Emma Thorpe is CAL FFA VP

FFA Vice President Discovered a Passion for Food Science in the Organization

By Tim Hammerich, with the Ag Information Network of the West

Emma Thorpe was recently elected to state Vice President FFA office. The graduating senior from El Capitan High School outside of the San Diego area was first encouraged to join the organization by her sister. But it was a competition during her freshman year that ignited her passion for the organization and also her career choice.

“The agriscience FFA competition. Mr. Meade really pushed me my freshman year because I came in wanting to do science, but I didn’t know how we can incorporate that with agriculture, because I thought our program was primarily focused on farming. And so he told me about the idea of a science competition,” said Thorpe.

Not only did she compete in agriscience, but won it on both the state and national levels in the food science category. This led her to competing again for the next three years, and it will come as no surprise what she hopes to do career-wise after her year as a state officer.

“That’s what I want to major in college now is because I was so involved with it the last four years that I developed a huge passion for food science. And so after this year of state office, I really want to pursue that in college,” said Thorpe.

Helping other students find what they’re passionate about will be a focus for Thorpe as she spends the next year serving over 80,000 California FFA members that span over 320 high schools.

California Ag Today2020-06-12T08:19:53-07:00June 12th, 2020|

Almond Leafout Problem Is Not Widespread

Leafout Problems In Almonds Not New

By Patrick Cavanaugh with the Ag Information Network of the West

The leafout problem in almonds has been around a couple of years, throughout Northern California, said Luke Milliron, a UCANR orchard system, farm advisor serving Butte, Glenn, and Tehama Counties.

Milliron explained that the leafout problem in almonds is not exactly new. “Some of these orchards have actually had the problem for a number of years now. Dani Lightle former advisor in Glenn County observed a number of orchards in Tehama County with the problem and going back to those same orchards this year, she said some of those growers say that it’s been getting worse in those blocks and the trees really don’t look good,” Milliron said. “But it’s certainly not something that’s affecting, for example, every Monterey tree, which is usually more susceptible to the problem.”

“There are orchards across the state that looked fabulous, so it’s highly variable between blocks and within blocks it might only be a low percentage of the trees being affected,” Milliron noted.

The reason for this disorder is not really widely known, but there are theories.

“Having warm winters and potentially this problem being in those varieties because of some genetic predisposition. Plus, why are we seeing it on some trees and not others? Well, maybe those trees had other stresses such as Anthracnose or mites or some other stressor at play that led them to be pushed into this stress, vegetative leaf failure state,” Milliron said.

California Ag Today2020-06-10T08:27:30-07:00June 10th, 2020|

Bridging the Gap from Farm to Table

FFA Reporter Hopes to Bridge the Gap from Farm to Table

By Tim Hammerich, with the Ag Information Network of the West

Taylor Sollecito is California FFA’s State Reporter elected about a month ago. She’s from Salinas FFA, but her love of agriculture stems from her time at a family farm in Fresno County.

“My grandfather and my mom’s whole family has a family farming operation in Fresno County. So I really derived a lot of my passion for agriculture and my connection to it from my grandfather and that side of the family. Even just getting to see their hard work and dedication on the operation, just when I would go visit them in the winter and the summer. truly just inspired me and sparked that interest in my mind,” said Sollecito.

“And then coming to high school, I really entered with the mindset of, I just want to raise and show livestock and that’s all I’m ever going to do at FFA. But now coming to my senior year, I’ve found that I really have an interest in bridging that gap between production agriculture and the general community around us. Because there is a general disconnect that I can see between my peers and the community that surrounds me. And those that are producing the livestock and the produce, and those products that are coming from farm to table,” Sollecito noted.

Taylor hopes to bridge that disconnect this year as she travels the state serving 10s of thousands of California FFA members. After her year she plans to move closer to that extended family to attend Fresno State University.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:17:07-07:00June 9th, 2020|

CA FFA Treasurer Reese Gonsalves Promotes Careers in Ag

FFA Treasurer Instills Confidence to Pursue Agriculture

By Tim Hammerich with the Ag Information Network of the West

Reese Gonsalves was elected state FFA Treasurer at their virtual convention in April. She is a 4th generation family farmer and 3rd generation Modesto FFA member. Through her experience she found a love for the marketing and communications side of the ag industry.

