Publicity Archives - Page 13 of 16 - California Agriculture News Today

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross Celebrates Banned Books Week

According to the American Library Association, more than 11,300 books have been “challenged” by schools, bookstores and libraries. Banned Books Week was created to celebrate the freedom to read, and celebrates open access to information.

To draw attention to the harms of censorship and celebrate the importance of free speech, the California State Library is hosting an online video “Read-Out” during Banned Book Week, September 21-27.

Many books that have been removed from library shelves and classrooms over the years are now considered classics of modern literature and taught in schools throughout the country.

John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath is included in that list, and is the same book from which CDFA Secretary Karen Ross was invited to read. In 1939, it was banned due to its harsh portrayal of Dust Bowl refugees and the hardships they faced coming west. It was banned in at least one California county, and Joseph Stalin banned it in the Soviet Union.

California State Librarian Greg Lucas started the week by reading a passage from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and Secretary Ross has joined other Brown Administration cabinet members in reading from banned books throughout the week.

Banned Books Week ends on September 27; make sure to celebrate your right to read and your freedom of speech.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:24-07:00September 26th, 2014|

New Standards for California Olive Oil

By: Monique Bienvenue; Cal Ag Today Social Media Manager

The California Department of Food and Agriculture has approved grading and labeling standards for California olive oil, which are scheduled to take effect on September 26, 2014.

The standards were recommended by the recently-formed California Olive Oil Commission – brought into existence by olive oil producers in recognition of their fast-growing industry. The standards will set California-specific guidelines that will apply to handlers producing 5,000 gallons or more of olive oil made from olives grown in California.

“California agriculture has an enviable reputation for high-quality products sought by consumers here and around the world,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “We believe the time has come to designate a ‘California-grown’ olive oil, and these standards are an excellent way to do it.”

The standards, which are based on scientific research at the UC Davis Olive Center, are unique to California production – only extra-virgin olive oil is produced here, and the standards will establish a more stringent limit for free fatty acids, a negative attribute that signals a breakdown of olive oil quality due to exposure to heat, light and oxygen.

The UC Davis Olive Center was built in 2008 and has built a strong university/industry coalition aimed at meeting the research and education needs of olive growers and processors. The Center has delivered more than $3 million in research benefits while supporting itself through product sales, fee-based laboratory analysis, research grants, and donations.

For additional information, please click on the link below:
http://it.cdfa.ca.gov/igov/docs/hearingdocs/Ca_Olive_Oil_Standards_Sept26_2014.pdf

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:24-07:00September 24th, 2014|

Fresno State Alumni and Friends to Gather at Concannon Vineyard for Collaborative Event Oct. 4

The Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology and Craig School of Business at Fresno State are welcoming alumni and friends in the Livermore area to a gathering hosted at Concannon Vineyard on Saturday, Oct. 4 from 2 – 4 p.m.

Guests will enjoy wine tasting with Concannon wine maker James Foster, a Fresno State alumnus, as well as Jordan College enology students who will be pouring Fresno State’s award-winning wine. Hors d’ oeuvres will feature Fresno State farm products.

Jordan College Dean Dr. Charles Boyer and Craig School Dean Dr. Bob Harper will share updates on their respective colleges. Following the program, attendees have the opportunity to enjoy a tour of the winery, with advance registration.

“Dean Boyer and I have a strong interest in fostering alumni relations in and around the Bay area,” Harper states. “We know there are many alumni in the area with fond memories of their time spent at Fresno State and strongly believe that their education prepared them well for professional careers. There is a strong synergy between agriculture and business, and the Craig School of Business is proud to partner with the Jordan College to sponsor this event.”

As a collaborative effort to engage alumni and friends outside of the Fresno area, this event was proposed by members of The Wine Group (TWG), the worlds third-largest wine producer by volume, which supports both the Jordan College and the Craig School. An independent, management-owned company, headquartered in Livermore, TWG’s portolio includes such leading brands as Cupcake, Franzia, flipflop and Almaden.

