California Ag Today, Author at California Agriculture News Today

About California Ag Today

This author has not yet filled in any details.
So far California Ag Today has created 1783 blog entries.

California Fresh Fruit Association Announces Mentors’ Award Recipient and Keynote Speakers for Upcoming 87th Annual Meeting

The California Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA) is pleased to announce the recipient for the Mentors’ Award along with the speakers that will headline the Industry Workshops during its upcoming 87th Annual Meeting on March 12-14, 2023, at The Lodge at Torrey Pines.

The Association will honor Harold McClarty, of HMC Farms with the prestigious Mentors’ Award, which is bestowed to an individual who has demonstrated exceptional dedication to the California fresh grape, berry, and tree fruit communities through their leadership in the industry. McClarty is one of the leading family owned, vertically integrated tree fruit and table grape operations in California. He has served on the Western Growers, California Table Grape Commission and CFFA Board of Directors and has contributed to the future of agriculture by supporting programs at the local community college.

This year’s Industry Workshops will feature two sessions, one on Monday and another on Tuesday. On Monday, March 13th, the Industry Workshop will feature Ron Barsamian of Barsamian & Moody Attorneys at Law, who will provide an update on California labor issues.

On Tuesday, March 14th, attendees will hear from Lorren Walker of Elias Walker LLP, on the priorities taking place in Washington, D.C., as preparations begin for the 2023 Farm Bill. He will also discuss trade priorities within the Biden-Harris Administration and what we can expect from the new leadership in Congress following the midterm elections.

CFFA President Ian LeMay stated, “The Association leadership and staff is looking forward to the 87th Annual Meeting in La Jolla. We are excited to recognize Harold McClarty for his many contributions to the fresh fruit industry as well as to CFFA. Additionally, the Industry Workshops will each offer a vibrant discussion on the key issues the Association is focusing on behalf of the California fresh fruit industry.” Information regarding CFFA’s 87th Annual Meeting can be found here.

California Ag Today2023-02-15T12:05:50-08:00February 15th, 2023|

Water Board Grants Lamont District $25.4 Million to Secure Safe Drinking Water for 20,000 Residents

Project will consolidate systems of two severely disadvantaged communities

By Dimitri Stanich, California Water Boards

In Kern County today, the State Water Resources Control Board joined Lamont Public Utility District and elected representatives to celebrate a $25.4 million grant the utility is receiving from the board’s Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) drinking water program – which has to date invested over $65 million in the county since 2019. The grant announced today will allow the consolidation of the historically failing water systems serving Lamont and El Adobe Property Owners’ Association to create a new, upgraded system that will supply safe and affordable water to over 20,000 residents.

“This is the result of many years of hard work—coordinating separate authorities and overcoming many challenges to craft a feasible solution that will provide safe and affordable drinking water,” said Nichole Morgan, member of the State Water Board. “But through the sheer determination, cooperation and goodwill of all involved, Lamont PUD now has a sound plan and the means to build a drinking water system that will serve this community for generations to come.”

The project includes drilling three new drinking water wells, the destruction of three 45-year-old wells—that exceeded the state Maximum Contaminant Levels (MCL) for arsenic and 1,2,3-trichloropropane— and the construction of a new water distribution system for El Adobe, which currently has elevated levels of arsenic. El Adobe will be connected to Lamont PUD through the installation of a 10-inch transmission main and water meters.

“For us, this is monumental. We have never received assistance of this magnitude in our 80-year existence,” said Scott Taylor, general manager of Lamont PUD. “The grant helps us make critical repairs and upgrades to our system so that we can reliably provide safe and affordable drinking water for our customers and El Adobe as well. Both Lamont and El Adobe are severely disadvantaged communities and our customers are mostly agricultural workers. This never would have been possible without the board’s funding and technical support through the SAFER program.”

In Kern County, where Lamont is located, 14 other projects consolidating more than 50 systems, including two schools, are currently being developed through SAFER. Since it was launched in July 2019, the program has invested over $65 million in the county for a variety of drinking water projects that will ultimately benefit 212,000 people. Statewide, 95 consolidations have been completed, providing 78,000 people with safe drinking water.

SAFER uses a set of tools, funding sources and regulatory authorities designed to ensure Californians who currently lack safe and affordable drinking water receive it as quickly as possible. Funding provided through the program is drawn from various drinking water funding sources. The grant awarded for this project is comprised of funding for drinking water infrastructure authorized in the 2021-22 state budget and Proposition 68.

Lamont PUD anticipates it will begin construction this summer.

California Ag Today2023-02-13T15:28:56-08:00February 13th, 2023|

U.S. EPA Proposed Changes to Rodenticide Labels for Agricultural Use: Opportunity for Public Comment

By Roger A. Baldwin, Professor of Cooperative Extension, UC Davis and Niamh Quinn, Cooperative Extension Advisor, UC South Coast Research and Extension Center

Rodents cause substantial damage and health risks in agricultural productions systems through direct consumption of fruit, nuts, and vegetative material; damage to the plant (e.g., girdling of stems and trunks); by providing a food safety hazard from contamination; damage to irrigation infrastructure; damage to farm equipment; burrow systems posing a hazard to farm laborers; posing a health risk through potential disease transmission; and increased soil erosion by water channeling down burrow systems, among other potential damage outcomes. They also cause substantial damage and food contamination risks in livestock holding facilities, food processing facilities, barns, and other agricultural-related structures. As such, effective management is needed to minimize these risks. The use of rodenticides is often considered the most efficacious and cost-effective tool for managing rodent pests, and as such, it is often included in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs designed to mitigate rodent damage and health risks. Given the significance of rodenticides in managing rodent pests, it is important to know that the U.S. EPA has recently released a list of Proposed Interim Decisions (PIDs) for public comment that, if approved, will substantially alter if and how rodenticides may be used to manage rodent pests in the near future. As such, we felt it was important to inform California’s agricultural producers as to the extent of these proposed changes, and if you are so inclined, we have provided a link for you to provide public comment on the PIDs, as well as links to contact your Senate and Congressional representatives to ensure your opinion is heard.

All rodenticides are currently under review. These include first-generation anticoagulants (FGARs; chlorophacinone, diphacinone, and warfarin), second-generation anticoagulants (SGARs; brodifacoum, bromadiolone, difethialone, and difenacoum), zinc phosphide, strychnine, bromethalin, and cholecalciferol. Of these, only FGARs, zinc phosphide, and strychnine have labels for use against field rodents (e.g., ground squirrels, pocket gophers, voles, rats, and mice found in agricultural fields), but not all of these active ingredients can be used for all rodent species. As always, it is imperative to fully read a rodenticide’s label before determining if it is appropriate for use against a particular species and in a specific situation. That said, the following are some significant changes that have been proposed that you should be aware of. Other potential changes have been proposed as well, so please check out the PIDs for additional details (linked at the end of this document).

