between the fragrant and not-so-fragrant herbs.

“We help the plants, and the plants help us,” she said.

Founded in 2016 as a farming co-op by Abel Ruiz, Valeria Esqueda, Emanuel Presiado and Diana’s father, Jaime Bautista, the CRECE garden had a simple goal: to give back to the city through food. The operation serves a steady clientele of local customers by providing produce staples that they can pick up at the farm.

Serving its low-income immigrant community, CRECE represents just a small part of urban farming ventures—from modest community co-ops to larger-scale agriculture—that are now thriving in many California cities.

The ventures have been helped along in part due to 2014 California legislation, Assembly Bill 551, which allowed cities to create urban agricultural incentive zones that offer tax incentives for urban farmers.

Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom also allocated $12 million to jump-start the state’s first-ever Urban Agriculture Program. These days, the University of California’s Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education program provides educational resources and technical assistance for city agriculture.

“Urban farmers can bridge gaps between their more peri-urban and rural counterparts and inner-city food supply needs, serve as community food systems leaders and support healthy retail opportunities at the micro and small scale,” said Rob Bennaton, an urban agriculture advisor for UC Cooperative Extension, which includes the sustainable agriculture program.

To be certain, expansive rural farms in California’s traditional agricultural economy provide the overwhelming share of produce in urban markets and food banks. But inner-city farms provide a convenient, healthy produce niche in communities with a dearth of nearby grocery stores. They can also foster a close relationship between farms and customers.

Over 1 million Californians, many from low-income communities, live without easy access to fresh food, according to California FreshWorks, a grant and loan program that provides financing for urban food producers.

“It’s a very common story to be growing up in neighborhoods where a bunch of liquor stores and junk-food places are everywhere, more so than in the more affluent sides of town,” said Ruiz, a driving force behind the CRECE farm.

The farm provides everything from kohlrabi to kale, which Ruiz said is one of its most popular produce items. CRECE also runs a small-scale crop-swapping program, through which people exchange fruit from their yards for farm-grown leafy greens.

The urban garden also grows produce of specific cultural interest to its neighbors in Santa Ana, which has a large population of immigrants from Mexico. Among its selections are prickly-pear cactus and pitayas, both of which are native to Mexico but grow well under the Southern California sun.

Globally, the urban farming market accounted for $213 billion out of the world’s $5.5 trillion agricultural industry in 2020, and is projected to increase as populations grow, according to IndustryARC, a market research firm. Advocates say it is a natural for California, which boasts both America’s largest agricultural economy and its greatest concentration of cities.

According to UC Agriculture and Natural Resources research, urban farms can stimulate local economies, promote local job creation, help people save on food and potentially serve as incubators for growing businesses and technologies.

Open Silo, a nonprofit organization that provides educational resources and assistance for urban agriculture in Los Angeles County, now lists 18 client farms including in Compton, Boyle Heights, El Monte, Long Beach, Whittier, Vernon and Bell.

In East San Jose, the 6-acre Veggielution farm started in 2008 and benefited in the years since from technical advice from UC urban agriculture farm advisors “who are able to help us through any questions we have,” said Emily Schwing, the farm’s public affairs director.

In the past two years, Veggielution has partnered with other community farms and workers to grow $6 million in produce for the local food ecosystem. Schwing said the urban farms are providing food as well as “compensating and contributing to the economic well-being of those who are growing our produce and driving the produce to us.”

Urban agriculturalists say the pandemic likely helped sprout a wider appeal for their farms as people took to eating more at home and looked for easy-to-obtain local produce. Some urban gardens also stepped up with additional provisions as California food banks reported increased demand amid the pandemic. And many inner-city farmers who worked in wholesale pivoted toward community-supported agriculture after pandemic-related restaurant closures.

“I think there was a feeling of safety in the local food supply chain, and in particular in (community-supported agriculture) because the relationship with your farmers is so much more close,” said Julia Van Soelen Kim, North Bay food systems advisor for UCCE.

Veggielution recently transitioned to a farm box donation model to help families in the low-income Mayfair neighborhood of East San Jose. Many families included members who were medically vulnerable to COVID or became unemployed due to the pandemic.

What began as a 40-person program two years ago has now ballooned to hundreds of patrons, with 500 individuals benefiting from the program by next summer, Schwing estimated. Veggielution is providing community members with vegetables such as lettuce, radishes, carrots and beets.

Schwing said nonprofits such as Veggielution help connect residents to what they eat by providing them food grown in their own neighborhoods.