Dave Johnson, Executive Vice President of Finance with The Wine Group and member of the Craig School’s Business Advisory Council, proposed the idea at Concannon Vineyard, which is one of The Wine Group’s locations.

Concannon Vineyard is celebrating its 130th year of wine making at their beautiful estate located at 4590 Tesla Road, Livermore 94550. Cost to attend is $35 per person, $40 per person after Sept. 27. Advance purchase and tour sign-up required.

For more information, visit www.agonefoundation.org or contact Ag One/Jordan College at 559.278.4266 or by email at sfast@csufresno.edu.

Established in 1979, the Ag One Foundation benefits, promotes and supports the Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology at Fresno State. It has raised more than $16 million in endowed funds, with more than 3,350 students receiving more than $2.4 million in scholarships and grants.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:24-07:00September 23rd, 2014|

Commentary: Groundwater Legislation: “One Size Fits All” Just Doesn’t Fit

By Sen. Tom Berryhill; Ag Alert

In the waning hours of the legislative session, three bills that will drastically alter California’s groundwater management were passed with little vetting by the public or stakeholders impacted by the proposed changes. Senate Bill 1168 and Assembly Bill 1739 had been making their way through the legislative process, but in a completely different form than what was presented in the final days of the legislative session. Senate Bill 1319 was added to the package with just hours to go and voila, the legislative leadership declares a negotiated groundwater management package that works for all of California.

Far from it. “Negotiated” implies people of opposing viewpoints had input, something that did not happen.

Almost universally, agriculture was opposed, and I would imagine had it not been “negotiated” behind closed doors, there would have been an outcry from other regions and stakeholders throughout the state as well. Make no mistake, these groundwater bills will radically change decades of California water policy and give unprecedented authority to the state’s water bureaucracy to declare winners and losers. All without an appeals process. This is no way to craft policy.

Legislators of both political parties immediately sent a joint letter to Gov. Jerry Brown requesting that he veto the bills and call a special session of the Legislature to develop a reasonable groundwater management plan.

Earlier this summer, the Legislature put together groundbreaking water bond legislation. We did it in the light of day with months of negotiations and years of work behind the policy changes. These negotiations were a true victory for the people of California and a shining example of how well we can do something when we work together.

As a farmer and a Californian, I am absolutely concerned about increasing conditions of overdraft in many groundwater basins and the long-term effects on access to groundwater and land. But I believe California is playing a dangerous game if it pursues the one-size-fits-all approach of these bills.

Add into the mix a devastating drought that has severely tested our ability to prioritize where dwindling supplies of water should go—agriculture, environment or homes—and any solution becomes murkier.

Some basins have been critically overdrafted for decades, and in those instances state oversight may be an appropriate option as a way to spur local-management improvements. However, other basins have little or no overdraft problems or already have effective management systems in place. These bills treat all scenarios the same, a de facto punishment of the basins doing it right.

What started earlier this year as a legislative effort to remedy overdraft of aquifers in specific areas of the state morphed into a policy package that addresses issues well beyond mitigation of overdraft, all done at the last minute, without policy hearings, in the final weeks of the legislative session.

The regulatory regime for groundwater extraction enacted in these bills will not only invite lawsuits, it turns a blind eye to the differences between the 500-plus water basins in California and ignores ongoing local overdraft mitigation efforts. This is a bureaucratic power grab by the state’s water agencies, not an honest solution to a problem.

It took us more than 10 years to craft a good water bond that addresses the needs of a variety of communities, interest groups and industries. Was three weeks enough time to fully consider and seek consensus on the numerous, substantial policy changes made to groundwater management? I think not.

In the coming years and decades, the authorities granted in this bill will radically change the landscape of groundwater management. That will have a de-stabilizing impact on those who depend on groundwater supplies, particularly in Northern and Central California, thus the virtually unanimous opposition of the agriculture community to these proposals.