1. All rodenticides for field applications will become restricted-use products. This means that applicators will need to be certified to use restricted-use products in these settings. They will also have increased reporting requirements for their use.
2. Above ground applications would be eliminated in rangeland, pastureland, and fallow land. This is a substantial deviation, as many/most applications in these areas have traditionally been through broadcast applications or spot treatments. This change would leave only bait stations for ground squirrels and voles.
3. Within-burrow applications of FGARs will generally not be allowed in croplands during the growing season. This would eliminate FGAR application for pocket gophers for much of the year, and would eliminate it for all uses in some crops (e.g., citrus and alfalfa in certain areas of the state).
4. Carcass searches will be required every day or every two days (starting 3-4 days after the initial application), depending on the product used and where applied, for at least two weeks after the last application of the rodenticide. When carcasses are found, they must be disposed of properly. Any non-target mortalities must be reported to the U.S. EPA. Collectively, this will require a major increase in labor, potentially making rodenticide applications impractical in many settings.
5. Extensive endangered species designations are anticipated that will limit or eliminate the potential to apply rodenticides. This could have large-scale impacts, although the full extent is not known at this time.
6. New labels will require the use of a PF10 respirator and chemical resistant gloves during application. This is a substantial change for some rodenticide labels, requiring fit testing for all applicators, with the requirement of respirators ultimately making rodenticide application more physically challenging.

Additional details on these proposed changes can be found at the following websites:

1. Anticoagulant PID: https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OPP-2015-0778-0094
2. Zinc phosphide PID: https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OPP-2016-0140-0031
3. Strychnine PID: https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OPP-2015-0754-0025
4. Bromethalin and cholecalciferol PID: https://www.regulations.gov/document/EPA-HQ-OPP-2016-0077-0024

As mentioned previously, these proposed changes are likely to have a substantial impact on the use of rodenticides in agricultural settings. However, these changes are currently open for public comment. If you would like to comment on these proposed changes, the required links and useful guidance can be found at the following website: https://responsiblerodenticides.org/.

You may also comment on these proposed changes to your Senate and Congressional representatives. If you are unsure who they are or how to contact them, check out: https://www.congress.gov/contact-us.

The deadline for making comments to the U.S. EPA is unfortunately short, with a final deadline of February 13, 2023. Therefore, you will need to provide your comments in short order.

California Ag Today2023-02-09T11:05:06-08:00February 9th, 2023|

Floral Sales Soar as Valentine’s Day Nears

By Caleb Hampton, California Farm Bureau

Fresh cut flowers have seldom been so coveted.

A pandemic-related boom, driven by people beautifying their living spaces while stuck at home, has tapered slightly. But industry experts say a new-found emphasis on self care continues to boost demand, while the upcoming Valentine’s Day promises its usual bump in sales.

“It’s already busy,” Sherry Sanbo, owner of Golden State Floral, a wholesale florist in West Sacramento, said last week. “Right now, we’re trying to buy the product to fill our orders.” Inside her warehouse, clusters of flowers moved down conveyer belts as workers trimmed leaves, stacked boxes and stuffed bouquets.

Across the sector, Valentine’s Day typically trails only Mother’s Day in volume of flowers sold and is often the highest revenue event of the year. “We’re expecting a good, strong holiday,” said Steve Dionne, executive director of the California Association of Flower Growers and Shippers, or CalFlowers. “You can feel the rate of orders coming in now compared to prior years.”

Several factors point to a favorable Feb. 14 for flower producers. The day of the week the holiday falls on “has a huge impact on demand,” Dionne said. “If it’s a Saturday holiday, a lot of potential floral consumers may instead opt for dinner and a movie. This year, it lands on a Tuesday, which is one of those perfect days.” That alone, he said, can boost sales by 15%.

Strong demand is always good news for suppliers. However, various phenomena—from weather to inflation to geopolitics—have left many California growers with mounting challenges and shrinking profits.

“At the moment, things suck,” said Rene Van Wingerden, a Santa Barbara County flower farmer who has been in the business for nearly five decades. “Everything just costs more.”

The rising cost of fuel and farm labor have especially impacted growers. Michael Mellano, CEO of Mellano & Co., which farms 400 acres of flowers in San Diego County, said changes to California’s minimum wage and overtime laws increased his costs and “impacted our business significantly.”

In some sectors, rising retail prices have helped offset expenditures, but in many—including cut flowers—producers are seeing their margins whittled away. “Most input costs have gone up more than the price of flowers,” Dionne said. According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, wholesale prices for most types of cut flowers were roughly equal this week to the same time last year.

For years, the global nature of the flower market—about 80% of flowers sold in the U.S. are imported—has prevented domestic flower farmers from raising prices in response to local conditions.

At the height of the pandemic, supply chain disruptions and labor challenges caused a worldwide shortage in cut flowers, reducing imports. Now, production in South America has rebounded, and with the war in Ukraine blocking some trade with Europe and Russia, more of those flowers are coming to the U.S.

“Some of our domestic flower growers are being increasingly pressured by low-cost imported flowers that are being moved into the marketplace,” said Camron King, CEO and ambassador for Certified American Grown, a nonprofit trade association representing U.S. cut flower farmers.

“Because of the trade circumstances, countries like Ecuador and Colombia are looking for places to sell their product, and it’s easy to move it into the U.S. market at a low price point,” King said. In some cases, he added, domestic growers are losing clients as buyers opt to import more of their inventory.

For California flower farmers, the series of atmospheric river storms that slammed the state last month further complicated Valentine’s Day business.

“When you have dark weather for four or five weeks, it slows production down,” Van Wingerden said. “The plants are like solar panels. They only work when the sun is out.” The Santa Barbara County farmer said the storms decreased his Valentine’s Day output by about 30%.

“California flower production is definitely going to be much lower than normal for Valentine’s Day,” said Marty Espe, employee-owner at Flora Fresh Inc., a Sacramento-based wholesale florist that sources flowers from more than a hundred California flower farms. “The storm system that came through, and the cold weather after, has severely slowed field production.”

Northern California, the Central Coast and the Santa Barbara area appeared to have been impacted the most, Espe said. According to wholesalers, many of the state’s dahlias and Matsumoto asters were wiped out. Gerbera daisies, because they are delicate and not easily imported, “are one of our strong points,” Van Wingerden said, but those characteristics made the daisies especially vulnerable to the storms.