When Ruiz co-founded CRECE Urban Farms in Santa Ana, he brought with him a knowledge of gardening that many immigrants know from traditional growing practices back home. From learning how to farm from his grandparents in the small town of Tlachichila in Mexico to helping feed residents of Santa Ana, Ruiz has spent his life working around food.

“I was able to fill in that gap between my childhood and what I want to do with what I am doing now for a living,” Ruiz said.

Ruiz said he and his team members take their mission to heart and are working toward obtaining land for more urban farms throughout the city, and they’ve already acquired some property through a land trust. He said they also want to start wide-scale fruit exchanges, start operating an aquaponics system and plant more culturally relevant foods such as quelites, wild greens native to Mexico, and amaranth.

“I really look forward to that,” Ruiz said, “(to) being able to incorporate plants that not even the stores have.”

Link to Ag Alert story on California Farm Bureau website

Today is International Women’s Day, and March is Women’s History Month, and CDFA would like to highlight and recognize the substantial contributions of women farmers in our state. According to the USDA’s Census of Agriculture, California’s 46,235 farming and ranching women account for 10.9 million acres and $15.6 billion in agriculture sales. 

Share a photo – #CAWomenFarmers

USDA-NRCS news release

The USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in California is encouraging producers to sign up for a special cover crop initiative offered through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). Interested producers can apply and final selections will be made by March 10, 2022.

NRCS previously announced that it is providing $6.8 million in fiscal year 2022 for the utilization of Cover Crops on agricultural land throughout California as part of a targeted effort to improve soil health through EQIP. Cover crops can provide a multitude of benefits including reduction of soil erosion, increasing soil organic matter, managing soil moisture, suppressing weeds, and increasing biodiversity. Through this voluntary conservation program, NRCS can support the goals of agricultural producers throughout the state and increase the critical benefits that cover crops provide. More information on EQIP and the initiative can be found here.

This initiative will accelerate such outcomes by incentivizing the implementation of conservation practice standard 340 Cover Crop through a rapid and streamlined contracting process. Applicants must have farm records established with their local Farm Service Agency and meet all eligibility criteria to be considered for selection.

NRCS is a federal agency that works in partnership with resource conservation districts and other conservation partners. With the mission of “Helping People Help the Land,” NRCS provides products and services that enable people to be good stewards of the nation’s soil, water, and related natural resources on non-federal lands. More information on NRCS’ products and services can be found on the NRCS California web site at www.ca.nrcs.usda.gov.

Whether you are a California resident, a visiting tourist, or you own a company that does business in the state, you engage daily in transactions that include weighing, measurement or counting using a commercial weighing or measuring device. It is crucial that commercial scales and meters are accurate.

Take vehicle fuel for example. California consumers are currently paying an average of $4.79 per gallon for regular gasoline. That’s a $1.10 increase in one year. While the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Division of Measurement Standards (DMS) cannot control the prices of fuel, DMS can help ensure that each motorist who buys gas gets exactly what they pay for. DMS partners with county offices of weights and measures to test dispenser accuracy at approximately10,000 fueling stations in California. State and county officials also check pricing on dispensers and street sign advertising to make sure they match. In addition, DMS operates two laboratories that analyze fuel, lubricants, and other automotive products for quality purposes. 

California leads the nation in the adoption of alternative transportation options, including fuel cell electric and battery electric vehicles (EVs). As Californians embrace EVs, state and county weights and measures officials are expanding their testing programs to ensure that electric charging stations and hydrogen dispensers are operating correctly and to protect consumers and businesses.

Supply chain issues, labor shortages, and other factors have disrupted nearly every facet of the marketplace. Right now, grocery prices are another focal point for consumers.  Isn’t it good to know then that somebody is checking the accuracy of grocery scales, checking packages to make sure they contain the correct amount, and conducting pricing checks throughout stores? Weights and measures officials in California’s 58 counties are actively doing these checks throughout the year.

There are more than 1.8 million commercial weighing and measuring devices in the state. Everything gets checked; from retail water dispensers, farmers market scales and propane meters all the way to truck and railroad scales.

National Weights and Measures Week, every March 1 – 7, is recognized to celebrate the first U.S. weights and measures law signed by President John Adams in 1799. The theme for 2022, “For the Sake of Equity,” addresses the importance of equity in commerce for both the consumer and seller.  This week is an opportunity to remember that behind each commercial transaction there are people dedicated to preserving and defending our established standards of measurement.