Yes, it is time to craft groundwater regulation that meets today’s needs, but these bills won’t get us there. Let’s go back to the drawing board and craft a narrower, more effective measure focused on basins where real problems exist, encouraging them to implement management measures modeled by other regions and providing a mechanism for the state to partner with areas when local management fails. We came together and passed the water bond; we can, and should, do the same for groundwater management.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:24-07:00September 21st, 2014|

California expects more competition for wine market

Source: Steve Adler; Ag Alert

A new report showing that the United States continues to lead the world in wine consumption is viewed as good news for the California wine sector—but it shouldn’t lead to complacency, according to three experts.

This country’s No. 1 ranking in total consumption in 2013 marked the third consecutive year of that achievement. U.S. wine consumption topped 3.3 billion liters, an increase of 5.4 percent compared to the previous year. France retained its hold on second place, with 2.8 billion liters—but that represented a 6.9 percent decrease in consumption.

California’s share of U.S. wine production is about 90 percent, although there are wineries in every state.

“Our consumption is growing in this country, but everyone realizes that the U.S. is the largest wine market in the world because we have such a large population base. Everybody in the world wants to sell their wines here, so there is a lot of foreign competition,” said Gladys Horiuchi of the Wine Institute in San Francisco.

Mendocino County grape grower and winery owner Bill Pauli said last week’s report on wine consumption underscores the importance of the U.S. market not only to California producers, but to producers around the world.

“With America’s expanding growth and improved economic times, consumption has improved and people are drinking better wines. But we still have to compete, not only amongst ourselves, but with all of the foreign competition. And that foreign competition is really the challenge in not only flavors, but price,” Pauli said.

The challenge comes not only in finished products, but from the foreign producers who sell bulk wines into California to be blended or bottled here, competing directly with California grape growers, he said.

Horiuchi said lighter crops produced in California prior to 2012 allowed foreign producers of bulk wines to make inroads. But because of the large crops in 2012 and 2013, the availability of California grapes has eased that threat, she said.

“The good news now is that the wineries are brimming with California wine of excellent vintages, so naturally the wineries have gone back to their local sources. But in order to maintain their shelf space, when the production in California is down, they will import wine from other countries,” Horiuchi said.

Competition from foreign producers was also noted by Glenn Proctor of the Ciatti Co. in San Rafael, who cautioned the state’s growers and wineries not to become complacent.

“When you are No. 1 in the world, it is not just California wines and U.S. wines that consumers are buying, but other countries are trying to get their wines into the U.S. market too,” he said. “So I think we will continue to see a very competitive environment.”

Proctor said it is important for California wineries to continue producing wines that U.S. consumers want, at prices that allow them to purchase more.

“We have to be on our game and remain competitive. The opportunities continue to grow, but we have to be ahead; we cannot be behind,” he said. “We’ve seen countries like Australia, Chile, Argentina and South Africa do a pretty good job of bringing bottled product into this country.”

While this year’s winegrape crop in California is projected to be normal in size, it follows two years of record production, resulting in large inventories in most of the state’s wineries. Proctor said that will allow California wineries to hold onto highly competitive shelf space.

“We have had two bumper crops in a row and this year looks to be a healthy crop, but not large per se. But we do have some excess of wine, especially in the Central Valley. I think we will work through the excess, and it is helpful that we don’t have a big crop this year. But we do need to increase our sales and grow. Any kind of stagnation in case-good sales would not be a good thing for the industry,” he said.

Proctor predicted that in the near term, there could be some “corrections” in prices that wineries pay to growers.

“Prices received by growers are healthy right now and some wineries may think they are too high,” he said. “We may see some correction in the marketplace in the Central Valley in the next year or two, to get inventory costs back in line.”

In the long term, he said, wineries will need a steady supply of grapes coming from California, “and you want to have new and efficient vineyards so growers and wineries can continue to be profitable.”

Proctor said some older and less-productive vineyards in the Central Valley will probably be removed and replanted, either with better-producing grape varieties or other commodities such as almonds or pistachios.

