Key Agriculture Component Added to Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Awards

For the first time in the history of the Governor’s Economic and Leadership Awards (GEELA), the category of Agricultural Ecosystem Services has been added for statewide recognition by the California Environmental Protection Agency.

The new category will spotlight the multiple benefits gained from farming and ranching, including innovative and sustainable approaches to water and energy conservation, food crop production efficiency, and management of working lands.

GEELA honors individuals, organizations and businesses that have demonstrated exceptional leadership and achievements in conservation, environmental protection, public-private partnerships, and strengthening the state’s economy.

Applications are due Friday, July 11, 2014 and may be obtained at www.calepa.ca.gov/Awards/GEELA/.

“Ecosystem services are an essential element in farming and ranching,” said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “They include waterfowl habitat in rice fields, pollinator support on farms, and the resolute commitment to conservation demonstrated throughout agriculture. I urge our farmers and ranchers to strongly consider this new category.”

More information about ecosystem services may be found at http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/EnvironmentalStewardship/EcosystemServices.html

Established in 1993, GEELA is administered by the California Environmental Protection Agency in collaboration with the Natural Resources Agency; the Department of Food and Agriculture; the State Transportation Agency; the Business, Consumer Services, and Housing Agency; the Labor and Workforce Development Agency; the Health and Human Services Agency; and the Governor’s Office.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:27-07:00June 9th, 2014|

Merced Irrigation District Growers to Receive Increased Water Supply

Merced Irrigation District officials say growers in the district will receive additional surface water, after action taken Tuesday by MID’s board of directors.

The increased water supply is the direct result of regulatory relief MID received from the state after months of planning a multibenefit water management action for the Merced River, according to a press release from Mike Jensen, MID spokesman.

MID growers were most recently expecting 0.9 acre-feet of surface water supply this growing season. However, MID officials noted increased water supply would be available, and recommended increasing the allocation to 1.1 acre-feet of water per acre.

Class II growers will receive 0.55 acre-feet after Tuesday’s MID board action. Deliveries are expected to continue until Sept. 7, according to Jensen.

“This year still remains among the most challenging we have ever seen,” MID General Manager John Sweigard said in the release. “Nevertheless, we are extremely pleased there was some surface water supply relief for our growers.”

Additionally, the board voted to decrease the in-season agricultural water rate for growers from $100.67 per acre-foot to $75 per acre-foot. The new rate is retroactive and applicable to all surface-water use for the 2014 irrigation season.

The reduction in the 2014 water rates comes after MID growers recently approved a rate increase to $100 per acre-foot, ensuring the financial health of MID during the drought crisis. Since that time, MID implemented the multibenefit water management action for the Merced River after months of planning and receiving final approvals from the state.

It involved obtaining 25,000 additional acre-feet of water from Lake McClure for growers, and providing 5,000 acre-feet of water for a critical-year spring fish-flow in the Merced River. The spring fish-flow water was transferred to other water users after it served its environmental purpose in the river system. MID received $5 million in revenue to help the district recover lost revenue associated with the drought.

In addition to the surface water supply from Lake McClure, MID is again implementing its Supplemental Water Supply Pool Program. Growers have already elected to receive additional water that is made available from conjunctive groundwater pumping. The district expects to provide approximately 28,000 acre-feet of water through the program this year, the release said.

MID began deliveries April 21.

Facing a third dry year with unprecedented drought conditions, the board of directors earlier this year enacted penalties for any water theft this season. For a first offense, a grower will be fined $1,000 and be charged $500 for each acre-foot used. For a second offense, the grower would receive the same fines and penalties while losing access to MID water this year.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:28-07:00June 6th, 2014|

Borlaug CAST Communication Award — UC Davis College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences

Source: Patricia Bailey

Photo Credit: John Stumbos

The Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) has announced that Alison Van Eenennaam, a geneticist and Cooperative Extension specialist in animal genomics and biotechnology at the University of California, Davis, is the recipient of its 2014 Borlaug CAST Communication Award.

Announcement of the award, which will be presented to Van Eenennaam on Oct. 15 along with the World Food Prize Symposium in Iowa, was made at the World Bank in Washington, D.C.

Established in 1986 and named after Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, the award is presented to a food or agricultural scientist who is actively engaged in research; has made significant contributions to science; and communicates the importance of food and agricultural science to the public, policymakers and the news media.

Van Eenennaam’s research and extension program in UC Davis’ Department of Animal Science is focused on developing science-based educational materials about the uses of animal genomics and biotechnology in livestock production systems.

She has served on advisory committees in the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to provide expert counsel on animal biotechnology.