In-depth study will interview more than 500 truck drivers to examine critical link in supply chain and state’s economy

California agencies overseeing agriculture, business, labor and transportation are commissioning a study to examine the unique aspects of agricultural trucking in the state and provide policy recommendations to address longstanding driver recruitment and retention issues that have worsened since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study led by Dr. Steve Viscelli of the University of Pennsylvania – in partnership with the UC Berkeley Labor Center, the UC Davis Western Center for Agricultural Health and Safety, and the UC Merced Community and Labor Center – will provide the first in-depth look at the labor market for agricultural truck drivers in California. Jointly funded by the California Workforce Development Board, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz), and the California State Transportation Agency, the study is expected to be completed in mid-2023.

“Agriculture is one of the primary engines powering the fifth-largest economy in the world – contributing tens of billions of dollars every year to California – and this research will be critical to maintaining that competitive edge,” said the Governor’s Chief Economic and Business Advisor and Director of GO-Biz Dee Dee Myers.

“People all over the world enjoy California-grown crops every day, and that journey begins from the field in a truck,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “Hauling crops is a vital piece of the supply chain, and this study will help explore ways to make those jobs more desirable.”

“With more than 480,000 Class A commercial driver’s license holders in California, we know the problem is less a lack of available workers and more about attracting and retaining talent,” said Natalie Palugyai, Secretary of the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. “This study will add critical insight and provide policy recommendations to improve recruitment, reduce turnover and stabilize the industry.”

As part of the study, Dr. Viscelli will lead a team of researchers conducting surveys and in-depth interviews in multiple languages with more than 500 truck drivers, along with agricultural shippers, trucking carriers and other stakeholders. They will also observe workers hauling a variety of crops and visit processing and packing facilities that handle multiple crops to understand the unique characteristics of the job. 

While focused on the perspective of agricultural truck drivers in California, the study also will put the findings in context with the broader industry and national truck driver labor market.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for in-depth research on every link in the supply chain, particularly the long-haul trucking industry and hearing directly from the drivers,” said Dr. Viscelli, whose work has been cited by the White House Supply Chain Task Force. “There has not been a study of this workforce anywhere in the U.S. in almost 30 years, and California’s nation-leading agriculture sector provides unparalleled conditions for this much-needed research to find a better way forward.”

California’s agriculture producers have been facing challenges recruiting and retaining truck drivers for decades, which the COVID-19 pandemic only intensified as part of broader supply chain disruptions. Unlike most other trucking jobs, hauling agricultural commodities often is seasonal and can require specialized equipment. California’s nation-leading variety of 400-plus different crops and livestock commodities creates additional layers of complexity and further illustrates the need for a close examination of the sector’s unique characteristics, employer challenges and workforce barriers.

“California’s agricultural trucking sector sits at the intersection of transportation, commerce and labor, and I thank my fellow agency leaders for coming together to fund this study so we can better understand the complexities of this critical industry and help its workforce and our economy thrive,” said Toks Omishakin, Secretary of the California State Transportation Agency.

To learn more, please visit the UC Berkeley Labor Center’s California Agriculture Truck Driver Study overview.  

By Daisy Nguyen

For a few frenzied weeks, beekeepers from around the country truck billions of honeybees to California to rent them to almond growers, who need the insects to pollinate the state’s most valuable crop.

But as almond trees start to bloom, blanketing entire valleys in white and pink flowers, so begin the beehive thefts that have become so prevalent that beekeepers are now turning to GPS tracking devices, surveillance cameras and other anti-theft technology to protect their precious colonies.

Hive thefts have been reported elsewhere in the country, most recently three hives containing about 60,000 bees taken from a grocery chain’s garden in central Pennsylvania. They happen at a larger scale and uniquely in California this time of year because bees are most in demand during the largest pollination event in the world.

In the last few weeks, 1,036 beehives worth hundreds of thousands of dollars were reported stolen from orchards statewide, authorities said. The largest heist involved 384 beehives taken from a field in Mendocino County, prompting the state beekeepers association to offer a $10,000 reward for information leading to their recovery.

“It’s hard to articulate how it feels to care for your hives all year only to have them stolen from you,” Claire Tauzer wrote on Facebook to spread the word about the reward. A day later, an anonymous tipster led authorities to recover most of the boxes and a forklift stolen from Tauzer’s family business some 55 miles away, at a rural property in Yolo County. One suspect was arrested.

Investigators also found frames, of the kind used to hold honeycombs, belonging to Helio Medina, another beekeeper who lost 282 hives a year ago.

