Monthly Archives: June 2014

CDFA continues to accept applications for the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program, or SWEEP. The deadline to apply is July 15, 2014. The program is designed to provide financial assistance to agricultural operations for the implementation of water conservation measures that increase water efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Approximately $10 million has been made available for SWEEP through …

California’s floriculture crop leads the nation with a value of $1.13 billion in sales, according to a new report from the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). In 2013, California producers increased their sales from $1.10 billion to $1.13 billion, an increase of 3 percent, giving California 26.6 percent of the total U.S. wholesale value. California cut flower production accounts …

As a drought-stricken California moves further into a hot summer, Save Our Water – a partnership between the Association of California Water Agencies(ACWA) and the California Department of Water Resources(DWR) – is launching Don’t Waste Summer, a campaign devoted to providing daily tips and news to help Californians find ways to conserve at home and at work every day. Don’t Waste Summer kicks off this …

A encore presentation from the Growing California video series – “Farmers’ Markets.” This video content is no longer available.

By Edward Ortiz GLENN COUNTY — Olive farmer Dan Kennedy scores a pellet-size olive with his fingernail. The scoring offers a burst of clear liquid. It’s a telling mix of oil and water. For Kennedy, the oozing oil portends the olive’s promising future; the water is a testament to the olive as a drought-resistant crop. In the midst of one of …

SAN DIEGO – Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. today signed a balanced, on-time state budget that pays down debt, shores up the teachers’ retirement system, builds a solid Rainy Day Fund and directs additional funding for local schools and health care. “This on-time budget provides for today and saves for the future,” said Governor Brown. “We’re paying off the state’s …

Note – National Pollinator Week for 2014 is now underway.    OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR June 16-23, 2014                                                       California Pollinator Week Pollinator species such as birds and insects are essential partners to farmers …

A walk through any of California’s 700 certified farmers markets is all it takes to make the point: This state’s farms are something special. Our farmers are innovators —as creative as they are productive, to the tune of $42.6 billion worth of agricultural produce and commodities a year. But they have a lot of help right under their feet: the …

By Eric Holthaus In a year with (practically) no water, here’s something that was inevitable: farming without any water at all. Small farms around the Bay Area are reviving an ancient technique that is just what it sounds like. Add “dry farming” to the list of ideas that could get this dry state through the worst dry spell in half a millennium. The …