World Ag Expo 2021 Canceled!

COVID-19 Cancels World Ag Expo and Causes Big Economic Hit to Agri-Center, hotels, restaurants Etc.

For more than 52 years, World Ag Expo® has served agriculture by bringing buyers and sellers together to innovate, collaborate, and advance agriculture. In 2021, the show will not be held live for the first time in World Ag Expo® history.

“After working with the Tulare County Health Department and other officials, it has become evident that given health and safety restrictions from the State of California, holding a live, international event is not responsible in February,” said Jerry Sinift, International Agri-Center® CEO.

The International Agri-Center® Board of Director’s decision to cancel the 2021 World Ag Expo® was not taken lightly, and comes after months of research and evaluation of future trends and known constraints. The decision was finalized earlier than the initial November deadline to provide exhibitors, attendees, volunteers, concessionaires, contractors, and local businesses time to adjust their Tulare farm show plans.

The cancellation of World Ag Expo® comes as another negative effect of COVID-19 for the International Agri-Center®, exhibitors, non-profit food vendors, attendees, area hotels, restaurants, and other associated businesses.

Attendees are encouraged to follow World Ag Expo® social media channels and watch their email inboxes for more information on World Ag Expo® projects throughout 2020 and 2021. They can join the World Ag Expo® email list to stay up-to-date at http://bit.ly/WAEupdates.

World Ag Expo® staff will reach out to exhibitors concerning fees and more options for 2021 starting Wednesday, September 16.

The 2022 World Ag Expo® is scheduled for February 8-10 at the International Agri-Center® in Tulare, CA.

California Ag Today2020-09-14T11:38:14-07:00September 14th, 2020|

Low Priced Imports Hurt CA Growers

CCM Commends Actions Regarding Seasonal and Perishable Products

California Citrus Mutual commends the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), and U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) for the actions they recently announced to address the injury caused by increased imports of seasonal and perishable products.

Low-priced imports have previously caused a substantial market disruption for the California citrus industry during its marketing season. We are encouraged by both the Administration’s plan and its determination to bring relief to fruit and vegetable growers who are suffering from similar import issues.

Imported Citrus Often Lacks Quality

The trade remedy steps announced include the self-initiation of Section 201 global safeguard action on certain imports, USTR’s coordination with specific sectors to monitor and investigate imports under the Section 201 provisions covering perishable agricultural products and citrus products, DOC’s coordination with effected sectors on possible self-initiated antidumping and countervailing duty actions, and the Administration’s indication that still other actions and investigations may be taken. These steps are essential safeguarding and supporting all U.S. fruit and vegetable growers harmed by this problem.

In 2017, low-priced citrus imports from the Southern Hemisphere increased 40% over the prior year’s shipments, causing significant price declines and harm to California growers. Consistent with last week’s announcement, California Citrus Mutual will closely monitor imports in the coming California season and continue to coordinate with the U.S. Government regarding any import surges, unfair import practices, and injury to our citrus growers.

California Ag Today2020-09-10T18:06:02-07:00September 10th, 2020|

Jeanette Lombardo Heads up Farmer Veteran Coalition

Farmer Veteran Coalition Appoints New Leadership

By Tim Hammerich, with the Ag Information Network

After starting the Farmer Veteran Coalition in 2008 and growing it to over 20,000 members nationwide, Michael O’Gorman is transitioning the organization over to newly appointed Executive Director Jeanette Lombardo.

“It really just blended everything I am, and it was perfect timing for me. And I have this great vision of moving the organization and increasing our national expansion,” said Lombardo

Lombardo brings both a family background in the military and years of working in the ag industry to the Farmer Veteran Coalition.

“What the Farm Veteran Coalition does is we mobilize veterans to feed America. So we take that trans who are leaving whatever branch of service they’re in, and we introduce them to careers in agriculture,” Lombardo said. “And we help them with the training, apprenticeships and placement and all aspects of it. Additionally about 54% of our membership, which is about 24,000 people altogether, have one form of disability or another. So they range anywhere, from an issue with vision to complete amputation and everywhere in between,” she noted.