Van Eenennaam is a passionate advocate for science and frequently speaks about agricultural technology to the public and policymakers, both nationally and internationally. She frequently provides science-based commentary to the media on sometimes-controversial topics, including genetic engineering and cloning. She also works to increase public understanding of agricultural biotechnology, using a variety of media, including YouTube videos.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:28-07:00June 5th, 2014|

Water Finally Reaching Growers in Fresno Irrigation District

Source: Dale Yurong; ABC 30

Growers in the Fresno Irrigation District are relieved to see irrigation water finally being delivered to their farms.

In a normal year, farmers would see water delivered for six months in the Fresno Irrigation District. This year, they’re getting a fraction of that but that still beats the zero allocation some growers are getting.

The almonds are developing nicely in Mitch Sangha‘s Fresno County orchard. He has been putting his old well to the test since winter — pumping groundwater because the drought has severely reduced water deliveries. But this past weekend, the water finally flowed as the Fresno Irrigation District began a six-week-long delivery.

“It’s going to help us a lot. Hopefully it will recharge the underground and hopefully we can shut our pumps off and let the water table build back up,” said Sangha.

“It’s a large district. Its 245,000 acres,” said Fresno Irrigation District General Manager Gary Serrato.

He says 4,000 growers now have access to the much needed water.

“The thought is that by starting up in June because there are wells going dry and groundwater tables are dropping that it buys them time as well,” said Serrato.

Sangha says he’ll take whatever water he can get. The constant groundwater pumping impacts homes which rely on the same underground aquifer.

“Our domestic pump on this rental house is only 60 feet so when I turn this pump on that runs out of water,” said Sangha.

“There’s been a lot of pressure on our groundwater this year, and we’ve seen historical drops like we’ve never seen before,” said Serrato.

Sangha says the delivery will help bring his almonds into production and will help raisin growers get through a critical period. Still, some farmers rely solely on the water deliveries and don’t have underground wells to pump groundwater.

Serrato says this is the third driest year on record. Only the droughts of 1976-77 and 1932-33 were worse.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:28-07:00June 5th, 2014|

Food Assistance Available In Counties Hit By California Drought

Source: CBS Sacramento

Families in areas hardest hit by California’s drought are getting some much-needed help as part of the state’s $687 million drought relief bill.

Yolo County is able to put some of that money to use by feeding families in need.

“Most of us here in town, they work on the fields, and they depend on the season,” said Claudia Covorrubias.

But she says this season, the drought is taking its toll, and her husband is out of his usual farm work. It’s a familiar story in Yolo County.

“We need the water,” she said. “If there’s no water, there’s no planting. So if there’s no planting, there’s no food.”

The need was seen by state leaders who set aside $25 million in the recent drought bill to help feed families like hers. The money is being spent on boxes going to food banks from 24 of the hardest hit counties where unemployment and agricultural work is higher than the state average.

COUNTIES AFFECTED: Amado, Butte, Colusa, Fresno, Glenn, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Merced, Modoc, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, Santa Cruz, Sierra, Siskiyou, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Yolo, Yuba

The Yolo County Food Bank began handing out more than 5,600 boxes of donations at two locations on Monday.

The boxes include nonperishable, nutritionally balanced food that can last four or five days for a family of four.

Families qualify if the drought has caused them to be unemployed. “It’s all on an honor system,” said Stephanie Sanchez. “We’re really trying to just help out families in need. If they can’t prove it, we don’t want to have to turn them away.”

Emmanuella Eliadiazzamora has a daughter and is expecting another child in less than a month. For her, the help is huge.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:28-07:00June 5th, 2014|

USDA Announces Programs to Conserve Sensitive Land, Help Beginning Farmers

WASHINGTON, June 4, 2014 – Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that farmers, ranchers and landowners committed to protecting and conserving environmentally sensitive land may now sign up for the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). The Secretary also announced that retiring farmers enrolled in CRP could receive incentives to transfer a portion of their land to beginning, disadvantaged or veteran farmers through the Transition Incentives Program (TIP).Vilsack continued, “The average age of farmers and ranchers in the United States is 58 years, and twice as many are 65 or older compared to those 45 or younger. The cost of buying land is one of the biggest barriers to many interested in getting started in agriculture. The Transition Incentives Program is very useful as we work to help new farmers and ranchers get started.”

The Conservation Reserve Program provides incentives to producers who utilize conservation methods on environmentally-sensitive lands. For example, farmers are monetarily compensated for establishing long-term vegetative species, such as approved grasses or trees (known as “covers”) to control soil erosion, improve water quality, and enhance wildlife habitat.

