CDFA Announces Awards for $5 Million for the Beginning Farmer and Farmworker Training and Workforce Development Grant Program

By Steve Lyle, CDFA

The California Department of Food and Agriculture’s  Office of Farm Equity announces that it is awarding $5 million in grants for projects throughout the state through the 2022 Beginning Farmer and Farmworker Training and Workforce Development Grant Program. An additional $5 million will be made available in a second solicitation in 2023. The funding for this grant program was made possible through the 2021-2022 California general fund budget.

This program provides support to organizations to enhance or expand beginning farmer and farmworker training/apprenticeship programs. The overall goal of the program is to ensure that resources are dedicated to strengthening support for socially disadvantaged and/or beginning farmers and ranchers in the first ten years of business, and for farmworkers who can improve job security with additional skills training. A secondary goal of the program is to build and grow regional networks to ensure organizations can provide adequate support and training opportunities for those most underserved in the agriculture industry.

“We need new farmers and ranchers in California, and this program is a crucial step in cultivating the next generation of talent in agriculture,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “There is a place for all who have the desire to farm or to improve their skills to become farm managers, and this program will help us focus support to grow opportunities in agriculture.

The complete list of grant awardees and summaries of their projects can be found at:http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/bfftp

Eligible applicants could apply for two types of awards in this program: program planning and curriculum development grants of up to $100,000, or program implementation grants up to $1,000,000 for both beginning farmer training, and farmworker training or workforce development programs.

The following entities were eligible to apply for this program: Non-profit organizations, Tribal Governments and Community colleges. Community colleges were eligible as co-applicants with local partner organizations. Entities receiving funding demonstrated expertise in assisting socially disadvantaged, small-scale farmers, and farmworkers in workforce development programs.

Note — 33 percent of California farms are on nine acres or less and 43 percent of farms have less than $10,000 in sales. Women are primary producers on 32 percent of our farms; only eight percent of California farms are owned by non-white producers according to race; and about 10 percent of farmers are military veterans.

2022-10-13T10:31:54-07:00October 13th, 2022|

Farm Bureau President Responds to Signing of AB 2183

By Peter Hecht, CAFB

California Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson today responded to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signing of Assembly Bill 2183.

“The California Farm Bureau is deeply disappointed in Gov. Newsom’s decision to sign the misguided union organizing legislation, Assembly Bill 2183. Farm Bureau stands with California’s agricultural employees and will continue to defend their right to make uncoerced choices about union representation. However, the governor’s unfortunate decision to sign this bill will create a mail-in balloting system that threatens the integrity of secret ballot elections and leaves farm employees vulnerable to intimidation by union organizers with an obvious interest in the outcome. It also forces California’s farmers and ranchers to choose to give up free speech and private property rights in a dubious trade to allow their employees a real voice in a union election.”

2022-09-30T08:41:28-07:00September 30th, 2022|

Heat Illness Prevention During These Hot Summer Days

By Markie Hageman Co-Editor

It’s extremely important for farm employees to know how to prevent heat illness. Larry Williams is the CEO of the EE Hall Company among the largest ag labor contractors in the state. Williams is also the executive risk and safety manager for the company and they take worker’s safety in the field very seriously.

“Heat illness is a big thing for us because we employ over 25,000 employees throughout the state of California. And we’re in the ag industry and we’re in all commodities. So heat is a big thing, especially coming up in the summertime for us.”

An EE Hall Company Shade Trailer

Williams describes how they get it done across the state, and the first thing they provide is shade trailers for 100% of their employees.


“In addition to the shade trailers, if needed, we have canopy umbrellas where needed for our individual irrigators, and we try to make sure we’re ahead of the game”


State regulations say that shade must be available to all workers. When temperatures reach 80 degrees,


“Yes, we have to have shade available but every site that we pull up to, we automatically bring shape whether it’s 60 degrees, a hundred degrees shades already there and available.”


And of course, plenty of water must be available for all field employees. Additionally, when temperatures reach 95 degrees or above, the employer shall ensure that employees take a minimum 10 minute preventative cooldown rest period, every two hours.

