Taken from a USDA news release

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $12 million in Farm to School Grants this year, announcing awards to 176 grantees, the most projects funded since the program began in 2013. More than $1.4 million of the funding is coming to California.

The USDA is also releasing new data demonstrating the recent growth of farm to school efforts nationwide. Nearly two-thirds (65%) of school districts and/or local entities responsible for school meals participated in farm to school activities during school year 2018-2019, more than half (57%) of which began within the past three years.

This year’s Farm to School Grants will help expand the access to fresh, local foods and hands-on agricultural learning for children across 45 states and the District of Columbia. The awarded projects will serve more than 1.4 million students at more than 6,800 schools. Grantees include schools, state agencies, non-profits, tribal nations, agricultural producers and groups, and – for the first time ever – institutions participating in the Child and Adult Care Food Program and the Summer Food Service Program.

The California recipients are as follows:

Boys & Girls Clubs of Oceanside (BGCO) -$50,000
BGCO will expand and revamp their existing community garden and use it as a resource for fresh produce
for Child and Adult Care Food Program and Summer Food Service Program meals.

Campo Band of Mission Indians, Campo CA – $47,950
The Campo Kumeyaay F2S Edible Garden Project will expand on current USDA programs by
supporting an opportunity for the Kumeyaay children and youth to learn the traditional ways of
growing food and managing the land, and building a garden ecosystem.

Community Action Marin, San Rafael CA – $97,864
Community Action Marin will expand its existing production farm add an additional school garden to a second agency early education campus. This project is part of the Community Action Marin’s Children and Family Services
strategy to ensure that the children in their preschool and childcare programs, and their parents,
are well nourished and able to build life-long healthy eating habits.

Community Bridges, Watsonville CA – $48,122
Community Bridges’ Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), in partnership with 100 Day
Care Home Providers, will pilot the Edible Garden Project benefiting low-income children in
California’s central coast and tri-county (Monterey, San Benito, and Santa Cruz) area.

Contra Costa Resource Conservation District, Concord CA – $45,535
The Contra Costa Resource Conservation District will implement its “Gills to Greens: Aquaponics
Systems for Urban Food Security” curriculum, which prioritizes serving 3rd-4th grade students
from underserved areas of Contra Costa County.

Healthy Day Partners, Encinitas CA – $94,695
Healthy Day Partners will grow the Straight 2 the Plate (S2TP) program in National City to advance
a commitment to farm to school programs nourishing students through healthy food and quality
education no matter the zip code or income level.

Imperial County Office of Education, El Centro CA – $48,627
Through its Agricultural Education Curriculum Development and Delivery Project, the Imperial
County Office of Education (ICOE) will help increase, expand, and improve access to high-quality
agricultural education programs in Imperial County.

International Rescue Committee, Inc., Sacramento CA – $50,000
Through the proposed Edible Garden Project, the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in
Sacramento will work with four elementary schools in the San Juan Unified School District (SJUSD)
to develop and install four edible gardens, improving local food access and meeting community
nutritional needs.

Lodi Unified School District – $48,522
The Lodi Unified School District will purchase and construct an innovative and interactive greenhouse
at Plaza Robles Continuation High School. This project will provide students with a positive educational opportunity, building upon existing school gardening activities in the Lodi Unified School District to serve 159 continuation students.

Logan Heights Community Development Corporation, San Diego CA – $43,560
Logan Heights CDC will plan and execute an Edible Garden at its Future Achievers Preschool,
which annually provides STEAM education to up to 70 two- to five-year-old children.

North Monterey County Unified School District, Castroville CA – $97,638
Building on already successful partnerships, the North Monterey County Unified School District
(NMCUSD) Farm to School Expansion Project will increase the procurement of locally sourced
foods by scaling up the purchase of seasonal produce while leveraging efforts to expand educational opportunities for students.

