CDFA Awards Contract to Safe Food Alliance for Grower Produce Safety Training

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has contracted with Safe Food Alliance, a division of DFA of California, to host 25 Produce Safety Training classes between January and June of 2018. The contract covers central and southern California counties beginning at Madera, Fresno, San Benito and Monterey counties along the north, to the border counties of San Diego and Imperial along the south.

CDFA received $450,000 from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), to provide farmers with affordable access to food safety training courses which meet the requirements under the new Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety rule for growers, whose first compliance dates are January of 2018.

The Safe Food Alliance offers technical food safety services to assist growers, packers, processors, and manufacturers in meeting customer and regulatory requirements by understanding and applying recognized best practices for food safety and quality control management. Safe Food Alliance has approved trainers who are able to conduct the classes on behalf of the Produce Safety Alliance. The food safety team includes four Produce Safety Lead Trainers and four Produce Safety trainers, making them the largest Produce Safety training facility in California.

Safe Food Alliance conducted 17 Produce Safety trainings for 662 growers in 2017, including 250 walnut growers as part of a partnership with the California Walnut Board. Safe Food Alliance will be partnering with the California Walnut Board to host six trainings in the spring of 2018 to train 500 additional walnut growers.

Over 50,000 produce farms in California are expected to be covered under the Produce Safety Rule, one of several sections of the new FSMA law. As part of this Rule, these 50,000 farms must employ at least one individual who has completed a food safety training course which meets requirements laid out in the new regulation.

Attendees of this course are eligible to receive a certificate from the Association of Food and Drug Officials (AFDO) which verifies that they have completed the recognized training course. Along with the standard curriculum, Safe Food Alliance will provide additional resources to attendees such as materials to help determine how the regulation applies to their farm; templates for creating required records; a calculation tool to determine if a small farm is exempt; a list of allowable water treatment compounds; and tools for conducting water analysis calculations.

For more information about scheduled Produce Safety Grower Training Courses please contact foodsafety@safefoodalliance.com. More FSMA resources are available at https://safefoodalliance.com/resources/food-safety-resources/what-is-fsma/

San Joaquin County and Delta Field Crops Meeting this Friday Jan. 12

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

Cooperative Extension of San Joaquin County will host the San Joaquin County and Delta field Crops meeting this Friday, January 12 8:00 AM to noon. The meeting location will be at the Cabral Agricultural Center in Stockton. Lunch will be provided.

Among some of the items to be discussed at that meeting will be a Regulatory Update, with Tim Pelican, the San Joaquin County agricultural commissioner; Alfalfa Weevil Management, with Rachel Long UCCE Farm Advisor; California Farmer Voices on Nitrogen Management with Jessica Rudnick, UC Davis; Managing Weeds and Agronomic Crop Rotations, with Kurt Hembree UCCE Farm Advisor: and Tools for Selecting Small Grain Varieties.

There will also be a discussion on Sorghum Seeding Rates for optimum productivity. Michelle Leinfelder-Miles UCCE Farm Advisor has been running some trials

“So we tested five, six, nine, twelve and fifteen pounds per acre,” Leinfelder-Miles said. “I think growers in my region were recommended to plant on that higher side, maybe 12-15 pounds per acre. Feedback that I was getting from researchers including our UC Specialist is that we should probably be planting on the lower end, more like five or six pounds per acre—targeting a plant population of, maybe 85,000 plants per acre up to 100,000 plants per acre. But not overshooting 100,000.”

“The real take home message is that we didn’t see the higher seating rates yielding better. We saw basically even yield across the different treatments,” noted Leinfelder-Miles. “So what does this mean? It means that if you’re planting these larger seeding rates, you’re spending more money on more seed, but you’re not seeing a yield benefit from that extra cost of planting more seed.”

Find out more about these seeding rates and other items at that field day. Please RSVP for a Lunch count. (209) 953-6100.

Spray Regs Providing Extra Measure of Protection to Schools

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Farm News Director

New regulations went into effect January 1, regarding the timing of applications or crop protection materials near school sites and licensed daycare facilities. The regulation provides an extra measure of protection to public K through 12 school sites and the daycare centers from the risk of short term pesticide exposure and help increase communication between grower and school and day care sites.

It prohibits many pesticide applications within a quarter mile of the school sites and daycare centers during school hours, Monday through Friday between 6:00 AM and 6:00 PM. This includes all applications by aircraft sprinklers, air blast sprayers, and all fume again, applications. In addition, most dust and powder pesticide applications such as sulfur will also be prohibited during this time.