On the marketing side, Horiuchi said wineries continue to target baby boomers, people ages 50 to 68.

“The baby boomers are the ones who have the income and the ones who are dining in restaurants. But at the same time, there is a transition taking place as wineries are starting to market to the next generation, where the consumers are more involved with social media, taking pictures of wine labels and so on. They are willing to try a lot of different things,” she said.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:25-07:00September 18th, 2014|

Climate change’s impact on restaurants

By Patrick Mulvaney, chef and restaurateur; The Sacramento Bee

When I read about climate change, I learn about rising sea levels and shrinking polar ice caps – problems for 100 years in the future. But when I talk to my friends and customers about climate change, the focus is on what is happening today. It seems little things are already adding up.

As a chef, I have always believed that the completed dish will only be as good as the ingredients used. The bounty of the 12-month growing season is the main reason we decided to open our restaurant here in Sacramento. Because of our close relationships with local farmers, our “supply chain” is basically a truck and the farmer’s market. We can see how the drought has affected their crops.

Three years of drought have taken a toll on the ranchers and farmers we depend on. Lack of rain to refill the state’s reservoirs has reduced water levels to historic lows. Some water allocations have been cut entirely, and most farmers have been forced to scale back on planting. Forty-five percent of rice land went unplanted this year; farmers were forced to sell off cattle this spring. Researchers at UC Davis estimate that drought will prevent farmers from planting nearly 430,000 acres and cost the state $2.2 billion.

This isn’t just a Sacramento problem; it will affect the whole country. California grows nearly half of the nation’s fruits and vegetables, including 70 percent of the lettuce, 76 percent of the avocados, 90 percent of the grapes and virtually all of the almonds. Unfavorable conditions in California mean higher prices for restaurants across the country.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture said produce prices could increase 5 to 6 percent this year. Even though beef prices are at historically high levels, the drought has raised the prices of feed even higher, forcing ranchers to sell the majority of their herds. A few years ago, the U.S. had 102 million head of cattle. That number is now under 88 million and dropping. It’s the smallest herd since 1951, so prices keep rising.

In addition to drought, climate change is causing other kinds of severe weather swings. Last winter was unusually brutal in the Midwest, causing an almost complete failure of the cherry crop and raising doubts about harvests for the rest of the tree fruits this summer.

In some ways, we are lucky at my restaurant; our daily-changing menus have allowed us to respond to climate disruptions. And while we continue to serve the best of what’s coming out of the nearby land, some items have become harder to find at a reasonable price. During the past year, restaurants have changed their menus to reflect higher meat prices, sudden collapses in citrus yields and the lack of products as farmers are forced to let their land lie fallow.

I worry that extreme weather, like California’s drought, may become the new normal. Our agricultural partners face the greatest risks. Many businesses will experience climate change through limited supply and poor supply-chain quality.

There’s something we can do about this. California has long been a national leader on clean-energy policies. Gov. Jerry Brown is supportive of the Environmental Protection Agency’s new regulations that will reduce carbon pollution. He said, “Clean-energy policies are already working in California, generating billions of dollars in energy savings and more than a million jobs. Bold, sustained action will be required at every level, and this is a major step forward.”

Now is the time to continue California’s clean-energy leadership tradition by implementing changes that encourage business leaders to use resources more efficiently. This will help prevent more extreme weather events and make our economy more resilient.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:25-07:00September 16th, 2014|

Commentary: CA Reporters Discuss How and Why They Cover Agriculture Beat

Source: Dave Kranz; Ag Alert

As people have become more interested in the sources of their food, they have also become more interested in reading about where their food originates and about the people who produce it: That was the concept behind a seminar conducted in San Francisco last week titled “Journalism: The Agriculture Beat Resurgence.”

Hosted by the Commonwealth Club, the event featured three Bay Area-based reporters and editors who write about agriculture for regional or nationwide audiences.