“A lot of the California crops got hit hard,” said Sanbo, the Golden State Floral owner. “Because it was so cold, the flowers are also too short for bouquets. They have to be at least 25 inches. Now, they’re coming in at 22 inches.” The state’s dianthuses have been especially stunted, Sanbo said.

The losses for California flower growers have left wholesalers scrambling to fill Valentine’s Day orders—and ultimately resorting to more imports. “Our goal is to buy local—to buy California product first,” Espe said. “But when we hit situations like this, we’ve switched gears and are obtaining as much product as we can out of South America.”

Sanbo said Golden State Floral is also substituting California flowers with imports from Ecuador and Colombia, sometimes at a loss, she added, as it is too late for wholesalers to change the prices they’ve agreed with supermarkets and retail florists.

“California produces flowers that go all over the country,” Espe said. “With the number being limited, every wholesaler across the country is chasing product right now to cover their orders.”

California Ag Today2023-02-08T09:21:29-08:00February 8th, 2023|

CDFA Now Accepting Research Grant Proposals for California Fruit Tree, Nut Tree, and Grapevine Improvement Advisory Board

By Steve Lyle, CDFA

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is now accepting applications for the California Fruit Tree, Nut Tree, and Grapevine Improvement Advisory Board (IAB) research grant proposals.

The IAB funds research to promote the production of fruit tree, nut tree, and grapevines resulting in improved nursery stock. The intended research should address important disease and pest problems or other cultural aspects of fruit tree, nut tree, and grapevine nursery stock production. Funding is made possible from industry assessments.

Projects funded through IAB commonly include elements such as research of diseases and genetic disorders, variety identification, education and outreach, alternative treatment methods, and rootstock advancements as it relates to the production of high-quality tree and grapevine nursery stock.

Applicants should review the research proposal solicitation materials posted on the IAB webpage at https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/pe/nsc/iab. The research grant proposals submission window opportunity will end by April 3, 2023 at 5 p.m.

California Ag Today2023-02-08T09:16:48-08:00February 8th, 2023|

Almond Board Announces Exceptional 2023 Almond Leadership Class

By Rick Kushman, Almond Board

The outstanding 14th class of professionals begins a year-long immersion to become the next great leaders of the California almond industry

The Almond Board of California (ABC) is proud to announce the Almond Leadership Program class of 2023, a group of 18 exceptional professionals expected to help lead the industry into the future.

This next generation of leaders was chosen from nearly 50 highly qualified applicants. They come from diverse backgrounds across the full range of the industry, and include growers and processors, sales and real estate representatives, consultants, pest control advisors and more.

The Almond Leadership Program (ALP) began in 2009 and has graduated more than 200 industry members. Dozens now serve on ABC workgroups, committees and even the Board of Directors.

“The industry is seeing the enormous benefits from more than a decade of the leadership program, and while we seem to say this every year, this 2023 class is simply outstanding,” said Rebecca Bailey, the ABC specialist who oversees ALP. “This program helps great people become great leaders. It’s clear that these talented, passionate people will continue to be great assets and advocates for our industry for years.”

Members of this 14th class – while still working at their jobs – will be immersed in every aspect of the industry, including ABC activities in global marketing, production, nutrition research, food safety and more. They’ll sharpen their communication skills and build lasting relationships with industry leaders, ABC staff and each other.

“I’m honored to be joining a group of industry leaders who will be taking both the almond industry and the agriculture community into the future,” said 2023 participant Diane Power, a sixth generation California farmer and sales associate in Modesto with Pearson Realty. “I look forward to all the experiences and opportunities we will have to learn about the almond industry, and to the many relationships we will form through this year.”

Class members will be guided by volunteer mentors – many of them ALP graduates – who will help them develop the skills, knowledge and perspective to improve their industry and their communities.

“We all play unique roles in the almond industry,” said 2023 class member Megan Chicoine, the general manager of U.S. operational support for Manulife Investment Management in Redding. “As young emerging leaders, we have the ability to make significant impacts by actively participating in our industry.”

The leadership program will also offer class members thorough looks at the impacts on the industry of social, economic and environmental issues and the regulatory climate. In addition, participants will take on a yearlong, self-directed project focused on improving the California almond industry. Some past projects have led to important breakthroughs for the industry.

Leadership class members kicked off their training with a two-day orientation a week ago at the ABC offices in Modesto, which included one-on-one talks with their mentors.

“The one thing everyone has in common is they love agriculture,” said mentor Chandler Wilson, a technical sales rep for NutriAg USA. “We all want to be better. The mentors believe in the program and many have been through it. We’re eager to give back to the industry and these new leaders. We’ll share our experiences in and out of ALP, and together, we’ll all learn and grow as individuals and professionals through the whole process.”

Once again, class members will raise money for California FFA, pledging to raise more than $25,000 in scholarships for high school students interested in pursuing agriculture in college. Through the years, ALP has raised more than $225,000 for FFA.

The 2023 Almond Leadership class members are Alana Ambrosino, Ripon Manufacturing Company, Inc.; James Broaddus, BASF Agricultural Solutions; Destiny Camden, BeeHero Inc; Chris Chavez, ofi; Megan Chicoine, Manulife Investment Management; Lincoln Denlinger, Salida Ag; Lauren Dutra, Ceres Imaging; Brian Ganyo, Bayer Crop Science; Robert Gray, Burchell Nursery; Darryl Hadlich, WiseConn Engineering; Thomas Martin, TRÉCÉ Inc.; Erick Mendonca, Miller Chemical; Chris Miller, Blue Diamond Growers; Vance Millwee, Treehouse California Almonds, LLC; Mitchell Moreda, RPAC LLC; Diane Power, Pearson Realty; Matthew Reamer, South Valley Farms; and Tylor Wilbourn, BeeHero Inc.

Bayer Crop Science has sponsored ALP for a number of years and is the sponsor of the 2023 class.

California Ag Today2023-02-08T09:10:03-08:00February 8th, 2023|

New UCCE Advisors Bring Fresh Ideas to Protect Lettuce From INSV, Pythium Wilt

By Mike Hsu, UCANR

Salinas Valley lettuce growers lost about $150 million in 2022 due to diseases

A stormy winter could portend another devastating year for the lettuce industry in the Salinas Valley, which saw approximately $150 million in lost gross revenue in 2022 due to INSV (impatiens necrotic spot virus) and associated diseases. Recent drenching rains might mean more weeds – overwintering “reservoirs” for the tiny insect, the Western flower thrips, that carries INSV.

Or the extreme precipitation could benefit growers, as thrips in the soil – during their intermediate stage of development – might be drowned in the waterlogged fields.