CRP consists of a “continuous” and “general” sign-up period. Continuous sign up for the voluntary program starts June 9. Under continuous sign-up authority, eligible land can be enrolled in CRP at any time with contracts of up to 10 to 15 years in duration. In lieu of a general sign-up this year, USDA will allow producers with general CRP contracts expiring this September to have the option of a one-year contract extension. USDA will also implement the 2014 Farm Bill’s requirement that producers enrolled through general sign-up for more than five years can exercise the option to opt-out of the program if certain other conditions are met. In addition, the new grassland provisions, which will allow producers to graze their enrolled land, will enable producers to do so with more flexibility.

The Transition Incentives Program provides two additional years of payments for retired farmers and ranchers who transition expiring CRP acres to socially disadvantaged, military veteran, or beginning producers who return the land to sustainable grazing or crop production. Sign up will also begin June 9. TIP funding was increased by more than 30 percent in the 2014 Farm Bill, providing up to $33 million through 2018.www.fsa.usda.gov.

Both the CRP and TIP were reauthorized by the 2014 Farm Bill. The Farm Bill builds on historic economic gains in rural America over the past five years, while achieving meaningful reform and billions of dollars in savings for taxpayers. Since enactment, USDA has made significant progress to implement each provision of this critical legislation, including providing disaster relief to farmers and ranchers; strengthening risk management tools; expanding access to rural credit; funding critical research; establishing innovative public-private conservation partnerships; developing new markets for rural-made products; and investing in infrastructure, housing and community facilities to help improve quality of life in rural America. For more information, visit www.usda.gov/farmbill.

Cultivating New Farmers and Ranchers- CDFA

Farm demographics continue to change in California. The average age of a farmer is 58 years old, relatively few heirs are willing to take over farms, and fewer people are interested in becoming farmers because of a variety of challenges. This dynamic is made more troublesome by the fact that food demand is expected to double worldwide by the year 2050. As a result, the opportunity and need for California farmers will be significant, and the cultivation of new farmers and ranchers is more important than ever.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:28-07:00June 4th, 2014|

Could CDFA’s ACP Control Policy Devastate Our Citrus Industry Like Florida’s?

Citrus Industry is Fired Up Over Softened ACP Control Policy

By Patrick Cavanaugh

It seems that CDFA officials are giving up on controlling the Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP) in Central California citrus growing areas! It sure looks like it.

Ever since the May 12 ACP trappings in the Lindsay area of Tulare County, there has been a major back-step in what has been an aggressive mandatory spray program to control any possible live psyllids within an 800-meter radius around the trap.

Now CDFA is suggesting that the spray programs should be voluntary and only 400 feet around the trap find.

According to Joel Nelsen, president of the Exeter-based California Citrus Mutual, “The conversation relative to the change in eradicating or treating for the ACP came about with a discussion between a few members of the scientific community and the department.”

“Frankly, the industry was unaware of this possible change in the program. When it was first released to the AG commissioner, it shocked everybody–is my understanding,” Nelsen said.

“And as a result, last Friday afternoon, the executive committee members from our pest and disease management committee had a very direct conversation with senior leadership of the CDFA. I understand that the conversation was extremely candid, somewhat emotional; if the industry to is going to be supporting a program to the tune of 15 million dollars, they want a say in how the program is run. And evidently, the Department of Agriculture is making some subjective decisions that we don’t believe are appropriate.”

“From my perspective, there were mistakes made at the onset of this program that we had to learn from; and if we don’t take seriously—psyllid control, psyllid control, psyllid control!—we’re going to end up in the same type of quandary that our colleagues in Florida, Texas, Mexico and even Brazil are in.

Too many psyllids, an endemic population, some of which will contract citrus greening disease and eventually contaminate citrus trees, could devastate central California’s $2 Billion industry. “If we even allow one psyllid to continue to foster a population, then we have failed at our effort. And so from the perspective of Citrus Mutual, we are in an eradication mode,” Nelsen said.

“We are in a position in which we can find isolated psyllids and treat, and we are in position where continuous trapping and tapping (with bats and trays in searching for psyllids) and intensive trapping is not finding an endemic population. So for the department to argue that the population is endemic, its a ‘what if’ scenario that we don’t think is appropriate.”

Nelsen said that the pushback by his pest and disease management committee might have made a difference. “I haven’t received anything, but I think that conversation last Friday afternoon yielded some intended results. There’s a reconsideration, and I give a lot of credit to the industry members who stood up the department; but until it happens, its not real,” he said.