Lombardo said they are rolling out a new program in addition to their perennial efforts for remote jobs in agriculture. Learn more at FarmVetCo.org.

California Ag Today2020-09-10T11:09:47-07:00September 10th, 2020|

Ron Fisher, A Veteran in the California Almond Industry

Starting a Major Almond Industry Processing Company

By Patrick Cavanaugh with the Ag Infomation Network

Ron Fisher is the founder and CEO and president of Fisher Nut Company based in the Modesto area. He’s been a veteran of the California almond industry since 1980. Here’s his story.

“I started in 1980, working for a company and agriculture was having a tough time all through the eighties. And I saw an opportunity for an independent packer to come into the business that would offer faster cash flow and competitive prices because in the late eighties, the growers were really hurting with high-interest rates,” explained Fisher

Commodity prices were low as well.

“I launched out on my own and opened up an almond processing company that accommodated what the growers needed. And we were able to utilize some of the faster-paying markets to get some cash-flow to the growers that were hurting, to get them through that tough period,” noted Fisher

“And so at that time, we started growing through the benefit of all that. And we were able to offer the growers a slightly different service than was available at that time,” he noted.

“I believe, at the time, there were about 35 handlers in the business. And from there, we were able to grow from our success of accommodating that. And as the industry changed and morphed into a better economic situation where prices were going up and people were planting, more almonds, where water and labor were available. The almond industry within the Central Valley boomed and with that, our company did as well,” he said.

California Ag Today2020-09-09T09:12:31-07:00September 9th, 2020|

California Ag Irrigators Annouce Scholarships

California Agricultural Irrigation Association Names Scholarship Winners

In an effort to develop the next generation of leaders, the California Agricultural Irrigation Association (CAIA) member companies provide scholarships to students with a desire to pursue a career in the agricultural irrigation industry. The sponsors and winners this year were:

Irrigation Design and Construction LLC and RDO Water scholarships went to Brayan Garcia, a senior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo majoring in Agricultural Systems Management and minoring in Water Science.
Buckner Superior awarded the Gary Pendleton Scholarship to Alexa Sutter, a junior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo majoring in BioResource & Ag Engineering.
Agri-Valley Irrigation selected Jose Amezcua, a junior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo, as the recipient of their scholarship. Jose is majoring in BioResource & Ag Engineering.
Fresno Valves & Castings and Agri-Valley Irrigation awarded scholarships to Joshua Porter, a junior at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo majoring in BioResource & Ag Engineering.
Western Ag & Turf chose Liliana Reyes Solorio, a senior at Fresno State University, as the recipient of their scholarship. Liliana is a senior majoring in Agricultural Education with an emphasis in Plant Science.

In 2017, CAIA began offering member companies the opportunity to sponsor scholarships to applicants within the California university and college systems—the average award being $1200 per academic year.

In addition to the financial support, scholarship recipients automatically receive student memberships in CAIA for the duration of their scholarship period. Other companies are encouraged to join these sponsoring companies in supporting our leaders of tomorrow by contacting Jane Townsend (jane@agamsi.com).

California Ag Today2020-09-07T09:20:24-07:00September 7th, 2020|

Stop 4 Bills Affecting Farm Employment Law

Stop Crippling Employment Policy Bills Before the Legislature Adjourns

The California Legislature is expected to consider four important bills in the last week of the 2020 legislative session that will make detrimental changes to California employment law and hinder California farm businesses’ ability to recover from the COVID-19 recession:

AB 685 (Eloise Reyes, D-San Mateo) imposes vague new reporting requirements to numerous government agencies for new COVID-19 infections that may or may not be work-related; may make an employer liable for a retaliatory employment action for sending a sick worker home; and requires employers to give employees medical advice on how to properly isolate at home.

SB 1383 (Hannah-Beth Jackson, D-Santa Barbara) is a massive expansion of family and medical leave requiring employers of as few as five employees to provide job-protected family and medical leaves of up to 12 weeks. SB 1383 also imposes a private right of action permitting small agricultural employers to be sued for unintentional, technical violations of the California Family Rights Act.