2020-07-17T09:03:12-07:00July 17th, 2020|

Practical Hands-On Farm Ed Experience

Farm Ed for the Future  Part 1

By Tim Hammerich with the Ag Information Network

As millions of people are losing their jobs, community college are preparing to help many of them find new skills and new careers.

West Hills College in Coalinga has a unique program that provides students with practical, hands-on farming experience. It’s called the Farm of the Future. Here is Program Director Terry Brase.

“Our goal is that every student that comes through our educational academic classes and courses will get some type of experience on the farm. And as such, it’s a working farm. So we have 23 acres of pistachios,” said Brase. We have little over 80 acres of row crop that we produce, our own irrigation system. So my role as the Director is to kind of oversee the farm and the academic programs. We try to make the Farm of the Future a demonstration of how technology is used in California agriculture.”

The program has two different pathways. One for agricultural science which includes studies like plant science, irrigation, integrated pest management, and precision agriculture. The other is for more industrial studies like truck driving, heavy equipment operation, food safety, and welding.

As we’ve seen recently these are essential careers that required proper training, Brase said.

Please go to West Hills College for more information.

AgInfo.net is the largest Radio Network in the West with 140 Affiliate Radio Stations.
2021-05-12T11:05:00-07:00May 4th, 2020|

Urban Ag, Farmers Markets Must Follow CDC Guidelines

Urban Ag and Farmers Markets Supplies Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, Part of a Healthy Diet

By Pam Kan-Rice, UCANR Assistant Director, News and Information Outreach

Even as Californians shelter in place to contain the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19, nutritious food remains vital to the health and well-being of our communities.

“Eating fruits and vegetables is known to benefit our overall health and help our immune system,” said Lorrene Ritchie, director of the UC Nutrition Policy Institute. “At a time when we need to be especially vigilant about staying healthy, eating healthy is essential.”

To help minimize exposure and risk of spreading of the virus, urban farms need to follow some key guidelines from the CDC, said Jennifer Sowerwine, UC Cooperative Extension metropolitan agriculture and food systems specialist in the Department of Environment, Science, Policy and Management at UC Berkeley.

UC Cooperative Extension has compiled a list of resources for farmers, community gardeners and other people working in the food system to ensure that they can continue supplying fresh, healthy and affordable food to Californians.

“Social distancing, heightened health and hygiene practices and cleaning and disinfecting procedures reduce the risk,” said Sowerwine.

Although eating a nutritious diet can boost our immunity, the Los Angeles Times reported produce sales plummeted by 90% or more at Southern California produce markets after the statewide shelter-in-place rules went into effect.

“It’s worrisome to see that sales of fruits and vegetables are dropping so sharply, but not surprising,” said Rachel Surls, UC Cooperative Extension sustainable food systems advisor for Los Angeles County. “As people shop during the crisis, they may be prioritizing groceries that can be stored for a longer time in the fridge or pantry. And they may be on a very limited food budget, even more so than usual, so they are likely prioritizing essentials like bread and rice and baby formula.”

To support farmers in California, the UC Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Program created a directory at http://www.calagtour.org for consumers to find local farms to purchase produce directly.

For families who have lost jobs and income, the risk of food insecurity increases. Some families could supplement their food from gardens and urban agriculture during this crisis.

Consumers must practice safety, too, when visiting farmers markets and farm stands. UC Cooperative Extension small farm advisor Ruth Dahlquist-Willard explained, “Things like keeping the minimum six-foot distance from customers, not touching any produce that you’re not planning to buy, leaving as soon as you’ve made a purchase and washing the produce when you get home would be some good guidelines.”

The virus is thought to be spread mainly from person to person, however there is evidence that COVID-19 can last for days on hard surfaces, thus the need to ramp up good health and hygiene practices, social distancing and cleaning and sanitizing of surfaces.

University of California research and extension faculty have compiled a list of helpful fact sheets and resources for farmers, community gardeners and other food system workers to ensure fresh, healthy and affordable food for communities across the state:

All of these resources are posted on the UC Urban Agriculture website at https://ucanr.edu/sites/UrbanAg.