The discussion provided insights into how the reporters view their work, and into the overall interest in agricultural reporting itself: The seminar attracted a nearly full-house audience of about 80 people on a Wednesday night.

It also underlined the continuing importance of Farm Bureau’s efforts to reach out to members, reporters and the general audience through all forms of media.

The moderator of the panel discussion, KQED Radio reporter/anchor Rachael Myrow, described the agriculture beat as “the intersection between fashion, health and politics.”

The panelists agreed, noting how agricultural news can be classified as a business story, an environmental story, a cultural story.

“Every story is an agricultural story,” said Andy Wright, deputy editor of Modern Farmer, which produces a quarterly publication and daily website updates aimed at an audience she described as young, urban and aspirational.

Where do they find story ideas? The reporters said they talk to farmers at farmers markets, talk to chefs, scan trade publications and websites, and listen to story pitches from farmers and people in the food business.

“Farmers are getting a lot more media savvy,” Wright said. “They’re on Facebook and Twitter. They understand the importance of connecting.”

Naomi Starkman of Civil Eats—a Web-based news service that says it aims to “shift the conversation around sustainable agriculture in an effort to build economically and socially just communities”—called social-media tools “essential” to promoting stories, and encouraged farmers to hire someone on their staff who does social media and other outreach as a part of their job.

Myrow noted that much of the current reporting on agriculture focuses on “small, niche” farms.

“Are too many publications chasing the foodies instead of informing the general public about their food?” she asked.

“What’s unproductive,” Wright responded, “is to pit big ag vs. small agriculture. What’s more important is to focus on what’s working.”

During part of the program devoted to audience questions, the panelists were asked if they consider themselves to have a mission to try to change people’s behavior.

Tara Duggan, a food writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, said she considered it her mission to “understand what readers are most interested in,” which, in her case, tended to be topics such as nutrition and sustainability.

In her case, Wright said, “I don’t know that it’s my role as a journalist to promote one way of eating vs. another. My role is to get stories to as wide an audience as possible.”

Duggan noted that writing for a general-interest publication such as the Chronicle presents challenges in presenting stories about farming and environmental topics. For example, she said, “With the California drought, I feel people have reached the saturation point, even though it’s a really important story.”

As the event’s organizers pointed out, the agriculture beat was once a key area of coverage for large media outlets but, as the staffs of mainstream media outlets have shrunk, agricultural reporting has been dispersed among writers who regularly handle business stories, environmental stories or general-assignment reporting.

Still, there’s significant interest in stories about farming and food among both the general media and the specialty publications, websites, blogs and other outlets that have proliferated in the last few years.

We’ve seen that here at the California Farm Bureau, where we respond to more than 450 news media inquiries a year. During 2014, driven by interest in the impact of drought on farmers and ranchers, we have spoken with reporters from throughout California and the nation, as well as to media outlets from Canada, Germany, Switzerland, France, Japan, Singapore and Australia.

For Farm Bureau, communicating with members and the non-farm audience has always been a core function, using all forms of media. That’s why, for example, stories from Ag Alert^® appear not only in the newspaper, but online and as Facebook posts and tweets, as well.

Our California Bountiful^® television program—produced for a non-farm audience—can be found on the air and also online and on YouTube. The TV program and California Bountiful magazine also reach out to general audiences via Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

None of the outreach that Farm Bureau does would be possible without the support and cooperation of Farm Bureau members, who give of their time to talk to reporters from our media outlets and from other television, radio, newspaper and online news media every day.

As the San Francisco event showed, people are interested in what farmers and ranchers do, how they do it, and why. Only by telling their stories themselves can farmers and ranchers assure that others don’t tell their stories for them.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:26-07:00September 12th, 2014|

California gets $22 million from USDA for conservation programs

Source: CDFA

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that $328 million in conservation funding (more than $22 million to California) is being invested to help landowners protect and restore key farmlands, grasslands and wetlands across the nation. The USDA initiative will benefit wildlife and promote outdoor recreation and related sectors of the economy.