As with so many aspects of the INSV crisis, the ultimate effects of flooded fields on thrips populations remain unknown.

“We don’t know if thrips are just so persistent and so stable in that pupal stage that maybe they will emerge unaffected,” said Kirsten Pearsons, University of California Cooperative Extension integrated pest management farm advisor for Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties. “There’s just so much about their biology and ecology in the Salinas Valley that we just don’t know.”

The mystery of thrips, INSV and soilborne diseases (namely Pythium wilt) is why UC Agriculture and Natural Resources assigned Pearsons to the area last November and hired Yu-Chen Wang in October as UCCE plant pathology advisor for the three counties.

“They’re stepping in at a critical moment,” said Richard Smith, the region’s UCCE vegetable crop production and weed science advisor who retired in January after a 37-year career. “They’ve gotten grants funded already – and that’s just incredible. They’re hitting the ground running.”

Experienced in disease diagnosis and collaboration with growers and industry partners, Wang said her pathology background – paired with Pearsons’ entomology expertise – will be crucial in addressing INSV and other diseases.

“It is important for Kirsten and me to work together and provide different insights for the vector and the pathogen, respectively,” Wang said.

‘It’s going to take everything to get a crop’

One priority is untangling the dynamics of INSV and Pythium wilt co-occurrence – the subject of ongoing research by JP Dundore-Arias, a plant pathologist at California State University, Monterey Bay. While the vegetables may tolerate one disease or the other, their one-two punch often deals the lethal blow.

“The challenge is – which is why it’s great to have Yu-Chen and Kirsten – is that we have so many problems now, whether it’s Fusarium (wilt), or Verticillium (wilt), or Pythium, or INSV,” said Mark Mason, pest control adviser for Nature’s Reward, which primarily grows lettuces on 5,000 acres across the Salinas Valley.

Mason said that co-infections on his crops (sometimes with three or four diagnosed diseases) make it difficult to assign monetary damages to a specific pathogen, but he noted he has seen fields with “100% loss.” According to the Grower-Shipper Association of Central California, about 11,500 acres were deemed not harvestable in 2022, representing 12% of lettuce industry acreage.

Given the gravity and complexity of the disease dilemma, Pearsons said she has been fielding calls from growers seeking new and better solutions – ways to improve existing tools, techniques borrowed from other crop systems, and additional biological or chemical means of control.

And although there are a couple of pesticides that manage the disease-carrying thrips reasonably well, growers and researchers are worried about their diminishing efficacy due to overuse. Plus, they only constitute a short-term fix.

“Managing the thrips will only reduce the amount of INSV that can get transmitted,” Pearsons explained. “You can kill 99.9% of the thrips, but you get one thrips that has INSV that enters a field, and now you have an infected lettuce plant. All of the thrips are going to come and they can spread it from there; pesticide slows things down, but it’s not going to eliminate it.”

Finding disease-tolerant lettuce cultivars is a more sustainable approach. Trials conducted last year by Smith, Wang and others identified several varieties that appeared to hold up well to Pythium and INSV. While additional research could maximize their potential benefit, Wang said even the hardier cultivars will lose their resistance over time, and a multi-layered INSV strategy with “integrated management tools” is crucial.

“We realized, when this thing started happening, that we cannot spray our way out of this problem,” Mason said. “We need varieties; we need management practices; we need pesticides…it just seems like it’s going to take everything to get a crop.”

Weeds key to disease control

An all-hands-on-deck approach helped control thrips-harboring weeds last winter. With fields drying out from January storms, Smith said communities must get back to weed management – with a focus on prominent weed hosts for INSV and neglected areas adjacent to farms. Hotspots of infection last year were traced to industrial lots that were overlooked during the weeding process.

“People can’t lose sight of the fact that we still need to be controlling the weeds in key areas, because that’s the reservoir of the virus during the winter,” Smith said. “We have to stay on task with that.”

Yet despite the diligent weed abatement, crop damage from INSV and Pythium was widespread in 2022, and Smith said it’s “very possible” that high heat during the summer was a contributing factor to especially prevalent disease in fall. Thrips populations tend to thrive in warmer weather, Smith said, but much more research needs to be done to understand the basic biology of the insect, including how they acquire the virus and how they spread it.

High hopes for future

Pearsons cited the work of Daniel Hasegawa, a research entomologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, who leads teams in monitoring thrips populations in several locations across the Salinas Valley. Currently the counting of thrips on sticky card traps is done manually, but Pearsons and Mason mentioned the possibility of using AI and machine learning to expedite that process.

Mason said that the grower community is excited about the new technologies and ideas that Pearsons and Wang are bringing to the region. As a participant in the search for candidates to fill the advisor positions, Mason said “they were, in my opinion, by far the best fit for what we were looking for.”

“I hope they stay here for 30 years,” he added.

The new advisors both noted the palpable energy and cooperative spirit in the Salinas Valley to proactively meet the challenge.

“Looking to the past, there have been other outbreaks and diseases that they’ve managed to overcome,” Pearsons said. “These farmers are resilient and creative and I fully believe that lettuce will still be growing here for years to come – it might look a little different, and it might take a little bit of a painful period to get to that point, but I think that we’re going to be able to come up with some solutions.”

And while there are concerns that some lettuce growers might decide to leave the region, Wang said she also believes in the industry’s strong roots and rich history.

“Salinas Valley has had a beautiful climate for lettuce for so many years; there are some undeniable advantages here,” she said. “This is still the best place in the United States – and maybe the world – to grow lettuce.”

California Ag Today2023-02-03T16:01:34-08:00February 3rd, 2023|

Caltrans Seeks Rural, Tribal Volunteers for Latest ‘Road Charge’ Study

Source: Caltrans

Participants can earn up to $250 for 7-month pilot

The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is recruiting volunteers who reside and travel in rural and tribal communities to participate in the latest testing phase of a “road charge” pilot. Up to 500 volunteers will participate in a seven-month simulated road charge system, which charges drivers based on the number of miles they travel rather than the amount of gas they use to support the state’s critical transportation infrastructure. There will be no cost to participate, and upon completion, volunteers will be eligible to receive an incentive of up to $250.

“Rural and tribal communities have unique travel needs and may interact with a road charge system in different ways,” said Caltrans Director Tony Tavares. “It is essential that Caltrans understands their needs as it develops an equitable and convenient alternative to the gas tax.”

Starting in March 2023, the California Road Charge Public-Private Roads Project will explore the technical aspects of reporting mileage, as well as engage rural and tribal communities in a conversation about their communities’ priorities in a potential road charge system to fund road and highway maintenance.

This pilot will simulate how participants interact with a road charge system by reporting mileage and “paying” mock invoices. The pilot will conduct surveys to gauge participants’ preferences and experience.