Northern Valley Catholic Social Service, Redding CA – $44,002
The CalFresh Healthy Living program at Northern Valley Catholic Social Service will establish edible gardens within seven low-income elementary schools in Shasta County. Each garden will be made large enough to ensure a
consistent supply of fresh produce can be integrated into the menu and served to the students
weekly.

Pasadena Unified School District – $99,018
The Pasadena Unified School District will expand the scope and depth of its current Farm to School
program in order to improve access to locally grown healthy foods for students in eligible schools
and to increase their knowledge of nutrition, food science, agro-ecology through curriculum
development, teacher training, and experiential learning opportunities during and after the
school day.

Planting Justice, Oakland CA – $99,496
Building upon the Oakland Unified School District’s (OUSD) movement toward healthier lunches,
Planting Justice will achieve hyperlocalization of the farm to school supply chain through Planting Justice’s East Oakland Neishi Farm’s production and distribution of leafy greens to OUSD lunch suppliers for preparation in Oakland public school lunches. Planting Justice will also partner with eight (8) schools in the District through pop-up green smoothie distributions, creation and maintenance of school gardens, and implementation of the Plant! Cook! Organize! curriculum.

Prepa Tec LA Middle School, Walnut Creek CA – $48,569
Alta Public Schools will participate in the Farm to School grant in order to bring a larger quantity
and variety of fresh produce to its students and families in the South East Los Angeles area. Alta
Public Schools will increase the use of fruits and vegetables in its breakfast, lunch and supper
menu, will implement salad bars at all campuses, and provide students and parents with culinary
workshops that will help families learn how to incorporate more fruits and vegetables into their
home cooking.

Schools in Action, Los Angeles – $36,361
As a School Food Authority, Schools in Action (SIA) would like to ensure that the Arts in Action
Community Charter Schools (A.I.A) widens its current approach to promoting nutrition education
and combatting food insecurity. This will be done through the procurement of local seasonal
vegetables and/or fruits and interactive lessons involving taste tests, presentations, and at-home
activities provided by a key partner.

Sierra Harvest, Nevada City CA – $98,518
The Free Range Kids project increases the availability of local foods in K-12 schools serving 10,000
students in rural Western Nevada County, CA. School meals will highlight new menu items and
increase students’ consumption of healthy foods through additional salad bars using locally
procured fresh fruits and vegetables.

Sustainable Solano Inc., Benicia CA – $46,235
Sustainable Solano will lead the “Markham Elementary Edible Garden Project” – the
development of a unique, distributed permaculture garden of raised beds and fruit tree guilds
across Markham Elementary School’s campus in Vacaville, CA. This project is a pilot for additional
sustainable school gardens across Solano County and will be accomplished in partnership with
the Vacaville Unified School District, Vacaville Public Education Foundation and Solano County
Office of Education.

The HEAL Project, Half Moon Bay CA – $71,226
The HEAL Project will deliver its award-winning garden based education programming, Intensive
Garden Program, to two local elementary schools. Additionally, the organization will develop a
school garden handbook, including planting guides, funding resources, and a 26-week curriculum,
to be distributed throughout San Mateo County.

Val Verde Unified School District, Perris CA – $100,000

Last year, the Val Verde Unified School District (VVUSD) partnered with the City of Perris to create
a Farm to School Framework and Action Plan. They will implement the VVUSD Farm 2 School
program in 16 of their K-8 schools. They will use the USDA funding for garden expansion and
modernization to increase their capacity for food growth, and purchase curricula to support
agricultural education across all of their K-8 schools.

WEST CONTRA COSTA UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, Richmond CA – $50,000
In 2018 – 2019, the West Contra Costa Unified School District (WCCUSD) worked with Conscious
Kitchen to bring fresh, local, organic scratch cooked meals to a 536-student pilot at Peres
Elementary, a 100% free/reduced school. Kids loved the food, the program proved that the
district could cost effectively purchase local organic ingredients, significantly reduce waste,
provide a positive climate impact, create meaningful jobs, and engage students. In 2020,
WCCUSD launched a COVID response program further demonstrating the value and benefits of
buying local fresh products at scale, serving over 7 million meals to children in their communities
with over 75% with local fresh produce and shifting to over 50% organic products. The grant funds
will allow the district to create a roll out plan to bring the positive and delicious benefits from
these pilot projects to their students across the district when in-person meals return.