“As I’ve gotten older, I’ve helped more with my family’s sale, kind of in the media side of things. So we have a bull sale every year and our sale is all online,” said Gonsalves. “We record videos and take pictures of the bulls, and then have it in a catalog and stuff. So I’ve helped a little bit more with that. I really like helping photograph the bulls and doing the sale management as well. So it’s kind of shifted as I’ve gotten older, which has been really cool because I found that my passion is actually more with the media and meeting with customers side of the production.”

Gonsalves said the FFA has given her confidence, and she hopes to spend this state officer year instilling a level of confidence in others.

“If I can help one member, and help them get the confidence to be able to help other people, I think that that would be amazing and to be a really great chain reaction of members helping other members,” said Gonsalves.

Her FFA experiences have inspired her to pursue degrees in Agricultural Communications and Agribusiness. She will attend Oklahoma State University after her year of service to the organization.

California Ag Today2020-06-06T12:45:44-07:00June 8th, 2020|

State FFA Sentinel Wants Inclusiveness in Ag

State FFA Sentinel Spreads the Message of Inclusiveness in Agriculture

By Tim Hammerich, with the Ag Information Network of the West

Maico Ortiz from Galt was elected State FFA Sentinel last month. For the first time, the association had to move their elections online due to COVID-19 restrictions. Throughout his year of service, the newly elected state officer hopes to spread the message of inclusiveness.

“Inclusiveness is something that has really just stuck with me. At Galt High, we were very adamant about making sure everybody felt included and making sure everybody felt like they had a home in the ag department. And I know California FFA has done a ton of work in terms of moving into that direction,” Ortiz said. “But we also have a lot of work to do, and that’s okay because I mean, not everything’s going to happen overnight. But, we offer so many pathways for students in order for them to find a career or be successful. I was very attracted to the science aspect of it and the leadership aspect of it, but we have mechanics, we have horticulture,” he noted.

“There’s just so many different parts of it that students can really find their passions within it,” Ortiz. “So I want to make sure that students always know they have a home in their ag departments or in the association as a whole and to make sure that they find their passions and regardless of what they decide to do after high school, that they can always look back on their time and be like, that was worth it, And I’m happy that I got to be a part of it,” he said

Ortiz, who is already a student at Chico State, will take the year off from college to serve the youth agricultural leadership organization.

California Ag Today2020-05-31T17:09:16-07:00June 3rd, 2020|

Almond Board Has New Board of Directors

Almond Board of California 2020 Results

The Almond Board of California has released election results for the Board of Directors positions whose terms of office will run from August 1, 2020 through July 31, 2021. The names of the following nominees have been submitted to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for selection:

Independent Grower:

Member Position One (one-year term):
Paul Ewing, Los Banos

Alternate Position One:
Joe Gardiner, Earlimart

Independent Handler:
Member Position One (three-year term):
Alexi Rodriguez, Caruthers

Alternate Position One:
Ron Fisher, Modesto

Member Position Three (one-year term):
Darren Rigg, Le Grand

Alternate Position Two:

Chad DeRose, McFarland

Cooperative Grower:
Member Position One (three-year term):
George Goshgarian Jr., Fowler

Alternate Position One:
Christine Gemperle, Ceres

Cooperative Handler:
Member Position Two (three-year term):
Bill Morecraft, Sacramento

Alternate Position Two:
Alicia Rockwell, Sacramento

ABOUT THE ALMOND BOARD OF CALIFORNIA
Almonds from California are a healthy, natural, wholesome and quality food. The Almond Board of California promotes almonds with a research-based approach to responsible farming, production and marketing on behalf of the more than 7,600 almond growers and processors in California, many of whom have third- and fourth-generation family operations. Established in 1950 and based in Modesto, California, the Almond Board of California is a non-profit organization that administers a grower-enacted Federal Marketing Order under the supervision of the United States Department of Agriculture. For more information on the Almond Board of California or almonds, visit Almonds.com or check out California Almonds on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and the California Almonds blog.

California Ag Today2020-06-02T11:14:46-07:00June 2nd, 2020|

California Cattle Leaders Stay Strong During Pandemic

Cattle Leaders Launch Resilience 2020 Campaign

By Tim Hammerich with the Ag Information Network

In the face of a food system that is under tremendous pressure, the California Cattle Council, in conjunction with the California Cattlemen’s Association, launched a Resilience 2020 Campaign.