Medina said the theft devastated his apiary, so this year he placed GPS trackers inside the boxes. He also strapped cable locks around them and installed cameras nearby. As the almond bloom approached and the hives became most valuable, he drove around patrolling the orchards in the dark.

“We have to do what we can to protect ourselves. Nobody can help us,” Medina said.

Thefts usually happen at night, when no one is in the orchard and the bees are back in their hives. The rustler is usually a beekeeper or someone familiar with the transportation of bees.

“More often than not, they steal to make money and leave the bees to die,” said Rowdy Jay Freeman, a Butte County sheriff’s detective who has been keeping track of hive thefts since 2013.

A tightening supply of bees and soaring pollination fees — jumping from less than $50 to rent a hive two decades ago to as much as $230 per hive this year — are likely motivating some beekeepers to go rogue.

The demand for bees has steadily risen over the last 20 years as the popularity of almonds turned California into the world’s biggest producer of the healthy, crunchy nut. Accordingly, the amount of land used to grow almonds has more than doubled to an estimated 1.3 million acres.

Beekeepers have been keeping up with that growth by providing an ever-increasing proportion of the nation’s available stock of hives. This year, a survey of commercial beekeepers estimated that it would take 90% of honeybee colonies in the U.S. to pollinate all the almond orchards.

“What that means is that beekeepers are coming from as far as New York and Florida, and to get them to come all that way, pollinator fees have to rise,” said Brittney Goodrich, an agricultural economist at UC Davis.

But bee populations are notoriously unstable because of a host of problems, including disease, loss of habitat and insecticides.

The drought that gripped Western states last summer also weakened colonies. The lack of rain ravaged wildflowers that provide the nectar that bees turn into honey. Beekeepers had to artificially supplement their diet with sugar solutions and pollen substitutes — and incur more costs.

For beekeepers, the loss of a hive means the loss of income from honey production and future pollination, not to mention the expense of managing the hive throughout the year. They say they hardly break even.

“For every $210 paid to rent a beehive, we put close to that much into it the whole year feeding the bees because of drought. We do all the health checks, which is labor-intensive, and we pay our workers full benefits,” Tauzer said.

Denise Qualls, a pollination broker who connects beekeepers with growers, suspects the thefts are happening because some beekeepers can’t provide the strong colonies they promised and therefore turn to stealing. The thieving beekeepers sell their loot and collect the money from the grower, “and then they leave the hives,” Qualls said.

“The grower is just as responsible when they accept them,” she said.

To help her clients track their investments, Qualls merged her business with tech startup Bee Hero to equip hive boxes with a GPS-enabled sensor.

Freeman, who got into beekeeping after investigating his first hive theft, said he advises beekeepers to use security cameras and put their names and phone numbers on the boxes.

He said some beekeepers have tried tagging their boxes with SmartWater CSI, a forensic tool used to help police trace recover stolen property. The clear liquid is visible only under UV light, even through layers of paint, so police can ascertain the rightful owner even when thieves try to disguise boxes.

To raise the crime’s severity, Freeman worked with prosecutors in 2016 to charge a man accused of stealing 64 beehives with theft of livestock. Under California law, theft of property worth $950 or less is classified as a misdemeanor. But the theft of any agricultural product worth at least $250 is considered a felony.

“Stealing one or 10 or 100 hives would result in the same charge,” he said.

The man pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 90 days in jail and three years’ probation.

The California State Beekeepers’ Assn. urges beekeepers to communicate regularly with growers about where their hives are placed, and encourages growers to hire reputable beekeepers who can show proof of ownership of their hives.

The almond industry, meanwhile, is trying to reduce its dependence on bees by growing “self fertile” almond varieties that require fewer bees for pollination and by investing in research and other initiatives aimed at improving their health.

The Almond Board of California also joined a coalition of agricultural, environmental and government groups to create habitat for wild bees, butterflies and other pollinators on privately owned working lands such as cattle ranches and orchards. The state government is funding $15 million toward the effort, calling it an investment in “climate smart agriculture.”

Link to story on Los Angeles Times web site

Link to CDFA’s Pollinator Protection page

Taken from a UC Merced announcement

In 2021, the drought cost the California agriculture sector about $1.1 billion and nearly 8,750 full-time and part-time jobs, according to estimates in a new analysis led by UC Merced researchers as part of a California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)-funded research project.

The $1.5 million project partnered UC Merced with the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) to assess the impact of the drought. The project is also enhancing an existing web-based platform to examine economic impacts of drought to agriculture. 