Yurok Tribe, Klamath CA – $99,976.00
The Yurok Tribe Environmental Program Food Sovereignty Division will create the food
production component of the Wautec Food Village and create corresponding garden and
traditional foods curriculum to support the Jack Norton Elementary School Farm to School
program.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross met yesterday in Sacramento with the Rt. Honorable Liz Truss, UK Secretary of State for International Trade. The meeting provided an opportunity to discuss trade relations, climate and agriculture with an important trade partner for California.

The UK is California’s 11th largest trade destination. California’s agricultural exports to the UK add up to more than $455 million. Wine, tree nuts and dried fruit are the state’s leading Ag exports to the UK.

By Andy Corbley

From the ancient rice terraces of Yunnan to modern vertical hydroponics, agriculture comes in many different forms. Now a group of Italian brainiacs have created the world’s first underwater garden for terrestrial plants.

Seaweed and kelp have been cultivated along shorelines for centuries, but in small submersible glass domes, pots of basil, lettuce, tomatoes, and even zucchini flowers, green peas, aloe vera, and mushrooms are growing like in any other home garden.

Called Nemo’s Garden, the project was launched by the Ocean Reef Group as a means to experiment with food supply diversity, should climatic changes make parts of Italy too dry to farm.

The large self-sustaining, totally-contained biospheres would in theory be scalable, and perhaps in the future might look like the underwater city from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

The challenges inherent in growing plants underwater, given that they are normally at home in soil, was but one hurdle Nemo has had to overcome. The six air-filled greenhouses (or should that be bluehouses?) suffered major storm damage in October 2019, and before they could be fully repaired, COVID-19 had all the researchers sheltering in place.

Yet the team never gave up hope, as Euronews reports, and the months of abandonment did not harm the facility in any way. June 6th saw the garden fully-operational again, including their livestream where one can watch the plants literally grow.

The biospheres, which sit eight meters (26.25 feet) under the surface off the coast of Noli in Liguria, use solar energy for their minimal electrical needs, and evaporated seawater condenses on the glass of the ceiling which waters the plants. A diver swims under and up into the air pocket of the pod to harvest what’s ready to eat.

The project website says that increased pressure like that found under the ocean is actually beneficial to the speed at which plants can germinate, though they admit very little research has been published on the topic—after all, not so many people are currently trying to grow strawberries underwater.

The conditions create a really intense flavor in the vegetables, and also allow the plants’ environment to be completely controlled, with nothing impacting their life that the growers don’t want.

For now Nemo’s Garden is essentially a research lab, but if the idea were expanded, it’s expected to be able to reinforce food security for the peninsula, and the world.

Link to story on the Good News Network webpage

The Governor’s Office of Planning and Research and the California Natural Resources Agency will be hosting two upcoming Extreme Heat Workshops on July 27th and August 19th from 4-6 PM. At these workshops, the state will be asking for input and expertise to ensure that California takes the actions necessary towards mitigating and building resilience to the impacts of extreme heat events. Agenda and details to follow! For questions on this effort, please email the state’s coordination team at icarp@opr.ca.gov.

More information on this Natural Resources Agency web page

The EQIP-Conservation Incentive Contracts program (EQIP-CIC), a pilot program from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) in California, has extended its deadline for applications to July 14.

The program is looking to provide long-term support to address drought on agricultural and other lands.