As vehicles become more fuel-efficient and the state’s transition to zero-emission vehicles accelerates, Caltrans is researching possible alternatives to the state gas tax, which California has historically relied on to build and maintain the state’s transportation system. Volatile oil prices and California’s phasing out the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035 add increased urgency to research ways to bring long-term stability to transportation funding. For that reason, Caltrans is testing various methods to collect per-mile rather than per-gallon fees.

This demonstration is funded through a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Surface Transportation System Funding Alternatives Program and will build on Caltrans’ previous road charge pilots: California’s Road Charge Pilot in 2017, which introduced the road charge concept to Californians, and California’s Four-Phase

Demonstration, which tested the road charge concept across several platforms including pay-at-the-pump and electric vehicle charging station systems, usage-based insurance, transportation network company fleets, and automated vehicles.

Volunteers interested in participating in the pilot – and the incentive of up to $250 – may visit http://www.caroadcharge.com/projects/public-private-roads-project/ and complete the participant recruitment survey. Participants must be California residents over the age of 18. The pilot is employing the highest standards in data protection and safeguarding, ensuring that Caltrans will not receive any sensitive information from participants.

To learn more about the California Road Charge Project and the Road Charge Program, please visit www.caroadcharge.com.

California Ag Today2023-02-03T09:22:56-08:00February 3rd, 2023|

UC ANR Expands Expertise for Climate Change, Economic Development With New Hires

By Pam Kan-Rice and Mike Hsu, UCANR

University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources continued bringing scientists and their practical knowledge to counties across the state throughout the fall and winter. With increased funding from Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state Legislature, UC ANR recently hired UC Cooperative Extension advisors, specialists and academic coordinators who bring expertise in drought, wildfire, food systems, urban and small-scale farms, livestock, 4-H youth development, pest management, wildlife, nutrition and environmental horticulture.

In addition to providing research and extension in traditional subjects, the new hires include scientists who will address water justice policy, climate-smart agriculture, food safety, organic crop production, waste management and economic development for urban and rural communities.

UC Cooperative Extension advisors work directly with community members to apply research-based information to improve the lives and livelihoods of Californians.

To see a list of UC Cooperative Extension advisors who have joined in the past few months, visit https://ucanr.edu/About/DirectorySearch/Recent_Hires. The most recently hired advisors are introduced below.

Audoin joins Central Sierra as UCCE livestock advisor

Flavie Audoin (pronounced Flah-vee Oh-dwan) joined UCCE Central Sierra on Jan. 17 as a livestock and natural resources area advisor serving Calaveras, Amador, El Dorado and Tuolumne counties.

For the last six years, Audoin has been studying the seasonal grazing behavior, diet selection, and meat characteristics of range-fed Raramuri Criollo cattle in southeastern Arizona. Audoin worked directly with Deb and Dennis Moroney, who introduced Criollo cattle in southeastern Arizona about 10 years ago. This experience in the United States provided Audoin with knowledge and skills in rangelands, livestock production (cattle and sheep), direct marketing and science communication. In addition to working on her research, she has also been able to improve her skills as a ranch hand – branding, gathering cattle horseback in rough country, using low-stress livestock handling methods, sheep shearing, fixing fences and water lines, and marketing meat directly to consumers.

Before starting her Ph.D., Audoin was an advisor to beef producers in France and worked for nine years at France’s leading brand of packaged meats and meat products while studying.

Born and raised in France, Audoin earned a bachelor’s degree in life sciences at Notre Dame de Bonnes Nouvelles, Beaupréau, and technical degree in agronomy with a major in crop and animal production at IUT Angers-Cholet, Angers, then completed an engineering degree in agronomy (equivalent to a masters’ degree in the U.S.) with a major in breeding and systems of production at VetAgro Sup, Clermont-Ferrand. She completed a Ph.D. in natural resources from the University of Arizona, where her research focused on ecology, management and restoration of rangelands, with a minor in animal science. She also received a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of Arizona.

Audoin is based in Calaveras and can be reached at faudoin@ucanr.edu and (209) 454-8472.

Ikendi named academic coordinator for climate-smart agriculture

Samuel Ikendi joined UC ANR on Dec. 12 as an academic coordinator for climate-smart agriculture.

As an academic coordinator, Ikendi will work with farmers and ranchers, state and federal agencies, campus-based academics and Cooperative Extension academics across the state to implement climate-smart agriculture education through workshops and training. He will develop outreach materials such as curricula and fact sheets.

Before joining UC ANR, Ikendi worked at Iowa State University as a postdoctoral research associate on a project to establish core concepts to improve graduate plant-breeding education, curriculum development, and monitoring. He also worked for the Center for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods and Iowa State University’s Uganda Program in Uganda, where he developed performance tracking indicators, conducted the annual evaluation, and developed privacy data protection documents. As an intern with ISU Extension and Outreach, he assisted the county outreach coordinators with delivering research-based educational programming to promote positive youth development.

Ikendi earned a Ph.D. in agricultural extension education and dual master’s degrees in community and regional planning and sustainable agriculture from Iowa State University. He earned a bachelor’s degree in agribusiness management from Makerere University, Kampala in Uganda.

Ikendi is based at UC Merced and can be reached at sikendi@ucanr.edu.

Reidy named statewide postfire academic coordinator

Katie Reidy joined UC ANR on Dec. 5 as the statewide postfire academic coordinator. She will be overseeing a postfire forest resilience education program for private forest landowners. Reidy will coordinate weekly educational workshops held on Zoom with lessons catered to specific ecosystems, and collaboration with local agencies to promote post-fire education. The goal is to help fire-affected communities begin the process of reversing the ecological, economic and environmental impacts of fire.

Reidy grew up in Chicago and received an undergraduate degree from University of North Carolina, Asheville. In 2016, she became an environmental educator at Yosemite National Park. In 2020, she moved to Plumas County and worked for the Feather River Resource Conservation District and began to understand the complexities of natural resource management and the implications of fire on the local landscapes. This compelled her to earn a master’s degree in environmental studies with a certificate in science communications and environmental education at the University of Idaho.

After personal experience with catastrophic fire, she is eager and ready to connect and assist communities as the postfire academic coordinator, to combine her passion for ecology and forestry management with outreach and education.

Reidy is based at the UCCE Central Sierra office in Placerville and can be reached at kkreidy@ucanr.edu.

Hartmann named UCCE community health and nutrition advisor

Janessa Hartmann joined UC ANR on Nov. 1 as the UCCE community health and nutrition advisor for Shasta, Trinity and Tehama counties to promote education and advance policy, systems and environmental changes that benefit local communities.