Once the effects on other economic sectors are considered, total economic impacts are estimated at $1.7 billion and 14,634 full-time and part-time jobs lost. 

The Economic Impacts of the 2021 Drought on California Agriculture Preliminary Report, released today, analyzes the impacts of last year’s drought in the Central Valley, the Russian River Basin and northern intermountain valley areas. The researchers developed these preliminary estimates of economic impacts using surveys, reviews of hydrological information and remote sensing data gathered from those areas and comparing them to average conditions, as well as to the 2012-2016 drought.

The report identifies at least additional 395,000 acres of idledland — roughly 385,000 acres in the Central Valley alone with respect to pre-drought conditions due to drought-related water cutbacks. 

Several regions in the Sacramento valley, the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, Tulare County and Kern County were the most affected. Other drought-affected areas include the Russian River Basin and intermountain agricultural areas in Siskiyou, Shasta and Modoc counties. The crops most significantly affected by increased fallowing include rice in the Sacramento Valley, cotton in the San Joaquin Valley, and grain and field crops statewide.

“In comparison with the 2012-2016 drought, conditions were much worse for the Sacramento Valley and the Russian River Basin, yet the statewide impacts have not been as severe as in 2015— the deepest point in the last drought,” said School of Engineering Professor Josue Medellín-Azuara, lead author of the report. “Should dry conditions persist throughout 2022, a higher tier of adaptation measures may come into play to reduce economic impacts on agriculture and communities that host thousands of households relying on agriculture for living.” 

The report also highlights strong commodity prices that have helped mitigate some economic costs of the 2021 drought. Milk prices rose because of global demand, raising revenues and offsetting some of the drought-related effects of higher production costs. The dairy sector also explored alternatives to hay and winter grains that, in some cases, increased cow milk productivity. The beef cattle sector also had to adapt to scarce winter pastures and higher forage prices, but the state’s beef cow herd increased, as did its share of the national cow herd, leading to potential revenue gains.

While Californians are familiar with drought, the 2020-21 water years were the second driest two years on record. Although precipitation deficits were widespread, drought conditions were more severe in the Sacramento Valley and the North Coast regions. A lack of atmospheric rivers and a below-average snowpack depleted most reservoirs and aquifers in 2021, the report states.

“This has been a fast-paced drought and it shows how climate change increases the challenges we face in managing water in California,” said researcher and co-author Alvar Escriva-Bou, an engineering and policy expert at the Public Policy Institute of California. “Sadly, we are going to see more and more droughts like this, so we need better tools to anticipate and minimize the socio-economic impacts.” 

But drought is not only defined by the water supply, the researchers wrote. Warmer temperatures and already-dry conditions increased crop irrigation demands and widened the gap between water supply and irrigation needs.

“Warming has impacted seasonal water availability, namely through reducing spring snowmelt runoff and through increasing atmospheric thirst,” said Professor John Abatzoglou, climate expert and co-author in the report. “These factors in concert have intensified drought severity and impacts in the state and increased the need for actionable solutions to cope with drought.”

 “This report differs from previous drought impact analyses in that it draws information from multiple areas of the state in addition to the Central Valley, and it places impacts in the context of changing climate conditions — higher temperatures, earlier irrigation needs, higher evapotranspiration — as well as SGMA implementation,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “I would like to thank our partners at UC Merced and the PPIC for this very important work and we look forward to continuing our collaborative efforts statewide as we continue to adapt to a changing climate and manage drought to mitigate impacts on agriculture and our rural communities.”

The drought hit during the early implementation of Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) sustainability plans. The Act is designed to avoid the undesirable consequences of unsustainable groundwater use. Groundwater sustainability plans for critically overdrafted basins were submitted in 2020 and plans in other priority basins are due early this year. These plans remain in progress throughout the state for these and other priority basins. California’s increasingly variable supply of surface water and overdrafted groundwater aquifers present serious challenges for meeting societal needs, the report points out.

“It is no surprise that California leans more heavily on groundwater to help meet its water supply needs during drought. SGMA is now well underway, and it is shaping how we respond to drought, especially in the Valley. Despite the very real economic impact, this report also indicates an enormous capacity for innovation and adaptation in the agricultural industry, not limited to augmenting cattle feed with almond hulls —typically a byproduct — and also direct investments in aquifer recharge techniques and technologies,” said report co-author Professor Joshua Viers. “These innovations, coupled with better information about water application and use, will ultimately help us manage scarce water supplies more effectively.”