Specifically through this new pilot program (EQIP-CIC), six high priority areas were identified:

1.  San Joaquin Valley (cropland);

2.  Statewide (cropland);

3.  Klamath Basin (cropland);

4.  Statewide (range, pasture);

5.  Statewide (forest); and

6.  Statewide Tribal Land (cropland, range, pasture, forest).

In addition to these high priority areas, NRCS conservationists are available to discuss best conservation practices and enhancements for cropland, rangeland, forestland, pastureland, and tribal land, which can result in development of a conservation plan. A conservation plan is a roadmap to the natural resources stewardship of land that helps with the successful implementation of conservation improvements.

Plants are the natural solution for many conservation challenges. For example, landowners can install hedgerow and other plantings to establish multi-purpose wildlife habitat. Through this program, land managers could receive reimbursement for planting cover crops for pollinators while improving soil health and for planting trees, shrubs, grasses, and forbs to create habitat for beneficial insects and Monarch butterflies, while reducing soil erosion or improving livestock well being. 

As a western drought state, California landowners may reduce risks of wildfires while protecting homes and communities by using conservation practices such as brush management, fuel break, woody residue treatment, and forest stand improvement. With this new pilot program, landowners would also be able to receive reimbursement to continue the longer term management of these best conservation practices for reducing the height and density of forest understory to limit wildfire risk.

Landowners can efficiently use water resources by implementing practices such as irrigation ditch lining, irrigation pipeline, or micro irrigation. Through the pilot program, irrigation scheduling technology can be included in a conservation plan to help farmers explore new technology with agricultural innovations to help decrease energy and water use.

For more information on the new pilot EQIP-CIC and the new July 14, 2021 application deadline, contact a local NRCS field office to schedule an appointment. An office locator is available at https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/ca/contact/.

 

By David Rodriquez

After mainstream high school classes failed to interest Jesus Adrian Barba, he tried raising sheep and pigs for the Future Farmers of America (FFA). 

This became his gateway to higher education. 

The 22-year-old Salinas native graduated at the top of his class at California State University, Chico. He received his degree in agricultural business.

“Agriculture saved my education,” Barba said. “It provided me with a path to follow.” 

Barba said that graduating at the top of his class and getting a college degree was once a distant dream. 

“It means a lot to me,” he said. “I didn’t plan to attend college because I was lost on what I wanted to do, but then the idea was implemented in me when I was part of the agricultural program during my junior year. To be part of the top 1% of the entire graduating class is just an amazing accomplishment and feeling.”

A hands-on learner 

In high school, Barba often got kicked out of class because of his inability to stay focused. When he joined the more hands-on FFA program at his counselor’s suggestion, Barba went from a struggling student to a thriving one. 

Barba graduated from Everett Alvarez High School in May 2017, with a 3.5 GPA. He was part of The National FFA Organization and Agricultural Program at his school. 

“This program was amazing to me because it put me to work,” Barba said. “I was able to learn about an industry surrounding our area and was able to participate in it. While being part of the FFA program I was able to raise sheep and pigs.”

He was also given the agriculture award of “Most Likely to Succeed in Agriculture,” as a senior in high school.

“Having a degree in agricultural business means that I have opened new opportunities that my parents would never have had the chance to undertake,” he said. “By being top of my class as well as having this degree means I am able to do things others might not be able to do. Graduating with these honors is just a demonstration that I am able to do anything I set my mind to.” 

Data from Pew Research reveals that in 2017 when Barba graduated high school, only 16% of all Hispanics in the U.S., 25 and older, had a bachelor’s degree or more. At that time, the rate for all Americans was double that of Hispanics at 32%.

Leaving the nest 

Barba is the middle child and has two sisters — Lumi Diane Barba, 25, and a younger sister who attends Everett Alvarez High School, his alma mater. He said it was important he earned his college degree not just for him but for his parents. 

“Their goal has always been to give their kids a better future,” Barba said. “They have always supported us in what we do and are always there.”

Barba’s parents both worked in the fields and have always believed in the power of a good education. The parents said they’ve instilled those same values in their children. 