“During this challenging time, I am heartened by the quick and thoughtful responses by many extension, grassroots and institutional efforts, including Community Alliance with Family Farm’s COVID-19 Responses and Resources for California Family FarmsMutual Aid organizations where groups of young, healthy and lower-risk people are bringing food and services to vulnerable people who shouldn’t be in public at all, and Bayareafood.info that seeks to support local restaurants, farmers, and food systems workers as they weather this latest storm,” said Sowerwine.

2020-04-16T15:31:45-07:00April 16th, 2020|

Redd Group: ALRB Still Biased Toward Unions

Redd Group Offers Help in Labor Management

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Jesse Rojas is the CEO of the Redd Group based in Bakersfield. “In essence, the Redd Group primarily offers labor management consulting, primarily in agriculture. But in general, what the group provides is everything from improving your employee relations by using and implementing new methods of communications.

Union avoidance is a big part of the Redd Group’s work to helping companies and employees know their information, their rights under the NLRB and also the ALRB to avoid unionization. “However, at the same time, we want to improve human resources departments and management. We also offer training and leadership development for supervisors and middle management and upper management within companies,” Rojas said.

“We also handle the aspect of properly enforcing arbitration agreements and those type of issues, and anything related to HR and labor relations and labor management,” said Rojas. ” I grew up in agriculture, and I love this industry. I love the people behind it, and that’s where I’ve been focusing the most with the Redd Group, which is labor management in agriculture.”

UFW Still up To There Usual Business

“The UFW is still trying to unionize employees wherever they can. But, they’re resorting to a different type of tactic in terms of organizing employees because they don’t have much relevance or positive things to offer employee anything that would attract them to join the union,” said Rojas.

“They’re resorting to their friends at the ALRB, and the legal process, to push themselves on companies. In terms of the ALRB, we thought that they would change after the big corruption deal and violation of rights that they did at Gerawan. But it seems like the ALRB is just back to business as usual,” noted Rojas

The latest situation is that Governor Gavin Newsom recently appointment Barry Broad to an ALRB board position. Broad is an attorney by training, and he has spent most of his recent career as a union lobbyist in Sacramento, primarily with the Teamsters Union.

“He’s a 100% pro-union big labor guy,” said Rojas. “My concern is he still doesn’t have any experience in agriculture or labor relations with farm employees. So, based on what he’s been doing in Sacramento, which is lobbying for big labor for unions, I can’t see and expect any non-bias from him,” explained Rojas.

Many do not expect that ALRB in California to change their tactics. The ALRB is expected to have farmers on the board so that there is a more balanced approach to decisions. “If they didn’t want to have a farmer or someone who is in the interest of the agriculture industry. At least put an actual employee who’s been in the farms, who understands what they need, what they want, their rights, their work, which is what this agency is supposed to do,” he said.

Farm employees need to be involved in the structure of how things happen in Sacramento. Many times its just big special interest employees that make the decisions up in Sacramento. It’s about time real people, real citizens, actual employees get involved in the process, and they have a say of what’s going on.

For more information on the Redd Group go to www.reddgroup.org

2019-09-04T12:23:17-07:00September 5th, 2019|

Arnoldo Torres Helping Farm Employees Seek Doctors

Mexican Doctors Coming to California to Help Farm Worker Communities

By Patrick Cavanaugh, Editor

Arnoldo Torres has worked hard for nearly 20 years to get doctors from Mexico to rural farmworker areas of California. Torres wrote the bill in 2000, which former California Governor Gray Davis signed in 2002. But no medical schools wanted to do the orientation program for the doctors in Mexico.

“The medical schools avoided the program, but we found other ways to do what we need to get done and should have 29 doctors coming in October,” said Torres a journalist, consultant, partner in the Sacramento, California based public policy consulting firm Torres & Torres, and the executive director for the California Hispanic Health Care Association.

“We have funding on both sides of the border from private foundations, that will not be public funding,” noted Torres.

