Monthly Archives: July 2016

Six farmworker housing projects in California have been awarded $18 million in loans from the USDA’s Farm Labor Housing Loan and Grant Program to help qualified organizations develop housing for farmworkers, make housing repairs, and provide household furnishings. A total of $26 million was provided nationwide. The California loan recipients are: Mutual Housing of California – $3 million loan. Funds will be used …

CDFA Secretary Karen Ross joined the California State Fair and state agricultural leaders this morning for the annual Ag Heritage Breakfast, a fair-sponsored event that recognizes the pioneers of California agriculture – Ag operations in business for 100 years or more. The Ag Heritage tradition dates back to the 1940’s, beginning as a 100-year club and expanding its horizons as …

My former boss at the USDA, Tom Vilsack, recently signed a proclamation designating August 7-13, 2016 as “National Farmers Market Week.” This is the 17th annual event showcasing the important role that farmers markets play in local economies. We appreciate the USDA’s commitment here in California, where certified farmers markets have been in place since Governor Brown signed legislation creating …

By Seth M. Siegel Among Nebraska’s best farm exports may be one of the country’s most important agriculture officials, California’s Secretary of Food and Agriculture Karen Ross. Raised on a Nebraska farm, Ross knows her way around fields and barns, but has spent much of her adult life focused on farm policy, including stints working for a US Senator and …

Link to State Fair web site

By Parmy Olson One of Europe’s biggest food-delivery apps, Just Eat, will start testing autonomously-driven robots to bring orders to customer doorsteps in the next few months, part of an exclusive partnership that makes it the first such delivery take-out app to do so. The robots developed by Estonian startup Starship Technologies drive at a walking pace and can only …

By Cathie Anderson Chef Patrick Mulvaney and his team at Mulvaney’s B&L restaurant in midtown Sacramento regularly butcher whole hogs themselves, carefully ensuring that they use every element of the animal, because food waste translates into lost revenue in the restaurant business. So the cost-conscious restaurateur was stunned when he received research showing that 10 million tons of food goes …