“For me as a father, it was very important that they continue their education so that they can forge a better future and not have to fight as we have struggled,” said Jose De Jesus Barba, Barba’s father.

Barba’s parents are from Jalisco, Mexico, and could not attend school past sixth grade because they had to work to help support their families. 

“I have pride as a mother to know that my son graduated with the highest honor from the university. It does not surprise me because he was always a good boy who works hard and strives to get ahead for a better future,” Carmen Barba Delgadillo said. “We did not go to school and that’s why I have pride as a mother to know that they have succeeded and that they are now able to fly on their own.”

‘Better than I was yesterday’

In July, Barba will enter the workforce as a production lead for E&J Gallo winery. The winery is headquartered in Modesto, Calif., and is the largest exporter of California wines. 

He would eventually like to start his own ag business and attend graduate school to obtain a master’s in business. When times get tough, Barba said he can always look back on his degree and know he’s capable of overcoming any challenge.

“This degree means I am better than I was yesterday,” he added. 

For students unsure what the future holds, Barba had some advice. 

“I suggest to hold on to that thing that you love and follow it because it will introduce you to new opportunities and experiences,” he said. “I also advise those students to give things a try. It is better to experience things and see if you like them or not than to not try them at all. Take chances because you never know what will come out of it.”

Link to story on Salinas Californian web site

By Somini Sengupta

In America’s fruit and nut basket, water is now the most precious crop of all.

It explains why, amid a historic drought parching much of the American West, a grower of premium sushi rice has concluded that it makes better business sense to sell the water he would have used to grow rice than to actually grow rice. Or why a melon farmer has left a third of his fields fallow. Or why a large landholder farther south is thinking of planting a solar array on his fields rather than the thirsty almonds that delivered steady profit for years.

“You want to sit there and say, ‘We want to monetize the water?’ No, we don’t,” said Seth Fiack, a rice grower in Ordbend, on the banks of the Sacramento River (in Glenn County), who this year sowed virtually no rice and instead sold his unused water for desperate farmers farther south. “It’s not what we prefer to do, but it’s what we kind of need to, have to.”

These are among the signs of a huge transformation up and down California’s Central Valley, the country’s most lucrative agricultural belt, as it confronts both an exceptional drought and the consequences of years of pumping far too much water out of its aquifers. Across the state, reservoir levels are dropping and electric grids are at risk if hydroelectric dams don’t get enough water to produce power.

Climate change is supercharging the scarcity. Rising temperatures dry out the soil, which in turn can worsen heat waves. This week, temperatures in parts of California and the Pacific Northwest have been shattering records.

By 2040, the San Joaquin Valley is projected to lose at least 535,000 acres of agricultural production. That’s more than a tenth of the area farmed.

And if the drought perseveres and no new water can be found, nearly double that amount of land is projected to go idle, with potentially dire consequences for the nation’s food supply. California’s $50 billion agricultural sector supplies two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts and more than a third of America’s vegetables — the tomatoes, pistachios, grapes and strawberries that line grocery store shelves from coast to coast.

Glimpses of that future are evident now. Vast stretches of land are fallow because there’s no water. New calculations are being made about what crops to grow, how much, where. Millions of dollars are being spent on replenishing the aquifer that has been depleted for so long.

“Each time we have a drought you’re seeing a little glimpse into what will happen more frequently in our climate future,” said Morgan Levy, a professor specializing in water science and policy at the University of California, San Diego.

For Rice Farmers, a Tricky Decision

California’s fertile Central Valley begins in the north, where the water begins. In normal times, winter rain and spring snowmelt swell the Sacramento River, nourishing one of the country’s most important rice belts. On an average year, growers around the Sacramento River produce 500,000 acres of sticky, medium-grain rice vital to sushi. Some 40 percent is exported to Asia.

But these are not normal times. There’s less snowpack, and, this year, much less water in the reservoirs and rivers that ultimately irrigate fields, provide spawning places for fish and supply drinking water for 39 million Californians.