Having lived and worked in Shasta County for over a decade, Hartmann is committed to improving the region’s health and wellness. She will be developing an integrated and equitable health and nutrition program, applying the latest research and data to address needs identified by the community – especially those of vulnerable populations such as older foster youth.

In addition to focusing on positive youth development, Hartmann also aims to improve food security by expanding access to affordable and healthy food.

“I hope to support community partners in health and nutrition across our region, and amplify existing effective programs,” she said. “I also look forward to working alongside the awesome CalFresh Healthy Living, University of California nutrition education program.”

Although Hartmann began her career in the environmental remediation field, she later worked on food sovereignty and security issues in central Mexico as a Peace Corps volunteer. In 2016, she became the CalFresh Healthy Living, UC program supervisor for Shasta, Trinity and Tehama counties. Subsequently, Hartmann joined Shasta County Public Health, where, during the height of the pandemic, she served as director of the COVID-19 Child Care, School and Higher Education Unit.

Hartmann earned her B.S. in environmental science from Georgia College and State University, an M.S. in environmental science and engineering from Colorado School of Mines and another M.S. in nutritional science from California State University, Chico.

Based at the UCCE Shasta County office in Redding, Hartmann can be reached at jlhartmann@ucanr.edu.

Jha joins UC ANR to address climate adaption

Prakash Kumar Jha joined UC ANR as an assistant project scientist on Nov. 1 and is responsible for developing decision support tools that help growers understand and minimize climate risks, specifically CalAgroClimate.

Prior to coming to California, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow for over five years in Italy, Spain and Colombia. Jha is eager to understand what California’s climate will look like in the next five to 10 years. Currently, he is working with climate prediction systems to determine future weather conditions, which growers can use to prepare for situations like low versus high chill hours, shortage of irrigation water and high temperature stress in plants.

Jha recognizes that areas currently used for agriculture might not be suitable for some crops a couple of years from now. For example, Jha is identifying which geographical areas growers should invest in while considering factors such as regulations limiting water use. His work will help growers consider the long-term implications of the decisions they make today.

Before earning a Ph.D. in science management of climate change from the University of Venice Ca’ Foscari, Italy, he completed two master’s degrees – one in climate change adaptation from the University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia, and another in sociology from Tribhuvan University in Nepal.

Originally from Nepal, Jha is excited about the diversity of crops the California offers. “I’m looking forward to expanding my knowledge, especially in tomatoes, cottons, almonds and pistachios,” he said.

Jha is based at the UC Merced-Sierra Nevada Research Institute and can be reached at prajha@ucanr.edu.

Khodadadi named UCCE plant pathology specialist

Fatemeh Khodadadi joined UC Riverside in October as an assistant professor of extension in the Department of Plant Pathology. She brings expertise in fungal and bacterial diseases of fruit and nut trees and an increasing interest in subtropical plant diseases caused by a variety of plant pathogens.

Khodadadi’s research focuses on plant pathogens and disease management strategies for subtropical trees, especially citrus and avocado. She studies identification, characterization and development of molecular methods to detect fungal, bacterial and viral diseases affecting citrus and avocado, including but not limited to avocado branch canker and dieback caused by Botryosphaeria species, phytophthora root rot, sweet orange scab caused by Elsinöe australis, avocado sunblotch viroid and other problematic pathogens on citrus and avocado in California. She also studies the citrus and avocado defense responses to pathogens and the efficacy of fungicides and bactericides.

Before joining UC Cooperative Extension, she held postdoctoral fellowships at Cornell University and Virginia Tech conducting research in bacteriology, mycology, genomics, plant pathology and plant disease management focusing on Colletotrichum species (bitter rot of apple), Erwinia amylovora (fire blight), and Diplocarpon coronaria (apple leaf and fruit blotch).

She identified, described and characterized for the first time a new Colletotrichum species that causes apple bitter rot and belongs to the C. gloeosporioides species complex. Her team named it C. noveboracense.

Khodadadi earned her M.S. and Ph.D. at Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Iran. For her M.S., she studied aflatoxin-producing fungi contaminating pistachio. In her Ph.D. research, partly conducted at UC Davis, she studied the interaction between walnut and bacterial blight disease caused by Xanthomonas arboricola pv. juglandis (Xaj).

Khodadadi is based in the UC Riverside Department of Microbiology & Plant Pathology and can be reached at fatemeh.khodadadi@ucr.edu. She will be posting about her research at https://subtropicalplantpathology.com/category/blog-posts/.

Dompka to help spark economy in Del Norte, Humboldt and Trinity counties

Alec Dompka began with UC ANR on Oct. 20 as a rural communities economic development advisor. He will serve as technical support for economic development projects in Del Norte, Humboldt and Trinity counties.

Dompka said he aims to help local communities by working with government entities and private businesses to coordinate and facilitate beneficial projects.

“In this position, I hope to engage with people in the counties to tie them more closely with planning their economic development,” Dompka said. “I hope to show that economic development in rural communities can be locally led and directed, inclusive and effective.”

By applying technical knowledge and science-based expertise to these projects, Dompka said he also hopes to “generate research that pushes forward our understanding of what economic development looks like for rural communities.”

Born and raised in Raleigh, North Carolina, Dompka earned a bachelor’s degree from North Carolina State, double-majoring in political science and economics. He also holds an M.A. in agricultural and natural resources economics from NC State.

Dompka is based at the Del Norte County UC Cooperative Extension office in Crescent City and can be reached at (707) 464-4711 or addompka@ucanr.edu. Follow him on Twitter @Alec_rural_dev.

Pearsons named IPM advisor for Monterey County

Kirsten Pearsons began working as a UC Cooperative Extension integrated pest management entomology advisor for Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties on Nov. 7. This is a new role for Pearsons, who joined UC ANR in March as a small farms advisor in San Luis Obispo County.

Pearsons focuses on insect-related concerns on the Central Coast, such as impatiens necrotic spot virus (INSV), a disease transmitted to lettuce by thrips, and identifying possible solutions. In collaboration with USDA scientists and her UC colleagues, Pearsons is researching the biology and ecology of the thrips populations that vector INSV to identify existing tools and new strategies that can help growers manage thrips and INSV.

Though her research focuses on lettuce and cole crops, Pearsons also supports berry growers and other specialty crop producers in the region with large-scale producers and agricultural pest control advisers as current clients.

Pearsons earned a bachelor’s in environmental toxicology from UC Davis and a Ph.D. in entomology from Pennsylvania State University, studying how pest management strategies adopted in field crop systems affect non-target soil invertebrates.