“Conservation easements help farmers and ranchers protect valuable agricultural lands from development, restore lands that are best suited for grazing, and return wetlands to their natural conditions,” Vilsack said. “These easements are making a dramatic and positive impact for our food supply, rural communities and species habitat.”

The funding is provided through the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), which was created in the 2014 Farm Bill to protect critical wetlands and encourage producers to keep lands in farming and ranching. Approximately 380 projects nationwide were selected to protect and restore 32,000 acres of prime farmland, 45,000 acres of grasslands and 52,000 acres of wetlands. A summary of ACEP funding provided to each state can be found online.

In addition to protecting cropland and critical habitats, conservation strengthens outdoor recreation and helps boost the economy. According to the National Fish and Wildlife Federation, annual United States conservation spending totals $38.8 billion, but it produces $93.2 billion of economic output throughout the economy – 2.4 times more than what is put in. This output takes the form of more than 660,500 jobs, $41.6 billion in income and a $59.7 billion contribution to national Gross Domestic Product, or GDP.

Through ACEP, private or tribal landowners and eligible conservation partners working with landowners can request assistance from USDA to protect and enhance agricultural land through an agricultural or wetland easement.

These easements deliver many long-term benefits. For example, this year’s projects will:

Improve water quality and wetland storage capacity in the California Bay Delta region;
Reduce flooding along the Mississippi and Red rivers;
Provide and protect habitat for threatened, endangered and at-risk species including sage grouse, bog turtles, Florida panthers, Louisiana black bear, and whooping cranes to recover populations and reduce regulatory burdens; and
Protect prime agricultural land under high risk of development in urban areas to help secure the nation’s food supply and jobs in the agricultural sector.

ACEP consolidates three former Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) easement programs – Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program, Grasslands Reserve Program and Wetlands Reserve Program – into two components. One component protects farmlands and grasslands, and the other protects and restores agricultural wetlands.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:26-07:00September 12th, 2014|

Got ice cream! (Thanks to UC Davis)

By Trina Wood

Chances are when you’re scooping that vanilla bean ice cream into your bowl for dessert, you’re focused on the flavor about to hit your taste buds, not on whether it may give you a foodborne illness.

That confidence in the safety of California’s dairy products — the state’s top agricultural commodity, valued at nearly $7 billion in annual retail sales — results in part from the efforts of the San Bernardino branch of the California Animal Health and Food Safety laboratory system.

This network of laboratories, headquartered at UC Davis and administered by the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine on behalf of the California Department of Food and Agriculture, performs surveillance and diagnostic testing for livestock and poultry.

The San Bernardino laboratory carries out such work on milk and dairy products that are submitted by the state’s Milk and Dairy Foods Safety Branch. The lab’s on-site bacteriology section tests for a variety of disease-causing microbes including Listeria, Brucella, Salmonella, Campylobacter and E. coli O157:H7 — all of which can cause severe illness and even death.

Protecting against foodborne diseases

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that each year roughly one in six Americans (or 48 million people) get sick with a foodborne disease. Of these, 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die from these illnesses.

However, such diseases have almost been eliminated from licensed milk and dairy products, thanks, in large part, to a strong regulatory framework, including adherence to pasteurization and laboratory standards.

Approximately 1,500 samples of milk, dairy products and water arrive monthly at the San Bernardino lab resulting in approximately 4,200 tests conducted by a team of eight technicians. These microbiological assessments monitor bacteria populations and the effectiveness of pasteurization in destroying harmful bacteria.

Partnering with California

“The laboratory system has been a successful partnership between the state and UC Davis since 1987,” said its director, Richard Breitmeyer.

He noted that it was natural in the 1990s to expand the lab’s statewide regulatory testing services to include milk products. Before then testing was limited to samples from only Southern California.