Patrick Cavanaugh2021-05-12T11:06:01-07:00June 3rd, 2014|

Governor Brown Issues Proclamation Declaring Real California Milk Month

Source: CDFA

Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. issued a proclamation declaring June 2014 as “Real California Milk Month” in the State of California.

The text of the proclamation is below:

PROCLAMATION

California prides itself on its vibrant agricultural sector, of which the dairy industry forms a key part. Our dairy farms contribute in innumerable ways to the state’s economic prosperity.

California’s dairy farmers’ hard work has made them leaders in the field. Their leadership has resulted in the annual production of over 40 billion pounds of milk, accounting for about twenty-one percent of the nation’s entire supply.

The landscape, economy, health, and nutrition of California would not be the same without our dairy farms. I urge all Californians to take time to appreciate the privilege of living in one of the world’s great dairy-producing regions, and to support our industry by buying milk and other dairy products from our Golden State.

NOW THEREFORE I, EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor of the State of California, do hereby proclaim June 2014, as “Real California Milk Month.”

IN WITNESS WHEREOF I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Great Seal of the State of California to be affixed this 29th day of May 2014.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:29-07:00June 3rd, 2014|

The Groundbreaking of the New Jordan Research Center to Take Place on June 13

Source: http://www.fresnostate.edu/jcast/jrc/

As the flagship university in the top agricultural region in the world, Fresno State is a fitting home for a world-class research center to discover and investigate the most advanced concepts and practices of agriculture, food and natural resources.

The new Jordan Research Center at Fresno State fosters collaboration between some of the brightest minds in agriculture, engineering, science and mathematics. The 30,000-square-foot facility is slated for groundbreaking in spring 2014, reinventing Fresno State as a leading research institution for decades to come.

Please join Fresno State for the groundbreaking of the new Jordan Research Center on June 13.

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:29-07:00June 2nd, 2014|

Clean Water Act: Farm Bureau Takes Its Case to Head of EPA

Source: Christine Souza; Ag Alert

As momentum builds encouraging federal agencies to abandon a proposal to expand their enforcement authority under the Clean Water Act, California Farm Bureau Federation leaders met with the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, urging her to see firsthand the impact the proposal would have on family farmers and ranchers.

During an annual federal policy trip to Washington, D.C., last week, a Farm Bureau delegation met with EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, whose agency—along with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers—proposed the rule changes last month.

The proposal would expand the definition of the term “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act, potentially allowing EPA and the Corps to regulate virtually every area of ground that gets wet or has flow during rainfall.

The change would expand regulatory authority to many land features including puddles, ponds, ditches, temporary and small wetlands, giving the agencies the power to regulate and potentially prohibit land-use and farming practices in or near them.

During her meeting with the Farm Bureau delegation, McCarthy said she is interested in understanding the concerns of agriculture and that she would like to maintain an open dialogue with those who would be affected by the proposed rule.

CFBF President Paul Wenger suggested to McCarthy that EPA officials take time to tour California farms and ranches, perhaps tying in the visits with a planned EPA outreach meeting on the proposed rule, tentatively scheduled for mid-July in Berkeley.

“We think it’s critical that people from the EPA see for themselves how this rule could hamstring routine farming and ranching activities,” Wenger said after the meeting. “We appreciate Administrator McCarthy taking the time to visit with us in Washington to hear directly from people who would be affected by the rule, and having EPA officials visit farms and ranches would provide them with information that no amount of written or verbal comments could provide.”

Aimee Meidinger, operations manager of Brokaw Nursery in Ventura, said the expanded definition of waters of the U.S. “could affect our ability and decisions to farm on my family’s avocado orchard. The definition of navigable waters is being changed to encompass almost all areas where water settles, regardless if they are seasonally wet or not.”

Farmers in California are very proactive in working with the current Clean Water Act regulations, Meidinger said, through use of irrigated-lands groups, surface and groundwater monitoring, pesticide use reporting and continuing education.

“We are good stewards of the land,” Meidinger said. “This proposal cannot be a one-size-fits-all national policy.”

Patrick Cavanaugh2016-05-31T19:35:29-07:00May 31st, 2014|

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COUNTIES AFFECTED: Amado, Butte, Colusa, Fresno, Glenn, Kern, Kings, Lake, Lassen, Madera, Merced, Modoc, Monterey, San Benito, San Joaquin, Santa Cruz, Sierra, Siskiyou, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tehama, Tulare, Yolo, Yuba

Citrus Industry is Fired Up Over Softened ACP Control Policy

By Patrick Cavanaugh

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