During her undergraduate studies at UC Davis, Pearsons was curious to know what alternatives existed for broad-spectrum pesticides.

“Funny enough, I took my first entomology class just to get a basic idea of insect biology, because a lot of what I was learning in my toxicology courses had to do with insecticides,” she said. “The staff and the other students in the entomology department were so awesome that it didn’t take much for me to completely fall for the subject.”

Prior to UC ANR, Pearsons worked for the Rodale Institute, an organic research institute in Pennsylvania.

Pearsons is based out of the UCCE Monterey Bay County office and can be reached at kapearsons@ucanr.edu.

Nguyen named UCCE food safety and organic production advisor

Cuong “Jimmy” Nguyen joined UC Cooperative Extension on Nov. 1 as an assistant food safety and organic production area advisor for Imperial and Riverside counties.

“Organic produce has a shorter shelf life and is more susceptible to outbreaks, recalls and foodborne illness due to the lack of chemical sanitizers and fungicides,” Nguyen said. “Therefore, my future research agenda will continue the focus on improving the quality and safety of organic produce commodities by developing alternatives to chemical fumigations/fungicides, as well as organic pest management without the use of chemical sanitizer or pesticide.”

While earning his Ph.D. in food science at UC Davis, Nguyen developed two novel sanitizing platforms for surface decontamination and liquid systems disinfection. The two systems involve the newly discovered synergistic disinfection effect between natural antimicrobials and UV-A light treatment or ultrasound treatment.

“I am also interested in rapid detection methods using bacteriophage targeting foodborne microbes, and microscopic detection of bacterial microcolonies for early screening and prevention of foodborne outbreaks,” he said.

Nguyen earned a master’s degree at Tokyo University of Agriculture in Japan, where he studied sensory and food safety quality of meat, and a bachelor’s degree in agriculture at Nong Lam University in Vietnam, where he studied postharvest technologies for food and vegetable commodities. He is fluent in English, Japanese and Vietnamese.

Nguyen is based in Holtville and can be reached at (442) 265-7700 and
cgnguyen@ucanr.edu.

Wang named UCCE plant pathology advisor

Yu-Chen Wang joined UC Cooperative Extension Oct. 3 as a plant pathology advisor for Santa Cruz, Monterey and San Benito counties.

“Vegetable and berry are the major crops I work on currently,” said Wang, who will be working with a wide range of crops and different cropping systems on the Central Coast. “So far, I have been contacted by a wide range of growers – including (those who grow) lettuce, broccoli, pepper, celery, bean, apple, strawberry and blackberry – about their disease problems. I am passionate about providing insight to help the community on their disease problems.”

“The lettuce industry here is suffering from impatiens necrotic spot virus (INSV) vectored by Western flower thrip along with soilborne diseases,” she said. Lettuce growers in the Salinas Valley lost an estimated $50 million to $100 million last year and a lettuce supply shortage occurred. Working alongside fellow advisors, UC specialists and industry partners, Wang will be seeking long-term solutions for the industry.

Prior to becoming a UCCE advisor, Wang worked at AVRDC-World Vegetable Center, for a vegetable seed company, and at UC Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center on research and development.

Wang, a native of Taipei, Taiwan, earned her B.S. and M.S. in horticultural and crop science at National Taiwan University. She earned a second M.S. in plant protection from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo.

“The idea of farmers feeding the world and awareness of crop loss by pests motivated me to pursue a career in agriculture and plant protection,” she said. “During my M.S. at Cal Poly, I worked closely with the California strawberry growers on industry-oriented research. I look forward to extending my study to vegetable and berry crops and serving the farming community.”

Wang is based in Watsonville and can be reached at yckwang@ucanr.edu and (831) 201-9689.

Hooper named UCCE urban community resiliency advisor

Ashley Hooper joined UC ANR on Sept. 1 as the UC Cooperative Extension urban community resiliency advisor in Los Angeles County, a brand-new position. In her role, Hooper is tasked with working with communities who have historically been disadvantaged due to inequitable systems and/or policies.

In collaboration with the community, Hooper will lead efforts focused on building resilience and adaptive capacity. This could look like increasing the community’s access to capital, green space, transportation, nutritious food or education.

She already has leveraged data, collected by different organizations, to conduct a content analysis of needs assessments across dimensions of community resilience, such as access to parks and healthcare. Then, as next steps, she will prioritize interviews and field observations.

During her master’s program, Hooper worked as a research assistant for the Bureau of Business and Economic Research, where she led interviews with community members facing or trying to counter various inequities like limited access to broadband, housing and health care. For her Ph.D. dissertation, she focused on identifying barriers to and opportunities for resilient food systems in Los Angeles County.

After attending the California Economic Summit in October, Hooper shared her excitement for the prospect of using the arts in building community resilience.

“I went to a creative-economy working group session, and I was reminded of how much the arts and cultural community has to offer in the process of building adaptive capacity in communities,” she said.

Hooper earned a Ph.D. in urban and environmental planning and policy from UC Irvine. She earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and a master’s degree in water resources with a concentration in policy and management from the University of New Mexico.

Hooper is based out of the UCCE office in Los Angeles County and can be reached at asmhoope@ucanr.edu.

Solins joins UC ANR as new environmental horticulture advisor

Joanna Solins joined UC ANR on Oct. 3 as a UC Cooperative Extension environmental horticulture advisor for Sacramento, Solano and Yolo counties.

Solins will focus on research and outreach related to urban plants, landscaping and climate change, while building relationships with county and municipal governments, nonprofits, landscape and tree care professionals, nursery growers and utilities, among others. She also will support the UC Master Gardener coordinators in her assigned counties, collaborating to extend knowledge and resources to community members.

“My core goals are to improve the climate suitability and ecological performance of urban landscaping and promote the equitable distribution of benefits from urban plants,” Solins said.

After attaining a bachelor’s degree in environmental studies at Vassar College, Solins began her career leading outreach education programs for the New England Aquarium and writing for educational publishers. She also worked in communications at the Coral Reef Alliance in San Francisco before starting graduate school at UC Davis, which culminated in a master’s in geography and Ph.D. in ecology.

Solins’ research at UC Davis combined field studies and geographic information system analysis to investigate plant communities, tree canopy and soils along urban creeks in the Sacramento area. She also carried out postdoctoral research on green stormwater infrastructure, urban forest composition, and the water demand of urban vegetation across California, and contributed to projects examining residential landscaping and urban heat in Sacramento.

Solins is based in Sacramento and can be reached at jsolins@ucanr.edu or (916) 875-2409.