That crisis presents rice farmers in the Sacramento Valley, which forms the northern part of the Central Valley, with a tricky choice: Should they plant rice with what water they have, or save themselves the toil and stress and sell their water instead?

Mr. Fiack, a second-generation rice farmer, chose to sell almost all of it.

His one 30-acre field of rice glistens green in the June sunshine, guzzling water that pours out of a wide-mouthed spigot. His remaining 500 acres are bare and brown. What water he would have used to grow rice he has signed away for sale to growers of thirsty crops hundreds of miles south, where water is even more scarce.

At $575 per acre-foot (a volume of water one acre in size, one foot deep) the revenue compares favorably to what he would have made growing rice — without the headaches. It makes “economic sense,” Mr. Fiack said flatly.

Rice is far less lucrative than, say, almonds and walnuts, which is why Mr. Fiack’s fields are surrounded by nut trees and even he is dabbling in walnuts. But rice farmers are uniquely advantaged. Because their lands have been in production for so long, they tend to have first dibs on water that comes out of the Sacramento River, before it is channeled through canals and tunnels down south.

Also, unlike the owners of fruit and nut trees, whose investments would wither in a few weeks without water, rice farmers can leave a field fallow for a year, even two. In the era of climate change, when water can be unreliable, that flexibility is an asset. Rice water transfers have been an important part of California’s drought coping strategy.

This year, rice farmers in the Sacramento Valley will produce around 20 percent less rice.

Not everyone is enthusiastic about that.

Kim Gallagher, a third-generation rice farmer, left fallow only 15 percent of her fields. She worries about the effect on the rice mills and crop-duster pilots who live off rice farming, not to mention the birds that come to winter in the flooded fields. “These are trade-offs every farmer has to make, what they can fallow and what they can’t,” she said. “Everyone has a different number.”

Fritz Durst, a fourth-generation rice farmer, worries that California rice buyers would come to see his region as an unreliable supplier.

He, too, hedged his bets. He is growing rice on about 60 percent of his 527 acres, which enables him to sell the Sacramento River water he would have used on the rest.

But there’s a long-term risk, as he sees it, in selling too much water, too often. “You also have people here who are concerned that we’re setting a dangerous precedent,” he said. “If we start allowing our water to go south of the Delta, those people are going to say, ‘Well, you don’t need that water. It’s ours now.’”

Fish vs. Field

Federico Barajas is in the unenviable position of having to find water. As the manager of the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority, he has negotiated a deal to buy from water districts like Mr. Durst’s.

There’s just one problem: Because the rivers are so hot and dry this year, the federal government, which runs the Shasta Dam, where cold Sacramento River water is stored, has said the water needs to stay in the reservoir through the summer months for another source of food: fish that hatch in California’s rivers.

He’s not accepting defeat. “We’re still looking for anybody out there who has any drop of water we can purchase and transfer,” he said gamely.

Nearby, off Interstate 5, Joe Del Bosque had been counting on that rice water from the north. It’s how he’s survived the droughts of the past, he said. “This is the worst year we’ve had,” Mr. Del Bosque said.

Mr. Del Bosque grew up working on melon farms with his farmworker father. Today, Mr. Del Bosque owns a melon farm near the town of Firebaugh. He grows organic cantaloupes and watermelons on most of his 2,000 acres, destined for supermarket shelves nationwide. The license plate on his GMC truck reads “MELONS.”

This year, he’s left a third of his land fallow. There’s just not enough water. He had planted asparagus on a few fields, too, only to pull it out. A neighbor pulled out his almonds.

History Shaped by Water

The hot, dry San Joaquin Valley became cotton farms at the turn of the 20th century, at the time with water flowing from the north through fields of alfalfa and then strawberries and grapes. Almonds took over as prices soared. And with more demands on the surface water flowing through the river — to maintain river flows, for instance, or flush seawater out of the California Delta — farmers turned increasingly to the water under their land.