Dave Daley is a Northern California Cattle Rancher and Chair of the California Cattle Council. “We just need people to understand how committed we are to continue to do what we’ve done, forever. We’re pretty sustainable. We’re very resilient. We’re in this for the long haul, just like Californians are. And the key there is that we actually continue to produce the food in a safe and wholesome manner, nutritious and environmentally sound. So we’re really proud of what we do. It’s important for California to know that we aren’t going anywhere.”

The combined effort seeks to reassure consumers that California ranchers are well-positioned to produce an ample supply of the safest, most sustainable beef anywhere in the world.

“The challenge we have right now is the processing piece. It’s not raising the beef, it’s getting it processed into market. But it’s there; no need to hoard. There’s beef available and it’s going to continue to move through the system and the pipeline. It’s just a very unusual time. To try and re-tool that on the fly, we’re facing a lot of unknowns is the best way to put it. But the key to the campaign is to recognize we’re in this together, we respect what Californians are dealing with it. We’re going to work with it, we’ll come through it on the other end,” said Daley

Visit www.calcattlemen.org/resilience for more information.

California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:17:07-07:00May 8th, 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.

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California Ag Today2021-05-12T11:05:00-07:00May 4th, 2020|

Tough Market for California Lemons

Lemons are Ready, but Markets are Not

By Tim Hammerich, with AgInfo.Net

Recent weeks have been tough for the restaurant and food service industries, and for the farmers that supply them. This could not come at a worse time for the California lemon industry, who harvests this time of year and relies on these markets.

Chris Sayer is a lemon producer in Ventura County. “It’s raining. Hopefully this delay of a week will allow them to start to clear the packing house out and then maybe we can get moving on selling some fruit. About half the lemons go to restaurants. And witch that shut down and this being the peak of lemon harvest season, basically all the storage is at capacity and they can’t pick more unless they sell or dump something to get things moving again.”

Without restaurant demand and very little processing or long term storage capability, packers and producers like Chris are left with very few options.

“Usually Ventura County gets picked over the course of about six or eight weeks. I mean, we’re already a little bit behind.,” said Sayer. “I would say that I’ve probably got two more weeks before we start losing fruit, either just from dropping or just sort of gets overripe. And of course, even once we get it harvested and into storage, you know, prices are awful at the moment.”

Sayer knows it won’t be a good year for lemons, but hopes that he can at least get something for harvesting a crop.

California Ag Today2020-04-21T16:37:11-07:00April 23rd, 2020|

Karen Ross on 2020 Earth Day

Every Day is Earth Day in Agriculture

By Karen Ross, CDFA Secretary

As we take this moment to note the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, I’d like to call attention to our farmers, ranchers and farm workers; and the great work they do every day, no matter what Mother Nature throws at them. The twist that they—and all of us—are dealing with this year brings a whole new test of their adaptability and resiliency.

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross

They are meeting the challenge the only way they know how – through hard work and dedication in working with their employees to deliver food to grocery stores and food banks while simultaneously contending with a collapse of other parts of the supply chain. And they’re doing all that while maintaining all-important environmental stewardship.

The livelihood of farmers and ranchers is tied to the land and to our communities – the understanding of natural cycles; sowing, tending and harvesting; conserving, recycling and streamlining; learning and improving. These cycles and so many more are at the heart of farming.

Every day is Earth Day in agriculture. Our farmers and ranchers are restoring the health of our soil, turning dairy emissions into energy, conserving water, reducing and optimizing fertilizer use, protecting pollinators, incorporating wildlife conservation into their business plans, and doing dozens of other things that contribute in real, quantifiable ways to combating climate change. And because of California’s leadership role in agriculture, we are also a beacon for other growers around the world to learn about what works and multiply our successes on their own land.

I’m proud of everything our farmers and ranchers and farm workers are doing, and I’m honored to be part of a department that helps them achieve these goals. I want them to know that we’re here for them through this crisis, and we will move forward with them when it’s over.

I wish you all a 50th anniversary of Earth Day that is full of progress and optimism.

California Ag Today2020-04-22T08:31:25-07:00April 22nd, 2020|