Mar named UCCE organic materials management advisor

Stephanie Mar joined UC Cooperative Extension on Oct. 3 as the assistant organic materials management advisor serving Los Angeles, Orange and San Diego counties. Mar is responsible for investigating ways to divert organic wastes from landfills to alternative end markets, such as circular food economies, composting and wastewater reclamation.

“To me, waste doesn’t have an end life, just a next life,” said Mar. “A lot of people don’t know what happens to their waste after the garbage truck comes or they flush a toilet, so a part of my job is to understand what we are wasting and what happens to it.”

Mar attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she earned a master’s degree in public health focused on environmental science and engineering, and a master’s degree in city and regional planning focused on land use and environmental planning. She also has a bachelor’s degree in public health from UC Berkeley.

Much of Mar’s professional experience, like her time working for the City of Berkeley, is centered on community outreach and policy development, two strengths that she believes will serve her well in this new role.

Previously, Mar worked as a public health analyst for UC San Francisco and as a social research analyst with the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services too. Both of which strengthened her understanding of policy and program development, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

“Research gives us a lot of information, but then there’s a need for translation from what we know to what it actually means,” she said. “There are a lot of people doing different things [to manage their waste], so there’s a need for coordination and dispersal of information.”

Mar’s background in policy development is something she’ll rely on to operationalize the research being done by herself and her colleagues.

Behavioral change is one of Mar’s anticipated challenges in this role. Even if research and policy efforts yield successful results, encouraging the community to adapt can be an uphill battle.

“Sorting trash, for example, is more of a mental burden than a physical one,” she explained. “We know what the research says and what we need to do, it’s just about developing the market to make it happen.”

Mar is based out of Irvine at the South Coast Research and Extension Center and can be reached at samar@ucanr.edu.

Dobbin named UCCE water justice policy and planning specialist

Kristin Dobbin has joined UC ANR and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley as a UC Cooperative Extension specialist focused on water justice policy and planning.

Originally from Utah, Dobbin comes to Rausser College from UC Los Angeles’ Luskin Center for Innovation, where she was a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow. Dobbin pairs her love for rural communities, community natural resource management and environmental justice organizing with a strong belief that research can and should play an important role in advancing policy. She hopes to leverage her new position, the first of its kind for UC, to uplift community water managers and impacted residents as leaders and experts in conversations surrounding water management and access.

“It’s a dream and a responsibility to be assuming a role that so perfectly weds research and impact,” Dobbin tweeted about her new UC Cooperative Extension water justice policy and planning specialist role.

Dobbin earned her Ph.D. in ecology with an emphasis in environmental policy and human ecology from UC Davis and B.A. in environmental analysis from Pitzer College in Claremont. Prior to graduate school, she worked for the Community Water Center – a grassroots environmental justice organization that advances community-driven solutions for water justice in the Central Valley.

Dobbin is based at UC Berkeley and can be reached at kbdobbin@berkeley.edu and on Twitter @kbdobbin.

Shive named UCCE forest and fuels management specialist

Kristen Shive has joined UC ANR and the Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at UC Berkeley as a UC Cooperative Extension specialist focused on forest and fuels management.

Bringing more than 20 years of experience in conservation, forest and fire management, and ecology, her work broadly focuses on restoring fire to fire-adapted ecosystems, prioritizing areas for restoration, and understanding shifting fire regimes. Prior to joining UC ANR, Shive led the forest program science team for The Nature Conservancy’s California Chapter and was the director of science for Save the Redwoods League. She also has worked for the National Park Service in Alaska, California, and Wyoming, most recently as the fire ecologist for Yosemite National Park.

She earned her master’s degree in forestry from Northern Arizona University and a Ph.D. in ecosystem science from UC Berkeley.

Shive is based at UC Berkeley and can be reached at kshive@berkeley.edu and (630) 917-5170 and on Twitter @klshive.

Rodriguez joins 4-H as advisor in Northern California

Matt Rodriguez joined UC Cooperative Extension on Sept. 5 as a 4-H youth development advisor for Nevada, Placer, Sutter and Yuba counties. As a 4-H advisor, Rodriguez implements extension education and applied research programs grounded in positive youth development theory. He also provides expertise to enhance volunteer engagement in 4-H youth development programs.

Rodriguez earned his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland’s School of Public Health in the Department of Family Science. His dissertation, “Influence of Latinx Fathers’ Behaviors, Cognitions, Affect, and Family Congruence on Youth Energy Balance-Related Health Outcomes,” investigated Latinx father involvement in the context of youth energy balance-related behaviors. During his doctoral training, Rodriguez also supported several USDA-funded research initiatives involving Latinx fathers and youth. His recent publication, “Predictors Associated with Fathers’ Successful Completion of the FOCUS Program,” investigated a sample of fathers in Texas who participated in a child welfare parenting intervention.

Rodriguez currently co-chairs the Men in Families focus group at the National Council on Family Relations. He was also recently elected as Section Counselor for the American Public Health Association’s Health Informatics Information Technology section.

Prior to his doctoral studies, Rodriguez was a professional web developer for several large nonprofits in the Midwest. Growing up in a multicultural family with ancestry deriving from Puerto Rico, Japan, Nigeria and England, he embraces the importance of cultural diversity and competency in his family science research.

Rodriguez is based in Auburn and can be reached at (530) 889-7391 and mrro@ucanr.edu and on social media @MattR_Rodriguez.

California Ag Today2023-02-03T09:11:33-08:00February 3rd, 2023|

CDFA Accepting Public Comments on the Draft Request for Applications for the New Water Efficiency Technical Assistance Program

By Steve Lyle, California Department of Food and Agriculture

The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s (CDFA) Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation (OEFI) is accepting public comments on the draft request for Applications for the Water Efficiency Technical Assistance (WETA) program.

The Budget Act of 2021 allocated $15 million to CDFA to support water efficiency technical assistance to California farmers. Resource Conservation Districts, non-profit organizations, universities, and California and federally recognized tribes will be eligible to receive technical assistance funding. Supported activities will include providing one-on-one, on-site pump and irrigation system evaluations and providing training regarding water efficiency and nutrient management.

“Although we’ve just come through a period of storms and rain, we know that overall California is still in a water deficit from the drought we’ve been experiencing for the last few years,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “CDFA is excited to offer resources for farmers and ranchers to continue to improve water efficiency for a future that will be hotter and drier with increased evapotranspiration.”

Stakeholders are encouraged to review the Draft Request for Applications for the Water Efficiency Technical Assistance Program and estimated program timeline on the Technical Assistance website and submit comments by February 9, 2023, 5 PM PT to cdfa.oefi@cdfa.ca.gov.

California Ag Today2023-02-01T14:45:25-08:00February 1st, 2023|

Previous 234 Next