This all came about after Torres met with the president of the Mexican Foundation who happened to know the Mexican Ambassador to the U.S. Torres requested that the Mexican Ambassador seek approval for the Visas of the 29 doctors.

The problem is that California, as well as the United States since the 1970s when this data was collected, has had significant doctor shortages primarily in rural and farmworker communities.

“The problem is even worse today than it was even ten years ago. California produces 700 doctors a year. Close to 600 doctors practice in California, but they do not practice in the areas where they’re the most needed,” Torres said. “And so this program is designed to be a pilot to garner enough experience to decide whether this program should be expanded, and we ought to be bringing in more doctors.”

“The whole idea is that this is only a pilot program. We’ve never wanted this program to be permanent because California should be developing the doctors who have cultural, linguistic competency, said Torres. “When we did this bill in 2000, the largest population of non-English speakers were from Latin America, primarily Mexico. But California’s diversity has grown significantly since then. Rural and farmworker areas are still the most difficult to serve. The state now has much more diversity with languages and cultures, and the doctors in the California medical school system are not being educated on culture and language, and so, therefore, it’s tough for them to serve these communities,” he said.

This speaks to Trump’s recent decision on legal immigration. The reality is that many undocumented people, as well as legal residents, work in agriculture. “They work full time in most cases. And despite the increase in salaries that many in agriculture have extended to the farmworker population, illegal and undocumented, the reality is that it’s not a year-round job in most cases, it’s seasonal,” said Torres. “There are so many months out of the year in which they’re going to work, and they’re never going to earn enough money to be able to pay for insurance.”

What I think Trump is doing flies in the face of the argument that this population comes in to take benefits from the public. “They work. They do invaluable work. Growers are providing greater care. They are providing much better benefits, but they can only do it for so long in a year. And then you have a terrible economic policy with this president. You don’t have enough labor. He doesn’t want to bring any labor to work in these areas. The reality is that our bill underscores so many of the things that so many people get wrong about immigration,” explained Torres.

Torres noted that the Mexican doctors would come in only for three years and then they would have to return. Their visas would be for only three years. “The clinics where the doctors will work will have to pay them all of the salaries. This is in the law that we wrote. They have to pay them the salaries and the fringe benefits that they pay their current doctors, but they can only work for three years,” noted Torres.

 

“We are seeking are only three-year visas, and we have made an agreement with Mexico that we would only borrow them for three years. The idea is that we don’t want to be taking doctors from Mexico on a permanent basis. That is the responsibility that California has, as well as this country has, to develop enough doctors to work in the areas where they’re needed the most,” said Torres. “But Mexico has agreed to lend them to us. Because going back, they’re going to be even better doctors than they were before they came.”
And they’re all going to be very fluent in English as well. So they’re going to be serving all patients that come in for care, not just the Mexican workers.

 

2019-08-25T21:24:47-07:00August 27th, 2019|

Employee Satisfaction is Key

Farm Employee Satisfaction: It’s Not Money, It’s Respect

By Jessica Theisman, Associate Editor

Showing respect to your field and farm workers and can really pay off. According to Raul Calvo of Employers Services, he’s all about leadership, management development, human resources, and employee relations training. Calvo described a situation recently in the central valley. It was a farm operation with two Labor contractors contributing.

California Fresh Fruit Association

California farm workers harvesting tree fruit

The employees from both farm labor contractors are interested in the same thing. “We want more money and we want more benefits. We want to improve our lives.’ So, they all wanted this,” said Calvo. The UFW union showed up and was able to latch on some of the employees of one of the Labor contractors.

“The UFW was able to convince almost all of the employees from farm labor contractor one to walk out of the field,” he said. These employees basically went on strike until they get higher pay. After seeing one group walk, Calvo decided to talk to employees from another company to see their views on the subject. “It got down to yes, we want a better life. Yes, we would like this company to pay us more and to give us more benefits, but we’re willing to give them the benefit of the doubt,” Calvo said.

The other companies treated their employees with respect and that is why they did not walk out. The company relates to their employees and treats them as individuals.

2019-07-31T21:12:33-07:00July 30th, 2019|
Go to Top