It provides 40 percent of the water for California agriculture in a normal year, and far more in dry years. In parts of the state, chiefly in the San Joaquin Valley, at the southern end of the Central Valley, more groundwater is taken out than nature can replenish.

Now, for the first time, under the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, growers in some parts of the San Joaquin Valley face restrictions on how much water they can pump. That is set to transform the landscape. If you can’t pump as much water from under the ground, you simply can’t farm as much land in the San Joaquin Valley.

“There’s just no way around that,” said Eric Limas, the son of farmers who now manages one of the most depleted irrigated districts, called Pixley, a checkerboard of almond orchards and dairies. “The numbers just don’t add up.”

So thoroughly have aquifers been depleted that farmers are now investing millions of dollars to put water back into the ground. They’re buying land that can absorb the rains. They’re creating ponds and ditches, carving up the landscape, again, to restore the groundwater squandered for so long.

“That is the single biggest water system adaptation we can do — getting more water into the ground,” said Ellen Hanak, director of the water policy center at the Public Policy Institute of California.

Meanwhile, towns in the Central Valley are beginning to run out of municipal water, including Teviston, just south of Mr. Limas’s office, where town officials have been delivering bottled water to 1,200 residents for nearly two weeks.

From Almond Trees to Solar Arrays

Stuart Woolf embodies the changing landscape of the San Joaquin Valley.

Mr. Woolf took over his father’s farm, headquartered in Huron, in 1986, retired most of the cotton his dad grew, switched to tomatoes, bought a factory that turns his tomatoes into tomato paste for ketchup. His operations expanded across 25,000 acres. Its highest value crop: almonds.

Mr. Woolf now sees the next change coming. The rice water from the north won’t come when he needs it. The groundwater restrictions will soon limit his ability to pump.

He has ripped out 400 acres of almonds. He’s not sure he will replant them anytime soon. In the coming years, he estimates he will stop growing on 30 to 40 percent of his land.

He has left one field bare to serve as a pond to recharge the aquifer, bought land in the north, where the water is, close to Mr. Fiack’s rice fields. Now, he is considering replacing some of his crops with another source of revenue altogether: a solar farm, from which he can harvest energy to sell back to the grid.

“Look, I’m a farmer in California. The tools we had to manage drought are getting limited,” he said. “I’ve got to fallow a lot of my ranch.”

Link to story on New York Times web site

Last week, CDFA Secretary Karen Ross and UK Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Rt. Hon. George Eustice, hosted California agricultural stakeholders for roundtable discussion on trade and climate. California and the United Kingdom share many priorities on international trade, climate change policy and sustainability. A strong bilateral trade relationship provides opportunities for sustainable growth and good jobs for workers in both countries.

The UK is California’s fourth largest agricultural export destination in the European Union, valued at more than $455 million. Top agricultural exports to the market include wine, tree nuts and dried fruit.

USDA News Release

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has announced new resources to inform consumers on how to reduce food waste during the July Fourth holiday and beyond.   According to USDA research, the average family of four wastes nearly $1,500 worth of food each year. And the food that goes in the trash winds up in a landfill where it creates methane, a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change.   On July Fourth and all summer long, USDA encourages consumers to use four simple steps to reduce food waste at home.   Plan ahead – Before you go to the grocery store or order online, make a list so you don’t buy more than you need. Serve smart – portion control is good for your waistline, and good for reducing plate waste. Love your leftovers – Pack leftovers in small portions in shallow containers, mark the contents and date, and refrigerate or freeze immediately. Compost, don’t trash – Food in landfills produces harmful methane. You can recycle your food scraps in a home compost bin or at a local compost center. Learn more about food loss and waste prevention at www.usda.gov/foodlossandwaste.   CDFA’s Food Recovery program has produced a video on the issue.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMAw7gR0L6s&t=20s

Follow this link for more information on CDFA’s Food Recovery web page