Monthly Archives: September 2016

By Bill Disbrow We may someday have to stop calling our drought a temporary phenomenon and just label it the new normal. Climate change could lock the state into a dry pattern lasting centuries or even a millennia if history repeats itself, according to a new study out of UCLA. Researchers correlated findings from Sierra Nevada soil samples and found …

Note – Governor Brown today signed  AB 1613, which directs $900 million in cap-and-trade investments, including $7.5 million for CDFA’s State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) and $7.5 million for CDFA’s Healthy Soils Incentive Program, which is one of many actions identified in the Healthy Soils Initiative.  California’s Climate Future and Soils California’s Healthy Soils Initiative is a collaboration of …

Introduction: In February, the World Food Center hosted the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the Air Resources Board and the Department of Conservation. The goal of the workshop was to inform strategies in the agriculture and working lands sector for meeting California’s new 2030 targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the State’s climate plan. The specific objectives of …

Note – The California Department of Food and Agriculture will celebrate its 100th anniversary as a state agency in 2019. In the time leading up to that we’ll be running an occasional series of stories, “CDFA Through History,” chronicling the Department’s contributions to California.   The California Department of Food and Agriculture (then simply the Dept. of Ag) began in …

By Debbie Arrington Levi’s Stadium took farm-to-fork to new heights. The $1.2 billion Santa Clara home of the 49ers has unveiled a rooftop farm that will help supply fresh produce and herbs to the facility’s club level food service. Dubbed “Faithful Farm” in honor of Niners’ fans, the 4,000-square-foot organic garden is the first-ever rooftop farm at a major professional …

The USDA has announced the investment of $26.6 million into 45 projects that will spur innovative conservation initiatives on both rural and urban farms across the country, including nearly $6 million for projects benefiting California. Public and private grantees will provide matching investments, bringing the total value of support across the country to $59 million. The USDA investment is made through …