Funded by the $1.5 million research grant from CDFA, Medellín-Azuara, Abatzoglou, Viers and Escriva-Bou have worked since last fall to develop this economic analysis, along with decision-support tools for the agriculture industry during droughts. Other authors include UC Merced Environmental Systems graduate students Spencer Cole and José M. Rodríguez-Flores and Professor Daniel A. Sumner from UC Davis.

Building on the California Comeback Plan’s $5.2 billion investment over three years to support immediate drought response and long-term water resilience, the Governor is proposing more than $300 million in the 2022-2023 state budget to bolster on-farm water efficiency and conservation through the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program; support land repurposing to deliver co-benefits for communities and the environment; provide direct water assistance; advance groundwater recharge projects across critically over-drafted basins; and provide technical assistance for the development of farm conservation management plans and groundwater management, with a focus on supporting underserved producers. 

“In the weeks to come, the research team will work with its expert advisory panel, stakeholders and partner groups to update ongoing drought conditions and impacts on the agricultural sector, as well as data and assessment tools, to inform drought management and decision making,” Medellín-Azuara said.

Link to announcement on UC Merced web site

Building on her commitment to ensuring California children have the best start in life, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom today announced the release of Planting the Seed: Farm to School Roadmap for Success, a report promoting the expansion of farm to school programs across California to advance child well-being, equity, economic growth, and environmental resilience. 

“Last year, California made history as the first state to establish permanent universal school meals. Through farm to school programs, we are going one step further to ensure children don’t just have access to free meals in school, but that those meals are healthy, nutritious, and locally-grown,” said Governor Newsom.

Access to high-quality, fresh foods can increase students’ consumption of fruits and vegetables and support children’s physical health, while hands-on experiential learning opportunities like gardening and cooking serve to improve educational outcomes and support whole-child development. Farm to school programs allow students to learn about the relationships between food systems and the environment. 

“Schools play a crucial role in feeding California children and communities, with school meal recipients consuming almost half of their daily caloric intake from school meals alone,” said First Partner Siebel Newsom. “Planting the Seed is a roadmap to strengthen the state’s school food systems, nurture children’s minds and bodies, and cultivate a healthier, more equitable, climate smart California for all.”

School meals are crucial sources of nutrition for children and an important tool to improve food access and nutrition security among children and their families, especially in communities of color. During the pandemic, approximately one in four low-income families in the state relied on food from schools to cover food shortages. Nationally, people of color are more likely to experience food insecurity, hunger, childhood obesity, and diabetes in both rural and urban communities. 

“California, which produces over a third of the nation’s vegetables and two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts, is well-positioned to improve child health and well-being through the expansion of farm to school programs,” said California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary Karen Ross.

Farm to school programs promote economic growth in local communities through local procurement, and incentivize climate smart, regenerative agriculture practices. 

Planting the Seed outlines specific recommendations to advance the expansion of farm to school programs across the state, including: 

• Allocating funding to scale up farm to school programs that encourage and prioritize equitable, climate smart procurement. 
• Investing in school food careers and scratch cooking infrastructure to ensure school nutrition teams can prepare delicious, nutritious, and locally-sourced meals.
• Developing optional model K-12 food education standards to help students understand how food impacts health, culture, biodiversity, and climate. 
• Strengthening relationships between schools and producers to improve food system equity and promote climate smart, regenerative agriculture practices. 
• Expanding and creating inclusive access to school food markets for a wide range of California producers, especially small and mid-scale producers, producers that are Black, Indigenous, or people of color, and producers that utilize climate smart, regenerative agriculture practices. 
• Investing in evaluation and research, and developing an annual California farm to school census. 

Today’s announcement follows the state’s investment of nearly $70 million for the California Farm to School Incubator Grant, a program championed by the First Partner and administered by CDFA, to provide competitive grants to support innovative local and regional farm to school projects. In the 2021-22 budget, the state also invested $150 million to upgrade kitchen infrastructure and train food service employees. Aligned with the report’s recommendations, the Governor’s California Blueprint proposes an additional $30 million to support the grant program and $450 million to upgrade school kitchen infrastructure and equipment to incorporate more scratch-cooking and use of fresh, minimally processed, California-grown foods in school meals. 

Planting the Seed is the result of a collaboration, led by First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and CDFA Secretary Karen Ross, among a number of state agency leaders, education professionals, and farm to school experts and practitioners. Planting the Seed: Farm to School Roadmap for Success can be found here.