SB 1102 (Bill Monning, D-Monterey Bay) requires a misleading new notice for non-immigrant H-2a ag workers that mis-states state California law by claiming that all travel time in employer-provided transportation is compensable time, and that all occupants of employer-provided housing are protected by California landlord/tenant law. These mischaracterizations of California law in a newly-required notice will strengthen employee advocates’ legal position when they sue ag employers claiming that travel time is compensable or that ag employees are protected by landlord/tenant law.

Please contact your Senator TODAY and urge opposition to AB 685, and contact your Assembly TODAY and urge opposition to SB 1383, SB 1159 and SB 1102.

California Ag Today2020-09-05T15:09:22-07:00September 5th, 2020|

Big Updated To Food Safety Practices

California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement Takes Action to Update Food Safety Practices

The California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement Board voted last week to accept several updates to required food safety practices for the farming of leafy greens.

“Over 50 recommended changes were unanimously approved by the Board to strengthen food safety requirements for the production of leafy greens in the areas of Farm Water Use and Field/Equipment Sanitation,” explained Scott Horsfall, CEO of the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement (LGMA). “These are in addition to several significant changes made by the LGMA less than a year ago.”

Scott Horsfall, CEO LGMA

Horsfall explained the most recent updates are the first of many more as the LGMA conducts a complete review of all its mandatory food safety practices, or metrics, in the wake of recent outbreaks linked to romaine lettuce.

“A series of Subcommittees has been reviewing the LGMA’s required food safety practices in all areas,” explained Horsfall. “The Subcommittees for Water Use and Field/Equipment Sanitation met numerous times in recent months to consider new research, examine findings from outbreak investigations, gather input from food safety experts and the public before making recommendations to the full LGMA Board last week. This process is being facilitated by Western Growers as part of an open, transparent process.”

“The LGMA is committed to strengthening required food safety practices throughout our processes,” said Dan Sutton, Chairman of the LGMA and a leafy greens farmer from San Luis Obispo, CA. “We are doing everything possible on our farms to prevent future foodborne illness outbreaks.”

Although many of the 50+ changes strengthen existing language or provide additional guidance and direction for leafy greens food safety, several substantive changes were approved by the LGMA Board last week. Some of the more important changes include:

Adoption of new requirements that ensure the safety of water used during overhead application of pesticides and crop protection materials. This update is similar to changes approved by the LGMA last year requiring that any water from open sources – such as a canal or reservoir — applied via overhead application must be treated to eliminate pathogens during the previous 21 days before harvest.
Approved enhancements to monitoring requirements for water used in farming leafy greens to ensure that regular water quality tests are conducted and that samples are collected throughout the irrigation systems used in leafy greens fields.
Added language to minimize the risk of water applied via furrow irrigation from coming into contact with any edible portion of the leafy greens plant.
Updated best practices for cleaning harvest equipment, containers, tools and bathroom facilities in and near leafy greens fields.
New language designed to prevent the cut end of leafy greens product from coming into contact with the ground during harvest.

Similar changes were also adopted by the Arizona LGMA.

“California and Arizona produce approximately 90% of the leafy greens grown in the U.S.,” said Horsfall. “The LGMA programs ensure a unified set of food safety practices based on the last science are being followed on leafy greens farms in these two states.”

Horsfall explained that approved updates will now be forwarded to the California Department of Food and Agriculture to be incorporated into food safety checklists used by government auditors to verify new practices are being followed on leafy greens farms.

The LGMA program will immediately begin educating members on how to comply with the new standards.

“Additional updates are forthcoming in the areas of Soil Amendments/Inputs and Adjacent Land as the Subcommittees assigned to these topic areas are currently meeting to review existing practices. These Subcommittees will be making their recommendations to the LGMA Board in the near future,” said Horsfall. “We are very grateful to the industry members and scientists who are working diligently as part of the LGMA Subcommittee process to help improve the safety of leafy greens.”

California Ag Today2020-08-28T13:26:46-07:00August 28th, 2020|

Pistachios Now Included in CFAP Direct Grower Payments

Pistachios Eligible for Direct Payments Under Coronavirus Food Assistance

American Pistachio Growers (APG) today announced to its members that the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has now included pistachios in the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP).