Wayne Zipser is president of the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau. California Ag Today spoke with him concerning these new regulations. “Sometimes timing of applications is more critical for certain times, specifically fungicides, but also insecticides and herbicides applications, and these new regulations are going to effect the timing of these crop protection materials,” Zipser said.

Zipser said that growers have always been extremely careful around schools, but they do understand these new regulations. “It’s going to cause a bigger burden for them, but they understand it and as long as it’s clear along that’s as clear and understanding regulation, there’ll be able to deal with it,” Zipser said. “They’re going to be able to to a spray on weekends and they’re going to be able to spray between six and six, six at night and six in the morning, and so they can work through those as long as they understand what they are.”

The new regulation will affect about 3500 public K through 12 schools and licensed daycare facilities and involve approximately 2500 growers in California. While many counties in California currently have varying requirements for notifications of certain pesticide applications near schools. That proposed regulation is the first statewide standard.

Some commercial spray companies such as Hawk Ag Aviation, of Oakdale, Calif., which does aerial applications of materials, have even a higher standard. “We don’t apply material within a half-mile of schools,” said Shane Sperry with Hawk Ag. “That’s always been our policy.”

Increasing Food Production with Technology Worldwide – and Locally

By Erika Kosina, Nevada County Tech Connection

California, which boasts more than its fair share of both techies and farmers, hosts several AgTech conferences, some of which attract more than 600 attendees. And these AgTech pioneers are making a difference.

Technology has allowed the inudustry to increase food production by leaps and bounds ever since our ancient ancestors graduated from the digging stick to the hoe. On today’s farm, smart phones and laptops are as common as combines and tractors. The 4^th industrial revolution and the advent of the Internet of Things where the internet is connecting devices and things at an unprecedented rate is pushing agricultural technology even further.

Technology Helps Farmers Increase Efficiency

The average size of an American farm is now 434 acres, according to a 2012 United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) census. Farmers simply can’t monitor each plant on a farm of that size. Electronic sensors can gather information that allows farmers to monitor their fields from afar. Analyzing the data from these sensors gives farmers information about the plants, and allows them to make better decisions. According to the USDA, “Farmers no longer have to apply water, fertilizers, and pesticides uniformly across entire fields. Instead, they can use the minimum quantities required and target very specific areas, or even treat individual plants differently.” It’s a much more efficient way to grow large amounts of food.

Drones are another way for farmers to monitor their crops more efficiently. They fly over fields and gathering visual information better than an actual person could. “At the end of the day, drones can detect things the naked eye can’t like pests, disease, weeds, and fertility,” says Melissa Jun Rowley in her article “Farm Tech Revolution.” “If farmers play their cards right, they can use this information to cut costs and save time and resources—a couple of key reasons technology was invented.”

Bringing Farmers and Developers Together

Using technology to increase food production has its challenges. Sensors require internet connectivity to relay information, which is not widely available in rural areas. And farmers generally don’t get into farming because they love technology. Steve Davis is the CEO of Intelligent Wireless Networks, a company that provides rural WiFi networks as well as applications and software to support precision farming. He talks to a lot of farmers about how technology can help their business. “Technology has not been a part of farmers’ lives much,” said Davis. “They require some teaching and hand holding as they adopt these technologies. They are after all, farmers. They know soils and fertilizers. Bugs and crop disease. Water and nutrient content criteria to grow their products. How many Silicon Valley tech CEO’s grow their own food? How many could?”

A middle man like Davis is often needed to bring farmers and technology together. Agricultural Technology conferences can act as that middle man, providing opportunities for techies to pitch farmers and investors with their ideas for making farming more efficient.

Increasing Local Food Production

Nevada County is hosting our own AgTech Micro Conference on February 9, with support from the Economic Resource Council and Nevada County Tech Connection. The conference is happening in conjunction with Sierra Harvest’s Sustainable Food and Farm Conference, which presents world-renowned experts on innovative sustainable farming trends along with workshops and farm tours. Sierra Harvest is working to increase the number of young farmers in Nevada County – the average age of farmers in our county is 58 years old, and over 98% of those farmers do not have a plan to pass on their farm. Sierra Harvest has trained 30 farmers who are under 30, and placed many of them on local farmland. Since millennials are more comfortable with technology than any other generation, these younger farmers may be more open to incorporating technology into their farming methods.

Sierra Harvest hopes to increase local food production from 2% to 25% over the next ten years. Technology has a role to play in that increase, and the AgTech Micro Conference will connect AgTech developers with funders and local farmers to get the conversation started in our community. For more information or to register for the conference, visit http://nctechconnection.org/agtech18/.