Monthly Archives: December 2015

Secretary Ross joins Farm-to-Food Bank event in Fresno

December 17, 2015   Office of Public Affairs

  From ABC-30 TV External video – no longer available   From the Fresno Bee By Robert Rodriguez California farmers are being encouraged to donate any surplus produce or secondary product as part of a statewide effort to boost the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables among the state’s network of food banks. The campaign is being led by a …

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“Can Creations” deck the halls at CDFA this holiday season

December 17, 2015   Office of Public Affairs

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross is taking a page out of Santa’s book today, riding her sleigh (Prius) around town to visit her elves (employees) at their various toy factories (labs and offices) and share a warm cup of holiday cheer. She’ll be viewing the staff’s “can creations” as part of the annual food drive as she makes the rounds, too …

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California leads the nation with $2.88 billion in horticultural sales

December 16, 2015   Office of Public Affairs

SACRAMENTO – California leads the nation with $2.88 billion in horticulture sales, according to the 2014 Census of Horticultural Specialties report released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS). Of the $13.8 billion total horticultural sales in the U.S., 21 percent were from California. This report contains the results of the tenth Census of Horticultural Specialties …

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To defeat the drought look under your feet – from the National Journal

December 16, 2015   Office of Public Affairs

By Ted Hesson If you strolled past a vine­yard on Don Camer­on’s land four win­ters ago, you would have seen something odd: wa­ter, up to a foot-and-a-half of it, drench­ing the grapev­ines and turn­ing a nor­mally pic­tur­esque field in­to an un­sightly bog. The 63-year-old Camer­on is the gen­er­al man­ager and vice pres­id­ent of Ter­ran­ova Ranch, a 5,500-acre farm in Cali­for­nia’s San …

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COMET-Farm: Science-based Tools to help Specialty Crop Growers

December 15, 2015   Dr. Amrith Gunasekara, CDFA Science Advisor

Agricultural food production and the relationship with the air, water and soil systems is complex, both from scientific and practical perspectives. Bringing the scientific interrelationships into a user-friendly on-line tool to help agricultural producers understand their entire farming operation’s carbon footprint is the challenge that the U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Services (USDA-NRCS) and Colorado State University undertook …

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Public comments flood in as FDA considers what foods are ‘natural’ – from the Sacramento Bee

December 14, 2015   Office of Public Affairs

By Michael Doyle, Sacramento Bee/McClatchy DC WASHINGTON – San Francisco resident Elizabeth Cox bought a bag of All-Natural Mission Tortilla Triangles in August 2012. That simple purchase helped fire up a high-stakes labeling dispute that’s subsequently engaged federal judges, regulators and lawmakers alike. Now, one month after asking members of the public what they think, the Food and Drug Administration …

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Delivering on Climate Smart Agriculture

December 11, 2015   Karen Ross, Secretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture

Our trip to the Netherlands is just the start of greater collaboration with the Dutch in addressing climate change in the agricultural sector. The innovations in water use, green house technology, and saline agriculture are practical on-farm solutions that can assist California’s farmers. We have coherent and very similar trends – the convergency of technology and applied research in the …

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Secretary Ross and the Netherlands Minister of Agriculture sign Letter of Intent on Agricultural Cooperation

December 10, 2015   Office of Public Affairs

Letter of Intent The Department of Food and Agriculture of the State of California of the United States and the Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Netherlands (hereinafter referred to as “the Two Parties”), through friendly consultation, pledge their intent to cooperate on shared agricultural issues. This Letter of Intent builds upon the mutually beneficial partnership of the State of …

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In the Netherlands – The Taste and Feel of Climate Smart Agriculture

December 9, 2015   Karen Ross, Secretary, California Department of Food and Agriculture

In the village of Valthermond in the east of the Netherlands, we visited Wageningen University‘s demonstration farm. Wageningen UR, like UC Davis, is one of the leading agricultural research universities in the world. Here, innovative practices on water and nutrient management as well as soil health are being field tested on the farm – as an incubator for new farming …

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2015 California Leopold Conservation Award winner recognized

December 8, 2015   Office of Public Affairs

The 2015 California Leopold Conservation Award was presented this week at the California Farm Bureau Federation’s Annual Meeting in Reno, NV. The recipient, honored for private landowner achievement in the voluntary stewardship and management of natural resources, was Prather Ranch, a working cattle ranch headquartered in Macdoel, near Mt. Shasta in Northern California. The Sand County Foundation, the Farm Bureau, and Sustainable …

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