In 2000, the California Department of Food and Agriculture was so impressed with the accuracy and timeliness of the California Animal Health and Food Safety laboratory system that it placed all such statewide regulatory compliance testing in the network of labs, in a move that enabled the state to cut costs, speed analysis and consolidate testing.

The San Bernardino lab

Three years ago, the state asked the laboratory system to also begin testing milk and dairy products for chemical components such as fat and protein content. The San Bernardino lab now provides this service.

“I’m proud of our efficiency,” says Jose Gallegos, the San Bernardino lab’s supervising dairy analyst, who has been with the laboratory system for 20 years and oversees the milk quality testing lab. “Results are rapid and consistent, and reduce the number of people who become ill in the event of an outbreak.”

The San Bernardino laboratory is considered the state reference lab for California and holds the distinction of being the only veterinary facility in the nation set up as a regulatory testing facility. In addition to running tests for the state, the laboratory also is certified by the U.S. Food and Drug administration, under the National Conference of Interstate Shippers program guidelines to run microbiological tests.

Testing dairy products

As part of this testing program, the state sends samples from three sources: the farm, processing plants and retail establishments where the finished product is sold. The lab also tests some exports such as ice cream for microbiological components and dry goods such as powdered milk.

State milk and dairy officials may submit samples from a location if a report comes in that someone has become ill after eating or drinking at a particular business. State and federal investigators also routinely check farmers markets and small establishments for raw or illegally processed milk and dairy products that could pose a serious health risk. Those products are sent to the San Bernardino lab to be tested for the presence of bacteria or improper pasteurization.

Samples sent to the lab must be transported at the proper temperature, arrive within 60 hours of collection and be properly packaged before they are tested for general bacteria populations. If the testing criteria aren’t met, those samples are rejected for testing and reported to the state for recollection. Any test results indicating the products were not produced in compliance with state regulations are reported to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which is authorized to enforce the regulations.

After milk samples have been analyzed for bacteria and other indicators of improper sanitation at a facility, they move on to be tested for drug residue and other unwanted substances such as antibiotics, which may have been used to treat sick cows.

Farmers are required to keep milk out of the supply line until the medication has cleared from the cow’s system and the milk meets strict requirements established by the FDA. Other testing, such as checking for proper pasteurization and possible water contamination, complements the tools used by state officials to ensure the quality and safety of the milk supply.

“We’re always looking at developing better tests and working with our partners to provide the highest level of service,” Gallegos says. “Knowing all the quality testing processes in place, I feel great about drinking milk!”

About CAHFS

CAHFS is a public service program of the university. The primary objectives of the CAHFS are to provide appropriate and timely diagnostic support to safeguard the health of California’s dairy, livestock and poultry industries and to protect the public health from animal disease.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:26-07:00September 11th, 2014|

9/11 Memorial Plaza at California State Fairgrounds to open for September 11 anniversary

Source: CDFA

In observance of the September 11 attack of the World Trade Center in 2001, the 9/11 Memorial Plaza at the California State Fairgrounds at Cal Expo will open to the general public on September 11, 2014 from 8:00 a.m. – 6:00 p.m. The memorial honors the victims lost 13 years ago.

At 9:00 a.m., the Sacramento Young Marines will present colors at the Memorial, which is located inside the main gate near the Expo Center buildings. Admission and parking are free.

Central to the exhibit is a beautiful fountain including a granite ball inscribed with all of the names of the September 11 victims. There are also replicas of the World Trade Center buildings and memorials to American Airlines Flight 77–which crashed into the Pentagon–and United Airlines Flight 93, which crashed in a field in Pennsylvania.

Construction of the Cal Expo memorial began a year after the attack, when Cal Expo board member Larry Davis personally acquired and donated 125,000 pounds of wreckage from the World Trade Center. A massive I-beam extracted from Ground Zero was among the debris. Davis personally arranged for the wreckage to be shipped via rail to California. Through private donations to the California State Fair Memorial Plaza Foundation, the exhibit has been expanded to include additional elements.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:33:27-07:00September 9th, 2014|