The official notice, which is expected to be published in the Federal Register on or about August 14, 2020, states that pistachios are among 20 additional agricultural crops in the U.S. that will receive direct payments under CFAP Category 1 due to commodities experiencing a 5 percent or greater price decline between January 15, 2020 and April 15, 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to making pistachios eligible for direct payments under Category 1, USDA has also increased the payment rate under CFAP Category 2, which is for sales losses for pistachios due to product that spoiled in the marketing channel, or due to the loss of the marketing channel. Increased payments under Category 2 apply to product that was actually shipped from the point of origin.

“As a grower, we know and feel the effects directly when prices decline. This program provides the support needed by farmers during this difficult time we are all currently experiencing,” said Brian Watte, Chair of APG’s Board of Directors. “

Pistachios were not initially included in the CFAP direct grower payment program, but through the concerted efforts of APG’s Washington, D.C. lobbying firm and numerous conference calls placed by APG representatives to officials within USDA to provide them with accurate sales data, pistachios are now included in the Category 1 list.

“We’re pleased that USDA took the effort to review all sales data on pistachios, particularly exports which have seen declines as a result of the Coronavirus pandemic experienced on a global basis,” said APG President Richard Matoian.

Pistachio growers can access the necessary forms at www.farmers.gov/CFAP. Matoian explained that growers will be working through their local Farm Service Agency office to submit the forms for direct payment.

Growers are advised to call (877) 508-8364 to begin the application process. For growers who applied for and were paid for CFAP prior to Category 1 eligibility being granted should not submit a new application, but rather should contact their FSA office to amend the application. Importantly, USDA has announced that the application deadline has been extended to September 11, 2020.

California Ag Today2020-08-27T10:36:58-07:00August 27th, 2020|

50,000 Masks Distributed to Ag Employees In SJV

California Fresh Fruit Association and California Farmworker Foundation Distribute More Than 50,000 N-95 Masks

The California Fresh Fruit Association (CFFA) and California Farmworker Foundation (CFF) are pleased to announce they have distributed over 50,000 N-95 masks and single-use surgical masks to agricultural employees across the Central San Joaquin Valley.

Both organizations are appreciative of the quick action and partnership between the Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and Governor Gavin Newsom’s Office of Emergency Services (OES) to supply agricultural employees with much-needed protection while the air quality index levels are at unhealthy levels due to the wildfires in California.

Ian LeMay

CFFA President Ian LeMay stated, “The wellness of Central Valley agricultural employees is of paramount importance, as they are an essential part in keeping the food supply chain moving every day. We are grateful for the partnership between Fresno County Department of Agriculture, CFDA and Governor Newsom’s OES for their support to provide these employees with the resources they need to keep them healthy.”

CFF Executive Director Hernan Hernandez added “CFF’s mission is to provide support to California’s farmworkers, and having the ability to distribute these N-95 masks through our Ambassador program enables employees to stay safe while working outside. We are grateful to all of the partners that have contributed to this cause.”

California Ag Today2020-08-26T10:44:57-07:00August 26th, 2020|

Go With Grapes Commercials Launch

Go with Grapes From California Every Day

A set of three new commercials extending the Go with Grapes from California Every Day global marketing campaign has launched in the U.S. and key export markets.

Airing now in the U.S. on cable television, each commercial focuses on one of three key grape-oriented messages: California origin, snacking, or health. In the U.S., the commercials also run on social media and on a variety of online content providers.

Kathleen Nave, President of the California Table Grape Commission

In key export markets, consumers will see the commercials in a variety of venues. In South Korea, the commercials will be shown on digital screens in subway stations, malls, and surrounding outdoor areas. Consumers in Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines will see the commercials on social media. In Japan and Taiwan, consumers will see the commercials in-store near the grape display and on retailer-operated digital screens and billboards.

“The commercials are vibrant and lighthearted and in a simple way communicate grapes’ centrality in snacking and heart health while reinforcing that the best grapes are grown in California,” said Kathleen Nave, president of the California Table Grape Commission which fields the grower-funded campaign.

And to find out how great grapes are for you see this article.

View the commercials below: