rio bravo ranch – organic, award-winning olive oil ...€¦ · bottle or used for infused olive...

SEPTEMBER 2019 Valley Ag Voice 1

Valley Ag Voice LLC1412 17th Street, Suite 407Bakersfi eld, CA 93301

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THE LOCAL VOICE FOR OUR FARMERS, RANCHERS AND DAIRY PRODUCERS SINCE 2013 VOLUME 8 • ISSUE 9 • SEPTEMBER 2019

Olives. Photo credit Miller Resor


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Rio Bravo Ranch – Organic, Award-Winning Olive Oil … Locally Grown

When most people think high-quality olive oil, they associate it with Europe. Rio Bravo Ranch is trying to change that. They started making Rio Bravo Ranch olive oil almost 12 years ago from the question, “why shouldn’t we produce top quality olive oil on our ranch near the mouth of the Kern River Canyon?” Lots of research and eff ort went into making the idea a reality.

The hard work has paid off as evidenced from the numerous awards they’ve been win-ning, most recently taking home the coveted Best in Show for their 2018 Coratina from the California Olive Oil Council and from the Central Coast Olive Growers Association.

Situated on 48 acres that mirror the hot

and dry climates of the southern Mediterra-nean climate of traditional olive oil producing regions from Spain to Greece, Rio Bravo Ranch grows 7 diff erent varieties of olives, focusing on Coratina olives from Italy and Picual olives from Spain. In addition to these main varieties that are available in stand-alone varietal bottles, they also grow Pendolino, Nocellara, Maurino, Frantoio, and Ascolana that are blended into their Miller’s Reserve bottle or used for infused olive oil with fl avors including blood orange, rosemary, garlic, jalapeno and lemon.

All Rio Bravo Ranch olive oil is extra virgin, certifi ed organic and it produces an array of individual robust fl avors.

“Most consumers understand the health benefi ts of olive oil, but few understand the

added nutritional bonus and amazing taste aspects of fresh, high-quality olive oil,” states Jim Nickel of Rio Bravo Ranch, who added, “once people try our olive oils, they soon realize what they’ve been missing.”

It is clear that theranch takes great pride in their olives and oil. Being situated at the mouth of the Kern River Canyon provides great sandy loam soil and perfect air movement that shields from frost or excessive moisture.

“We care for the olive trees, moth-

er nature does the rest,” says Juan Corral, Rio Bravo Ranch Manager who has over 30 years of experience growing almonds, citrus, cherries and, of course, olives along the banks of the Kern River.

Entering their 6th harvest, antic-ipated to be in mid-October, they have honed the craft of growing olives to maximize quality, not volume. This includes harvesting earlier than producers going for the bulk market, which produces bolder fl avors and higher nutritional content. Once harvested, the olives are pressed on-site using modern cold press technology aff orded by a mobile mill called Mill on Wheels, which minimizes the time from tree to oil, an important distinction in the creation of extra virgin olive oil.

Their Olio Nuovo which is essentially fresh oil straight out of the mill is a treat, but only available for a few months after harvest. Once the oil settles out, it is then bottled and sold directly through their website (www.riobravoranch.com) or at local retailers and

restaurants including Coseree’s Deli, Luigi’s, Sully’s, Dot + Ott as well as Vons and Albert-sons. Rio Bravo Ranch stores its olive oil in a temperature-controlled storage facility on the ranch until it is shipped to the consumer. This allows Rio Bravo Ranch to guarantee the freshness, and therefore the quality of the olive

Olive Trees. Photo credit Miller Resor

Press Release Provided by the State Water Resources Control Board

The State Water Resources Control Board authorized spending nearly a quarter billion dollars to help local water systems provide safe, reliable drinking water to communities throughout the state and begin closing the safe drinking water gap for more than one million Californians.

“Communities across the state have struggled for far too long without access to safe drinking water,” said State Water Resources Control Board Chair E. Joaquin Esquivel. “With today’s action, we can begin to close this gap and ensure that the essential human right to safe and aff ordable water is provided to all Californians.”

The Board authorized spending $130 million this year and for the next 10 years from the Safe and Aff ordable Drinking Water Fund. Last month, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 200 (Monning), which created

State Water Board Authorizes Nearly Quarter Billion Dollars to Provide Safe and Affordable Drinking Water

the fund to provide a reliable source of on-going funding for safe drinking water needs using revenue from the state’s cap-and-trade program.

The Board also voted to authorize spending $80 million in one-time appropriations from Proposition 68, the statewide bond measure voters passed in 2018, and $31.5 million in one-time, legislatively sanctioned General Fund dollars to provide emergency funding for projects serving disadvantaged communities.

More than 300 communities and thousands of domestic well users across the state lack safe drinking water because of contamination by arsenic, nitrates and other chemicals. Many other communities served by small drinking water systems are also vulnerable to water quality violations and lack the fi nancial capac-ity to build, operate and maintain necessary treatment facilities.

Building a Comprehensive Program

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By Valley Ag Voice Staff

2 Valley Ag Voice SEPTEMBER 2019

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For 27 years the Kern County Farm Bureau has been hosting the Teachers Ag Seminar. The three-day seminar took place July 22nd through the 24th, and 45 teachers attended from around California. A seminar designed for K-12 educators, the purpose is to provide them with the knowledge of where California’s food and fi ber come from and to in-troduce them to the wonder-ful people who make agriculture successful in our state. Tours of multiple facili-ties were part of the program this year, including the Kern County Fair School Garde, Cattle-men’s Auction Yard, Red House Beef, and South Valley Farms.

Pam Brunni was the coordinator for the program this year. She has been working as a volunteer on this program for eleven years. She remains excited about the program as she states, “it is the chance to teach people what farmers are growing right here in their own back yard.” For example, she commented on misconceptions in the dairy industry: “when the educators get to tour a dairy, people see the truth; they realize that they had false impressions about the way dairy farmers treat their animals.” Ms. Brunni added, “We know that we may not be able to teach all of the students, but we can at least teach their teachers and hope they take back what they’ve learned to incorporate into their classroom curriculum.”

Some educators attend more than once. Often many request to come back over multiple years, typically two or three times. To Pam Brunni

Teachers Gain Exposure to All Aspects of Agriculture During SeminarBy Valley Ag Voice Staff this is how success is measured, “when they ask

to return, I know our program was a success.”

During our interview success was evident. Kyle Johnson a kindergarten teacher at Horace Mann School heard about the program and had to attend. While attending she also received con-tinuing education credits from Cal State Ba-kersfi eld. Kyle was praising Brunni and all the volunteers that made the program a success and

mentioned that she would return and recommend that other teach-ers attend as well.

After Johnson walked away, the smile on Brun-ni’s face showed her satisfaction

in knowing this program made a diff erence.

Husband and wife Tiff any and Wil-liam LeClair were also in attendance. Both teachers teach at Plantation Elementary; Tiff any teaches 3rd and William 4th grade. For many years Tiff any has wanted to participate but hasn’t been able to until this year. The program by far exceeded her

expectations. “I didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “This program exposed me to a side of the Ag Industry I didn’t know existed. Farmers are open, very generous, and passionate about what they do in agriculture.”

William LeClair added: “most of the kids in society have lost touch with where their food comes from. This will help us to communicate the process and the importance of agriculture. It will help us to open our students’ eyes.”

“There was some much engineering that went into the processing room, the scope of the hull processing was amazing,” commented William. “Careers in agriculture are more than driving a tractor or riding a horse.”

To learn more or to recommend a teacher you know to attend the program you can email [email protected].

Attendees at the Teachers Ag Seminar Hosted by the KC Farm Bureau

Attendees Top Agriculture Products Display at the Teahcers Ag Seminar

Connie Conway,

State Executive Director for the FSA

USDA Announces Connie Conway as State Executive Director for USDA’s Farm Service AgencyPress Release Provided By the USDA

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today announced Connie Conway as the new State Executive Director (SED) for the USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA), serving as an appointee of President Donald J. Trump. FSA State Directors help implement USDA policies in plan-ning, organizing, and administering FSA programs in their respective states. They are also responsible for running the day-to-day activities of the state FSA offi ce.

“Serving as State Executive Director for the Farm Service Agency in Califor-nia, Connie Conway will help ensure that USDA is off ering the best customer service to our farmers, ranchers, forest-ers, and agricultural producers across the country,” said FSA Administrator Richard Fordyce. “FSA plays a critical role in helping the people of agriculture and State Executive Directors are able to connect with people in their home states. They are the initial points of contact for millions of our USDA customers. Our goal is to help rural America prosper, and Connie Conway will be of great assistance in that task.”

Prior to her appointment, Conway ran her own consulting business, focusing on strategic planning, business development, and government relations services. She also served as an assemblywoman for the California State Legislature where she served as Minority Leader and on the Agriculture, Transportation, Labor and Health Committees. She also served as a member of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors.


Press Release Provided by the Wonderful Company

Wonderful Halos, America’s No. 1 mandarin, was recently named the most-loved healthy snack brand among both parents and kids, according to a 2019 Brand Love™ study re-leased by youth and family market research consultancy Smarty Pants. This marks the second year in a row that Halos has led the category as the No. 1 healthy snack brand of parents with 69 percent stating they consume Halos at least once per week when in season (November to May). This is the fourth year Halos has been recognized as the leading healthy food brand among kids.

New to the list this year is Wonderful Pista-chios, which also proved to be a fan favorite among parents and kids with 73 percent of parents saying they “love” or “like” the brand, and 55 percent of parents stating they believe Wonderful Pistachios are “healthy and good for kids.”

“The Pure Goodness of Halos’ sweet, seedless and easy-to-peel mandarins continues to win over the hearts and minds of parents and kids year-over-year, as America’s most-loved healthy snack brand,” said Adam Cooper, senior vice president of marketing at The Wonderful

Wonderful Halos® Mandarins Rank as America’s No. 1 Healthy Snack Brand

Company. “We are thrilled that parents and kids also recognize and adore Wonderful Pistachios as a healthy snack that’s gaining popularity on their grocery lists. As today’s consumers seek healthier snack options, it’s fantastic that Wonderful Halos and Wonderful Pistachios have become parents’ and kids’ ‘go-to’ as the fun-to-eat, healthy food brands they love most.”

As YouTube once again reigned supreme, topping this year’s Smarty Pants list as the No. 1 brand ranked by kids ages 6-12, Halos also launched one of its biggest infl uencer marketing campaigns this season. The brand continued its successful partnership with 7-year-old Ryan of Ryan Toys Review, one of YouTube’s top video creators boasting over one billion views per month and nearly 21 million subscribers. Halos was the fi rst produce brand to partner with the No. 1 YouTube star. Ryan’s YouTube videos from the past two seasons that spotlight Wonderful Halos have garnered over 14 million combined views to date.

This year’s Parentfi nity™ scores reveal Won-derful Halos as parents’ No. 17 brand overall among other brands like Amazon, Crayola,


Press Release provided by the Amond Board of California

The Almond Board of California (ABC) re-cently received the GMA Food Safety Award from the International Association for Food Protection, in recognition of the Board’s “pre-eminence in and contributions to the fi eld of food safety.” The award comes after nearly 50 years of Almond Board-funded research and innovation leading to numerous improvements in the way almonds are harvested and handled to ensure safety.

“This award is the culmination of many years and countless hours of work by ABC staff , researchers, and industry leaders to elevate California almonds to an honored, best of class, position in the fi eld of food safety,” said

Almond Board Receives Prestigious Award for Outstanding Contributions to Food Safety

Richard Waycott, president and CEO of the Almond Board. “While much of this work often goes on out of the view of the public eye, this recognition will shed some much-deserved light on the work of the dedicated team of food safety professionals at the Almond Board and our colleagues in the industry.”

ABC’s submission for the award detailed nearly fi ve decades of research and advancements in food safety funded by the almond industry through the Almond Board.

“ABC is honored to be the recipient of the 2019 GMA Food Safety Award in recognition of our long-term commitment to food safety, and we are truly humbled to be included in the long line of extremely worthy past recip-ients,” said Tim Birmingham, ABC director

of Quality Assurance and Industry Services. “Food safety is a cornerstone of what we do. Since the early 2000s, ABC has been focused on producing the highest quality, safest crop possible through research, food safety programs and industry-wide education. We will continue to look for ways to improve, and share what we know, to help ensure the integrity of tree nuts and low moisture foods in general to protect consumers around the world.”

The most recent advances in almond safety began in 2007 with the establishment of the mandatory pasteurization program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture Agricultural Marketing Service. Since the implementation of the self-imposed pasteurization program there have been no reported foodborne illnesses

related to almond consumption.

“The credit for this award really belongs to the almond growers and handlers who invested their hard earned dollars in the research and the ABC Board of Directors’ willingness to make diffi cult decisions that put the good of the industry ahead of individual concerns,” said Birmingham. “But while the award is nice recognition, the real payoff is in the foodborne illnesses that have been prevented by the collec-tive eff orts of the industry, demonstrating our commitment to food safety from the orchard to the consumer.”

The GMA Food Safety Award is sponsored by the Grocery Manufacturers Association (GMA) and was presented July 24 at IAFP 2019 in Louisville, Ky.

Press Release provided by California Farm Water Coalition

A new UN climate study indicates that climate change will be a bigger problem for farmers and consumers in the future.

In a 2018 Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) survey, 80 percent of respondents said climate change is a serious threat to California’s future. And 72 percent cited water as a concern, with drought and water supply named most frequently as our biggest environmental issue. If you see yourself in these statistics, you should be cheering the eff orts of California farmers.

All Californians have been called upon to conserve. Urban users tripled their water effi ciency overall and some regions have done even more. Farms and water districts invested billions in water-saving technology for decades including drip, micro-sprinkler and subsurface irrigation; sensors that monitor water use; recycling irrigation water; lining canals; utilizing technology to prevent leaks, and more.

If You’re Concerned about Climate Change and Water Supply, California Farms Can Help Show the Way

The impacts have been stunning. San Luis Canal Company in the San Joaquin Valley saves 5 billion gallons of water each year and sees greater savings coming. Cooperation among three neighboring water districts lead to water-savings of 8.1 billion gallons annually. On Los Banos Creek, more than 10 billion gallons of water are being added to water supplies annually through improved conservation practices.

And yet, as eff ective as conservation is, we also know its limits. Even with unprecedented eff orts, our latest drought clearly showed conservation is just one tool in the box, and we not only need every existing tool, we must invent more.

This is particularly true if you are among the Californians concerned about climate change. Some scientists tell us that one of the biggest changes in store for California is to expect more rain in place of our historic winter snowpack.

This year is a good example of what may lie ahead. An estimated 18 trillion gallons

of precipitation fell on California in Febru-ary alone. And yet, with many reservoirs at capacity, California will not be able to save much of that water. If you’re concerned about climate change, then it’s important to recognize that new water storage is the fi rst building block. Additional storage will help capture rain and fast-melting snow, assist in ground water recharge and help avoid fl ood-ing. The good news is that several projects that have been studied for decades are ready to go and simply await funding. Californians should whole-heartedly give their support.

To those who say we can’t put all our eggs in the storage basket because it takes time and climate change won’t wait, we say again, farmers are leading the way.

Farmer s have been working with government agencies, community leaders and conserva-tionists to restore and expand fl oodplains. Providing fl ood water an alternate path rather than just running out to sea provides habitat for the base of the food chain in addition to contributing to groundwater recharge. The

largest public-private fl oodplain restoration project in the state is at Dos Rios Ranch in Stanislaus County. River Partners, a non-profi t that manages the project says, “Our fl oodplain reforestation projects are biodiversity hotspots and climate-protection powerhouses.”

Restoration, as well as planting cover crops on farms, helps combat climate change in multiple ways. According to a recent state report, farms and forests could absorb as much as 20 percent of California’s current level of carbon emissions. Despite massive benefi ts, California has been slow to support these eff orts at the same level as other strate-gies. In 2017 California spent more than 20 times on electric car rebates than it did on helping farmers adopt new climate protection technology.

Farmers share California’s passion for our environment. In many cases, the land they’re protecting has been home for generations. So, in preparation for our shared future, it makes sense to look to California farms for a smart, productive roadmap.

Press Release Provided by the California Department of Food and Agriculture

The California Department of Pesticide Reg-ulation and California Department of Food and Agriculture today announced the members of a new, cross-sector working group created to identify, evaluate and recommend safer, sustainable pest management solutions that can replace the pesticide chlorpyrifos.

The Alternatives to Chlorpyrifos Work Group includes leaders and experts from a wide cross section of interests -- including agriculture, California universities, environmental justice

Alternatives to Chlorpyrifos Work Group Announcedgroups, farmworker health and safety organi-zations, and pesticide manufacturers, among others -- to ensure the group represents a diverse range of perspectives. The Work Group will convene later this month to begin its work.

“Identifying viable alternatives to chlorpyr-ifos – and developing safer pest management tools – is critically important but challenging work,” said acting director of DPR Val Dolcini. “We look forward to collaborating with the members of the Work Group and others on safer tools, solutions, and pest management practices that make sense for all Californians.”

Despite the Trump administration’s reversal of a decision to ban the pesticide at the federal level, California continues to move forward to protect public health, workers, and the environ-ment. DPR announced today that it is sending notices to cancel chlorpyrifos product registra-tions to the product registrants because of the detrimental human health eff ects associated with the products’ use. The registrants have 15 days to request a hearing. If a public hearing is requested, the notices will be fi led with the Offi ce of Administrative Hearings (OAH).

The Work Group will identify innovative, Please turn to page 13

sustainable pest management tools, practices and alternatives to chlorpyrifos that are safer for workers, communities and the environ-ment, adequately control the targeted pests, and are cost eff ective. It will be facilitated by Joseph McIntyre of Ag Innovations based in Sebastopol, Calif. CalEPA, CDFA, and DPR will serve in an advisory capacity.

“Farmers have come a long way in reducing their use of chlorpyrifos, but development of alternatives for the remaining users will require signifi cant investment and time for transition,”


Press Release Provide By American Pistachio GrowersAmerican Pistachio Growers’ (APG) eff orts to reduce or eliminate trade barriers in several key overseas markets have been a signifi cant boon to pistachio exports and to growers’ bottom-line. A new study, “An Analysis of the Eff ects of the American Pistachio Growers’ Program to Reduce/Eliminate Tariff s on U.S. Pistachios,” has quantifi ed, for the fi rst time, the direct benefi t to the U.S. pistachio industry from APG’s strategic program to vanquish trade barriers.

The analysis from Dr. Dennis H. Tootelian, an emeritus Professor of Marketing, sought to determine what shipments of U.S. pistachios would have been if tariff s had not been low-ered or eliminated in Israel, Mexico, China and Hong Kong, and the European Union which are the export markets prioritized for focus by APG. Many of his analyses centered on the period from 2009 through 2017 --- the period in which tariff s were reduced in all fi ve geographic areas.

Tootelian’s study showed that actual ship-ments of U.S. pistachios after the tariff s were reduced or eliminated for each export market were more than 2.3 billion pounds greater than what would have been expected had the tariff s remained in place. Equated in economic terms, the boost in export volume after the trade barriers had been removed amounted to nearly $3 billion great-er value than what would have been expected had the tariff s remained in eff ect.

While Tootelian did not have any prior ex-pectations of what his study would show, he was surprised by the fi ndings.

“To see this kind of an increase in shipments on a before and after basis with the tariff s did surprise me. I did not expect this kind of result in the marketplace. These are not small numbers,” Tootelian said. “What the data tell me is that there is latent demand for U.S. pistachios and once the tariff s come down, foreign markets want to buy them.”

Tootelian said the projected economic boon to U.S. growers is even more profound if the fl uctuations in prices in China and Hong Kong were eliminated from the analysis.

“If you take the price fl uctuations in China and Hong Kong out, the increase in value of pistachio shipments amounts to nearly $355 million more dollars per year --- nearly $4.5 billion in total from the time when tariff s were in eff ect to after they were reduced or elimi-nated,” said Tootelian.

Data from the analysis estimated that more than 1.7 billion pounds of U.S. pistachios in total, or an average of more than 192 million pounds annually, may have gone into storage if

Economic Study Bolsters Value of Generic Marketing Efforts by Pistachio Industry

they were not diverted to other markets. While the eff ect of the projected added supply on the world market is unknown in terms of lower prices, Tootelian said that it would surely have had a detrimental impact on U.S. growers.

“It is unknown what that would have done to the price,” he said. “In order to divert from storage and into other markets, prices probably would have had to come down considerably and whether they would have been able to market that much supply is an unknown.”

Underlying Tootelian’s analysis is the fact that price is not the sole determinant of the volume of U.S. pistachio exports. He said when tariff s are lowered or eliminated, traditional economics would dictate that increased ship-ments would lead to lower prices, but his data show demand for U.S. pistachios in some key markets remained high in the post-tariff era. Several factors, he said, appear to be in play.

“One is the reputation of U.S. pistachios, which carries a very positive market image with consumers and importers. Second, it could be the quality of the product is better or more consistent, or both, for what con-

sumers can buy from other countries,” said

Tootelian. “And third, there a r e a lo t

of reputable health studies that show nuts

are healthy and nutritious. APG

has invested consid-erable resources raising consumer awareness of the healthful attributes of pistachios, and consumers appear to be willing to pay a higher price. That is pretty clear from the data.”

APG has aggressively worked in the halls of Congress, with U.S. trade offi cials and with foreign governmental bodies to alleviate bur-densome trade barriers and create a more open market for U.S-grown pistachios.

“Quantifying the value of APG’s eff orts to growers has been diffi cult up to now, but this new study gives us some tangible answers to the importance of the work we are doing on behalf of the U.S. pistachio industry,” said Richard Matoian, APG’s executive direc-tor. “Frankly, we were quite surprised at the magnitude of these numbers. It’s our strong belief that whenever and wherever trade bar-riers exist to the free fl ow of American-grown pistachios around the world, we will confront them vigorously.”

In a postscript to his analysis, Tootelian added, “If I were a grower, I would be encouraging APG to be doing this more in other markets because the greater the demand there is for the product, the less goes into storage and that helps boost the price.”

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Press Release provided by the California Department of Water Resources The California Department of Water Re-sources (DWR) today announced approval of nine alternatives to groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) submitted by water agencies to meet requirements of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).

SGMA requires local agencies through-out the state to sustainably manage groundwater basins. Basins ranked as medium- or high-priority are required to develop GSPs or submit an alternative.

An alternative may be an existing groundwater management plan that demonstrates a reasonable expectation of achieving sustainability within 20 years. It may also be a basin adjudication with existing governance and oversight, or a 10-year analysis of basin conditions showing sustainable operations with no undesirable results such as subsidence, saltwater intrusion, or degraded water quality.

“It is clear that a number of local agen-cies have been addressing groundwater issues in their basins for many years,”

DWR Approves Nine Alternatives To Groundwater Sustainability Plans

said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “Their continued commitment to sustainably man-age their basins will help protect California’s groundwater reserves as the state confronts critical water challenges.”

Following extensive technical review, DWR

Groundwater used to fl ood rice fi elds in an agriculture region in Yuba County. Photo: California Department of Water Resources

approved seven existing groundwater manage-ment plans and two 10-year sustainable yield analyses as alternatives under SGMA. One existing groundwater management plan and fi ve 10-year sustainable yield analyses were not recommended for approval as alternatives.

Basins with approved alternatives are required to provide annual reports and fi ve-year up-dates on their progress. Agencies submitting GSPs have the same reporting requirements.

For alternatives that were not recommended for approval, submitting agencies have 30 days

to let DWR know if they believe infor-mation in their original submittal was overlooked. New information or data cannot be submitted during this time. DWR will evaluate agency responses and fi nalize the assessments within 60 days of receiving comments.

If DWR’s disapproval of the alter-native is fi nalized, basins without a groundwater sustainability agency (GSA) are subject to extraction report-ing requirements. The State Water Board, which has the authority under SGMA to intervene where no GSA has been formed, intends to coordinate with aff ected county governments to support the immediate formation of GSAs in unmanaged basins to avoid mandatory extraction reporting re-quirements. GSAs in basins without an approved alternative must submit a GSP by January 31, 2022.


Press Release Provided by the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Nearly 50 students graduated on Monday August 8th from the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Com-merce’s “Energy and Ag-riculture Academy,”a pro-gram designed to introduce local students to careers and business opportunities in the local energy and agriculture sectors.

The “Energy and Agricul-ture Academy” is an edu-cational programcreated by the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce (KCHCC) and KCHCC Business Education Founda-tion and funded primarily by Chevron, in academic partnership withBakersfi eld College. The academy is also supported by the Kern Energy Foundation, Aera Energy LLC, and Califor-nia Resources Corporation.

The academy was hosted over several sessions this

Local Students Graduate From Hispanic Chamber’s ‘Energy and Agriculture Academy’

summer at the Bakersfi eld College main campus, featuring lessons on the importance of ag and energy businesses to Kern County’s economy,

careers in each respective sector, fi eld trips to local plants, speakers from various industries, and much more.

This is the fi fth graduating class, which included students from local high schools, Bakersfi eld College, California State University, Bakers-

f ield, and Fresno State. Each Graduate receives an academic stipend for their completion of the program.

“Through the social invest-ment made by Chevron and the academy’s other sup-porters, students are intro-duced to local industries in-cluding oil, biomass, solar, agriculture, and electricity through on site facility vis-its and enriched classroom lectures,” said Jay Tamsi, President/CEO of the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. “Thegoal is to inform young adults about the endless career opportunities available in Kern County by pursuing an education in STEM. We want this program to be a step forward for these students into a bright future in agriculture or STEM re-lated careers.”

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On August 12, 2019 Supervisor Mick Gleason was addressing the Kern County Hispanic Chamber of Commerce regarding many top-ics critical to business in Kern County. At the forefront of everyone’s mind was the recent earthquakes that took place over the 4th of July Holiday and the days following.

Supervisor Gleason commented that Kern County rallies together during disaster, and he’s seen it time and time again. “The people of Kern County are some of the most caring and generous I have ever encountered, and they pulled together during the recent Earthquake in Ridgecrest,” stated Gleason.

Since being in offi ce, he has seen disaster after disaster, and Kern County has always responded. First it was the Oil Crash of 2014, followed by the Financial Crisis that hit local government, then the Erskine Fire in the Kern River Valley, and now the Earthquakes in Ridgecrest and Trona.

Gleason recalled when he fi rst received news of the 6.4 July 4 thearthquake. He was out of town for the holiday in Prescott, Arizona when his phone rang immediately following the quake. The following day the 7.1, an earthquake that

The Response to the Ridgecrest Earthquake, Kern County Got it Done!

was exponentially stronger, struck the region. “We were lucky the timing occurred over the holiday. School wasn’t in session; on base no major activity was occurring at the time, and none of the explosives tested frequently at the base exploded,” commented Gleason.

At fi rst glance, the damage was underestimated, but as doors were opened and after closer obser-vation the damage was much more extensive. Businesses lost product as it fell from shelves and shattered. Floors were covered with liquids from broken bottles requiring extensive cleanup. In all, damage was somewhat light because of the relative rural nature of the earthquake. According to Gleason, estimates place damages to the community between $3.5 and $4 billion.

Addressing a question about the earthquake insurance, Supervisor Gleason commented many businesses didn’t have insurance. “The cost for earthquake insurance is so cost prohibitive and your deductible is so high that very few residents and businesses had insurance.”

The emotional recovery will take the longest to address. Many residents are afraid to go back inside their homes. Some are sleeping outside or sleeping with their doors open out of fear

By Valley Ag Voice Staff



Article provided by the California Walnut Board

Walnut production research goes back over fi ve decades. Each year, the California Wal-nut Board’s Production Research Committee recommends projects for funding based on industry’s short and long term needs. This year, the CWB members approved a total of 23 projects totaling $1.69 M for the 2019-2020

crop year.

Production research continues to be fundamen-tal to addressing production challenges in the areas of orchard management, entomology, breeding and genomics as well as plant pathol-ogy and nematology. The Production Research Committee sees the slate of projects it approves each year as an ongoing mix of short and long-range approaches: Short-range approaches, which typically consist of one or more sequential multi-year (2-3) projects by the same team of researchers, are designed to craft management solutions for problems in today’s orchards. Longer-range approaches–which almost always means plant breeding–are used to craft solutions for tomorrow’s orchards. Historically, new varieties with better productivity and quality were developed through a time-consuming process of selection and testing of hundreds to thousands of seedlings resulting from intentional crosses of chosen male and female parent trees. Increasingly, new DNA-based techniques are

Production Research Overview 2019being deployed to accelerate the pace of this traditional process for creating new varieties. And these techniques are now also being used to speed the development of new rootstocks. It is important to emphasize that the new varieties and rootstocks that come out of these eff orts will still be the result of traditional crossing of selected parents and evaluation of selection of seedlings, just augmented and made more

effi cient by understanding the genetics behind desirable traits.

The scope of the breeding eff ort has also ex-panded: from fi nding productive high-quality productive new varieties that effi ciently span the harvest timing window, to developing varieties and rootstocks that address orchard pest and disease problems–especially those that have eluded attempts to fi nd sustainable solutions derived from shorter term research approaches. Thus, breeding eff orts now focus on reducing tree susceptibility to walnut blight, husk fl y, nematode and water stress as well as the traditional goals of productivity, nut quality, and harvest timing.

The Production Research Committee puts a high priority on striking an appropriate balance between short- and long-term research aimed at industry research needs. This balance fl uc-tuates slightly from year to year and currently stands at a roughly 50-50 balance of short- and long-term eff orts (Figure 1). Compared to other

commodities, this is a large investment in the future of the California walnut industry. But our industry has always been forward looking: Most of today’s orchards, for example, are planted to varieties (and farmed using methods) developed through past industry investments in research and innovation.

The following are just a few examples of current research:Breeding & Genomics:Continued eff orts to fi ll the harvest win-dow with a sequence of productive, high quality, and pest resistant varieties, with a current emphasis on the Serr through Tulare timeframe

A fi rst batch of Phytpohtopra, crown gall, and/or nematode resistant rootstocks have been advanced to ‘elite’ status and are now planted in small scale fi eld trials around the state. Current rootstock im-provements eff orts are focused on moving additional candidates–some of which have resistance multiple diseases–through the disease screening process–and into the fi eld trials.

Diseases and Nematodes:Continued eff orts to fi nd alternatives to–or better ways to use–copper+mancozeb to control blight

Replacing methyl bromide by fi eld testing of new experimental and recently reg-istered pre- and post-plant nematicides

for control of lesion and root knot nematodes

A search for genetic and/or new molecular

biology tools that will expedite the development of blackline resistant varieties or rootstocks

EntomologyContinued eff orts to understand aspects of navel orangeworm biology, movement, and monitoring that will make current control eff orts more eff ective

Orchard & Canopy ManagementContinued refi nement and validation of no- and reduced-pruning approaches in developing orchards

Support of ongoing pre- and post-emergence herbicide performance and safety evaluations in young and mature walnut orchards

An eff ort to improve irrigation scheduling and water application effi ciency by integrating real-time estimates of orchard canopy water use (evapotranspiration, ETc) with plant other irrigation scheduling tools

Validation across multiple sites of the water-sav-ing and tree health promoting potential of using pressure chamber monitoring of tree water status to delay the start of spring irrigations

OtherIn addition to the above, CWB also provides a small amount of funding each year to UC Farm Advisors in support of local applied research trials they conduct and their eff orts to extend knowledge and use of the results of those trials among growers.

Figure 1. Twenty-three 2019 approved pro-duction research projects, totaling roughly $1.69M, divided by subject area.

Photo Credit California Walnut Board

Graphic Credit California Walnut Board


By: Austin Snedden

The Cattleman’s Corner

Is Some Religion Bad for Agriculture?

Opinion

The list of religions is almost endless, but there is a rapidly growing religion worldwide that has been embraced by politicians and celebrities alike. This rapidly emerging religion is full of doomsday scenarios and attempts to recruit believers through fear tactics. This faith-based belief espouses that the aforementioned dooms-day scenarios can be avoided if the majority of folks come into the fold and turn away from

their former life. There are many diff erent de-nominations with varying levels of activism, but all of them have some degree of fi re and brimstone. The tithe collected throughout the denominations by this religion is astounding. It has gotten corporations on board, lobbied politicians, inundated universities, and even been taught to American children in elemen-tary school. This religion has taken a strong stance against animal agriculture and even has suggested diets for believers. The religion of

Man-Made Climate Change (MMCC).

A decent person isn’t supposed to talk about religion or politics. Well, I never claimed to be a decent person, so let’s talk about both. MMCC enters my life because the parishioners of that religion believe, among other things, that the fl atulence from my cows is causing global warming. These believers also believe that the transport of cattle feed and the transport of these cattle will cause the oceans to rise. These beliefs alone concern me very little, as there are a multitude of religious beliefs that I don’t agree with. Believe whatever you want to believe. What happens when a religion like MMCC becomes so intertwined with government that we all begin to live under the mandates of a government established religion like MMCC?

Many of us think of religion and science on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Religion is a system where the beliefs are often not provable and require faith; whereas science is based on fact and a hypothesis can be proven through experiment. What if a faith-based religion ap-propriates the word “science” to give legitimacy to something that is nothing more than a theory? Is man-made climate change science? I believe that it is well established that the climate is changing.In fact, there has never been a time when the earth’s climate wasn’t changing; causation of this change is where the MMCC disciples and I part ways. The scientifi c method has been around since the 17th century to prove that something someone believed was true. MMCC disciples should have to prove that their beliefs are science by using the 6 principles of the scientifi c method 1. Ask a question. 2. Do research. 3. Construct a hypothesis 4. Test their hypothesis through experiment. 5. Draw a conclusion. 6. Report results.

Number 1 of the scientifi c method is pretty easy for the MMCC disciples. Are humans causing climate change? The second step of the scientifi c method (background research) gets a little dicey for the MMCC fl ock. We only have a relatively small window of human recorded temperatures, and we know that even before human history there was signifi cant climate change. There was a period of much warmer temperatures when reptilian dinosaurs ventured far north, followed by signifi cant cooling where they died, and then multiple mini warming and cooling events after. There is data that suggests that the planet may possibly be warming after the industrial revolution. For the MMCC enthusiast to move to the next step of the scientifi c method and form a hypothesis, they must only focus on the data that may indicate that there is warming following the industrial revolution and ignore the periods of warming and cooling that preceded. The scientifi cally honest hypothesis that the MMCC would come up with for step 3 of the scientifi c method is as follows: “Although there have been periods of warming and cooling with unknown causation prior to human involvement, we believe this period of warming is due to you eating a steak and driving an SUV.”

Number 4 of the scientifi c method is where it really falls apart for the MMCC faithful. In a proper experiment you would have an inde-pendent variable, controlled variables, and a dependent variable. An independent variable

is what you would change to provide a result. The controlled variables would be what you held constant. The dependent variable is the result you would measure to see the eff ect. In the MMCC experiment, the independent vari-able would be me eating a steak and driving an SUV. The controlled variables that must be held constant throughout the experiment would be sun intensity, ocean currents, wind patterns, etc. The dependent variable for proof of MMCC would be global temperature change. It becomes plainly obvious that this experiment has no controlled variables because the factors of sun, wind, ocean currents, etc. cannot be held constant. The remaining steps of the scientifi c method are unattainable in this example.

The Latin derived phrase “post hoc fallacy” describes the MMCC beliefs in a lot fewer words.It translates to “after this, therefore because of this,” meaning that because one thing occurred after another, it must have occurred as a result of it. Just because temperatures changed while I was eating a steak, doesn’t mean my steak caused the temperatures to change. Man-made climate change is not science, It is a faith-based belief. I think it is perfectly fi ne to believe in

things that can’t be scientifi cally provenl; I be-lieve in plenty of them myself. I don’t, however, think it is acceptable for anyone’s “hunches” or faith-based beliefs to completely overhaul the founding principles of this country.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion…”As stated above, we should keep the Establish-ment Clause of the 1st Amendment in mind, especially our elected representatives when disciples of the MMCC faith come into their offi ces dressed as professors and scientists to lobby for laws attempting to conform society to their religion. We should know what the hard truth looks like without modern agriculture and fossil fuels that these climate change folks petition for. It looks like lack of food and warmth for the poorest people on the planet and more expensive food and energy for everyone. It is not a generous religion.

There are studies that show that the greenhouse gas emissions attributed to cattle is greatly over-stated, but maybe instead of trying to point out which sector of industry is most to blame, we should question the veracity of the MMCC doctrine. When someone tells you “a consensus of scientists believe in MMCC,” remember a consensus of scientists once thought the world was fl at. Next time someone tells you “climate change is settled science,” tell them “show me your controlled variables.”You will have won the argument.

Photo provided by Austin Snedden

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By: Marcia WolfeValley Ag Voice

Marcia Wolfe

It’s Critical to Clean Up Our Community and the World

The other day I was driving to the grocery store, starting fi rst through the neighborhood. I noticed paper trash in the gutter in front of some of the homes lining the street. A squashed cup here. A wad of paper across the street and another paper cup. Then a squashed aluminum can in the driving lane. Hey, we can collect and recycle that. And, look! A fi ve-dollar bill at the curb! I lucked out!

Down around the corner on the main street, there was even more. A couple of fl at pieces of paperon the pavement. A sweatshirt (or some-t hing) hanging over the curb. More scattered paper along the gutter and a large plastic bag.

Out of the neighborhood and around the corner on the thoroughfare, there was more. Some small boxes thrown up on the sidewalk, but the trash isn’t limited to the street and gutter. Some is thrown into the landscaping planted alongside the wall, beneath the shrub, next to the tree, a plastic soda bottle thrown onto a front lawn, a piece of paper hanging from a tree branch, an-other water bottle at the curb. If you look around it’s pretty ugly. It’s everywhere, not just in the alley or the ghettoor downtown. It’s everywhere, including on the way to the grocery store, and you see it on the way to work. It’s scattered all over the parks and along the Kern River trail, places we go to walk, jog, ride a bike or relax and enjoy nature and the scenery, or try to.

A few years ago a friend of mine had a beautiful Australian shepherd. She had a great and gently

loving personality with people, in particular. But one day, she ingested a sandwich bag which someone had thrown out of their car, and she picked it up. It then got stuck in her gut and killed her. It’s so sad that something as simple as throwing trash away properly could have saved her. Realize trash can easily be harmful in more ways than one. Some trash is poisonous to pets and wildlife, like cigarette butts! They are everywhere, and if they don’t kill, at the least they can cause nausea, vomiting and seizures in animals. So many wildlife, including birds, don’t realize it is not food. When it rains, they can get caught up in runoff , end up in a storm drain or waterway, and eventually into the ocean or lakes, where other species may mistake them for food, as often occurs with pieces of plastic we discard.

We’ve all heard about the large patches of dis-posed plastic fl oating in the ocean. Some studies estimate something like 12 billion pounds of plastic in the ocean, and it’s increasing every day. Notably places that had no plastic as little as six years ago are now covered with it. Just recently, a new patch of plastic the size of the entire country of Mexico has been located in the South Pacifi c Ocean. As some plastic sinks (products labelled No.1, as they are heavier than water), they cannot be easily located. Over time all plastic breaks down into smaller pieces, from the size of your little fi ngernail to microscopic in size, which can’t be seen. They call them mi-croplastics when the pieces are less than 5mm in size. The diff erent plastics take diff ering lengths of time to break down. But in reality, we have no idea how much plastic has sunk and is fl oating around in our oceans and lakes. It’s estimated that about eight million metric tons of plastic wastes enter the oceans from land every year. But frankly, after reading several articles, we have no idea how much is entering our waters. Just look at the trash along the Kern River and even in our water and irrigation canals.

You may think,“Well, who cares?” We don’t live in the ocean. You can’t see what’s under water, and the rest of it is microscopically small. A lot of it you can’t even see without a microscope! So, what if birds, fi sh and other sea life die from ingesting or being covered with plastic waste that we can’t even see? Humans don’t eat most of those birds or fi sh there.

This past week, I read two articles with alarming reports about plastic. One group of scientists studying in the Arctic unexpectedly documented micro plastics in ice cores in the Arctic, and

in northern Germany, Norway, the Bavarian and Swiss Alps and the North Sea island of Heligoland. Apparently, the scientists doing the study expected to fi nd some plastics. They were extremely surprised by the enormous concentrations. The plastic is being sucked up off the ground and water into the air and is coming down in snow at these cold climes. Others think they may have blown in on the winds. Then it was recently reported by the USGS that they coincidentally found plastic in rain while researching nitrogen at eight locations in the Rocky Mountains and in the metropolitan reach between Boulder and Denver. The source of these microplastics has yet to be determined, but they were mostly fi brous, indicating that they might be from clothing; it’s unknown. They were studying nitrogen and weren’t expecting to fi nd microplastics.

We haven’t even touched on nanoplastics, which are even smaller than microplastics. Nano plastics are so small that once inside a plant or animal (read includes humans), they can move inside of cells. When tiny particles are in snow, rain and the air, we could be breathing them. If they are in rain and snow, it’s likely we are. Aside from their presence, the impacts to humans are almost completely unknown. Some early tests show impacts to small mammals from eating microplastics. How toxic they are depends upon the type of plastic it is. Whether it’s BPE, if it came from a container, or what chemical was contained in it, as plastics may absorb the chem-icals they hold. When it comes to microplastics, nanoplastics and humans, plants and wildlife, we know next to nothing. It has spread rapidly worldwide and is complex.

So, when it comes to your garbage, put it where it can be disposed of properly. Plant and vegetable materials can be used to enhance soils as mulch. Recycle your glass, paper, plastics and anything else you can. Ford is a great example of upcycling as they now create certain automobile parts from recycled plastic, using 1.2 billion plastic bottles per year in their automobiles. Many more options are possible by numerous manufacturers. It’s doable. But it’s not a simple problem such as its just in Bakersfi eld, Kern County or the United States. It is a worldwide problem.

I’m not going to include any photographs in this article. You get the picture already. So now get out there and teach your children, parents, friends and neighbors not to trash the environment their lives depend upon. Because they do, maybe more than we know.

that they won’t be able to get out after the next earthquake. As residents try to get back to nor-mal, the adjustment to the emotional impacts will take time.

Mick Gleason praised the heroes from the day the—folks that made tough decisions and got it right. He recalled sitting in the Emergency Operations Center in Ridgecrest and seeing how all the fi rst responders were reacting.

“In the midst of all this chaos, fi res were getting put out, helicopters were fl ying to where they needed to go. Police, ambulances, and fi re trucks were responding. Kern County was responding to the disaster and it was working!”

Supervisor Mick Gleason Addressing the Hispanic Chamber GRC meeting

Gleason gave credit to the Ridgecrest Hospital CEO James Suver. Suver had to make the dif-fi cult decision to close the Ridgecrest Regional Hospital. There was fl ooding in the hospital with cracking on the walls, and the CEO didn’t feel comfortable with keeping it open. All the patients had to be relocated to other hospitals in the Palmdale area. Gleason also reported that the hospital will be applying for $32 million in relief funding.

All in all, Supervisor Gleason stressed, “Kern County responded to this disaster. I am proud to live in this community.We have some of the most generous and caring people here.”

THE RESPONSE TO THE RIDGECREST EARTHQUAKE, KERN COUNTY GOT IT DONE FROM PAGE 6


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Press Release provided by American Pistachio Growers

An analysis conducted by researchers Dr. Jack Losso and Millicent Yeboah-Awudzi at Lou-isiana State University in partnership with American Pistachio Growers found that Amer-ican pistachios contain signifi cant amounts of melatonin, much higher than most fruits, vegetables, cereals, legumes and seeds.

Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland to regulate the body’s internal biological clock and control daily sleep cycles. Melatonin supplements are commonly used by people with insomnia or with irregular sleep patterns which may arise from frequent travel or irregular work schedules, among other causes.

The study was signifi cant due to the fact it showed pistachios contain relatively high levels of melatonin compared to other foods and that researchers identifi ed two protective bioactive compounds, lunasin and the Bowman-Birk Inhibitor, which have anti-infl ammatory, an-ti-angiogenic activity that may help manage type 2 diabetes. Additionally, researchers proposed that these compounds together, with other protective compounds found in pistachios, such as lutein, zeaxanthin and polyphenols may support overall health.

Study Finds American Grown Pistachios Contain Melatonin

“Pistachios are a highly nutritious snack con-taining not only melatonin, but a wide variety of vitamins and antioxidants that benefi t an individual’s overall health and wellness,” said Losso.

Key InsightsIn this study, melatonin was extracted from raw and roasted pistachios grown in the United States. The results were surprising, fi nding that pistachios contained about 660 nanograms melatonin per gram of pistachio, which was more than various other foods1.

According to Losso, pistachios contain certain phenolics which can reduce the breakdown of tryptophan to toxic compounds so that it is converted to melatonin. The increase in trypto-phan has the potential to help with delayed sleep onset, sleep duration and quality. Additionally, Yeboah-Awudzi, recommends pistachios as a natural food option worth considering if anyone is looking to increase their melatonin intake.

Of note, the roasting of the pistachios had no eff ect on the melatonin.

1Meng, W. et al. Dietary Sources and Bioac-tivities of Melatonin. Nutrients, 2017.

The abstract for the study can be found at americanpistachios.org.

Graphic provided by American Pistachio Growers


The new funding will allow the State Water Board to comprehensively address the full array of issues that prevent water systems from pro-viding safe and aff ordable drinking water. This includes operating and maintaining modern-ized treatment systems, building the technical andmanagerial capacity of local water systems, and consolidating smaller systems with nearby larger ones.

The funding also will allow small water systems to access additional resources for new treatment facilities and other needed infrastructure. Until now, many small systems could not access these resources because they lacked the funding and technical and managerial expertise to operate this critical public health infrastructure.

During the fi rst year of implementation, most of the funding will be used to award grants and contracts with assistance providers to address immediate drinking water and public health needs in the short term, while beginning to plan and implement long-term solutions in hundreds of communities around the state. Board staff outlined their plan for implementing the Safe and Aff ordable Drinking Water Program at today’s Board meeting.

“This funding is the keystone to a comprehen-sive program the State Water Board has built over the last several years to help local water systems,” said Chair Esquivel. “It will allow us to provide immediate safe drinking water supplies and help ensure the long-term sustainability of community water systems.”

Draft Human Right to Water Data Tool Released

Also, at today’s Board meeting, the Offi ce of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment presented a new interactive, web-based map tool for assessing water quality, aff ordability and accessibility for each of the state’s communities and water providers. The tool uses 13 indicators to provide a baseline assessment that will help the State Water Board track progress towards achieving the goals of safe and aff ordable drink-ing water that is accessible to all Californians.

The draft report and tool are works in progress,

State Water Board Authorizes Nearly Quarter Billion Dollars to Provide Safe and Affordable Drinking Water FROM PAGE 1

and additional data is needed to provide a com-prehensive assessment. During a 60-day public comment period, OEHHA and the State Water Board will conduct webinars and workshops to solicit public input that will be used to fi nalize the report and tool by the end of the year.

• Read the draft report, Achieving the Human Right to Water in California, An Assessment of the State’s Community Water Systems.

• View the Draft Human Right to Water Data Tool.

In 2012, California enacted Human Right to Water legislation (AB 685) recognizing that “every human being has the right to safe, clean,

aff ordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.” The State Water Board adopted a resolution identifying that right as a top priority and core value.

Since 2014, the board has:• Brought 250 systems that were failing to deliver safe drinking water back into compliance.

• Taken actions that led to the consolidation of 100 failing - or likely to fail - water systems.

• Helped more than 200 small disadvantaged communities secure funding for project planning and construction.

• Provided over $1.4 billion in low-interest loans

and grants, benefi tting approximately 7.2 million people in communities large and small, rich and poor, urban and rural.

The State Water Board maintains a list and map of these communities on its Human Right to Water portal. For more information on this ongoing eff ort, a frequently asked questions doc-ument poses important questions and answers.

The Safe and Aff ordable Drinking Water Fund is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide initiative that puts billions of cap-and-trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment — particularly in disadvantaged communities.

Article reprinted with permission from Ag Alert, and the California Farm Bureau Federation

August 21, 2019

On the modern farm, soil sensors, well monitors and paperwork abound. The trick is trying to keep all that data organized.

To that end, a Monterey County winegrape grower, Scheid Family Wines of Greenfi eld, came up with its own system, fi rst called Vit-Watch, to digitize information previously recorded on paper.

That system “gave our clients a view into the season as everything progressed, from bud

Farm Data Management Becomes PriorityBy Kevin Hecteman Ag Alert

break all the way to preharvest, and what irrigation was going on,” said Greg Gonzalez, director of vineyard operations.

That has evolved into an in-house dashboard allowing Scheid managers and supervisors to assess vineyard conditions. The dashboard incorporates information from scouts who gather and report data on their iPads and from soil sensors, such as neutron probes that measure hydrogen levels in soil and compute how many inches of water per square foot vines were getting.

Making everything available in one portal is the job of Ty Swavely, Scheid’s GIS and database analyst.

“You’ve got 200 blocks and sensors all in those blocks, sensing all sorts of diff erent stuff , which

is awesome,” Swavely said. “But then to look at that, it’s so distributed, and you really need to combine it all into an easy chart or table.”

Gonzalez said the one-stop shop makes his job much easier.

“You go to a block, you see a symptom, you can bring up stats on that block in the fi eld as you go,” he said, adding that the portal also helps save water.

Scheid supervisors and irrigators will collect data for a week, look at weather forecasts and schedule irrigation times accordingly, Gon-zalez said.

“If you can identify that, and then you can really understand in terms of your soil-plant-water relationship, your targeting of that water, your use effi ciency goes way up,” he said. “By

understanding that relationship in terms of delivering nutrition, you can hit right in the sweet spot in terms of your defi cit irrigation.”

In the Salinas Valley, irrigation tends to in-volve groundwater, and with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in force, Alex Bugrov may fi nd himself with more business. He’s the brains behind Well Bubbler, which he describes as a type of smart meter for irrigation wells. The system tracks well level, fl ow rate, discharge pressure and pump power.

“By looking at those things, you can monitor long-term trends in groundwater in this area,” Bugrov said. “You can look at the performance of a specifi c well, look at things like a specifi c drawdown and the overall pumping effi ciency



Press Release Provided by the U.S. Department of commerce

Last night, the U.S. Department of Commerce initialed a draft agreement with Mexican toma-to growers to suspend the ongoing antidumping (AD) investigation of fresh tomatoes from Mexico, ensuring that the domestic tomato industry will be protected from unfair trade.

“For many years, there have been disputes over the roughly $2 billion worth of tomatoes that are imported from Mexico annually. These

U.S. Department of Commerce Announces a New Draft Suspension Agreement on Fresh Tomatoes from Mexico

disputes led the Department to terminate an earlier suspension agreement and continue an investigation that could have led to duties of 25 percent for most Mexican tomato producers. After intensive discussions with all parties, we initialed a new draft suspension agreement with the Mexican growers late last night. This draft agreement meets the needs of both sides and avoids the need for antidumping duties,” Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross said.

The draft suspension agreement has enforce-ment provisions that completely eliminate

the injurious eff ects of Mexican tomatoes, as well as price suppression and undercutting. The draft agreement sets reference prices for rounds and romas at $0.31/lb., stem-on tomatoes at $0.46/lb., tomatoes on the vine at $0.50/lb., specialty loose tomatoes at $0.49/lb., and specialty packed tomatoes at $0.59/lb., with organic tomatoes priced 40% higher than non-organics. The draft agreement also closes loopholes from past suspension agree-ments that permitted sales below the reference prices, and includes a brand-new inspection

FARM DATA MANAGEMENT BECOMES PRIORITY FROM PAGE 11of your pump, which are both primary indi-cators of their health.”

Users also can see “who else is drinking from this same aquifer and what eff ect all this com-bined withdrawal is having on the water table,” he added.

As he spoke, the Well Bubbler started hum-ming.

“It’s taking a well-level sample,” Bugrov said, noting the system gathers data every 15 minutes on well level, fl ow rate, pressure and power, recorded locally and sent to a dashboard in the cloud.

Norm Groot, executive director of the Mon-terey County Farm Bureau, said meters such as this will be crucial to groundwater man-agement.

“I think where it’s going to become most im-portant is cooperating with your neighbors on when you’re extracting, so that you’re not

creating an unnecessary imbalance in the basin,” Groot said.

At a berry farm in Moss Landing, technology takes the form of streamlining and organizing reports necessary to ensure food safety.

Rocha Bros. Farms, which grows for California Giant, makes use of an organizing app called HeavyConnect to track daily checklists from the farm’s Salinas and Santa Maria operations.

Supervisors check their fi elds every morning before harvest, said Alejandra Rocha, the farm’s food safety supervisor; when paper forms were being used, “the daily checklist would take a while just to even make it into the offi ce,” she said. Now, “I can go ahead and look at it right there and then, so I don’t have to wait until that paper comes back to me.”

Eric Valenzuela, director of food safety and sustainability for California Giant, noted that pest-control advisers and fertilizer applicators

also can log in and post re-ports of the work they’ve done.

“It allows her to not only just look at it from one perspec-tive, but so many diff erent other perspectives using this platform,” Valenzuela said.

That sort of streamlining was the whole idea, said Pat-rick Zelaya, the developer of HeavyConnect, who said the app “removes paperwork from farming operations—all paperwork.” That includes timecards, irrigation sched-ules, employee safety reports and crop-protection reports as well as food safety, he added.

Having all the food-safety in-formation at one’s fi ngertips is crucial in the event of a product recall, Valenzuela noted.

“I will be able to get the documentation for that recall process much sooner than the FDA requirement of two hours,” he said.

As farming practices evolve, higher education evolves with them.

At California State University Monterey Bay, Andrew Lawson, dean of the College of Sci-ence, said the university will admit its fi rst students pursuing an agricultural plant and soil science degree next year.

“The idea for that program is really to be the ag program in the state that’s focused on vegetable and berry production,” Lawson said.

To that end, several local farmers have stepped up with donations. Among them is Ross Merrill of Merrill Farms, who has established schol-arships for two students—”fi rst-generation college students that would otherwise not have the means to go,” he said.

Bob Johnson, who farmed in Monterey County for 43 years before retiring in 1993, gave a donation that allowed Cal State Monterey Bay to hire faculty members for its agricultural programs.

“Agriculture and education are two things that need to go together, because it’s getting more and more complex,” said Johnson, who served on the California Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors from 1976-82.

( Kevin Hecteman is an assistant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at [email protected].)

Alejandra Rocha, food safety coordinator for Rocha Bros. Farms, looks over data

on her tablet in a Moss Landing strawberry fi eld. The farm uses an app to collect

daily checklists from supervisors in the fi eld, making it faster and easier for Rocha

to keep track of everything happening at her operation’s Salinas Valley and Santa

Maria fi elds. Photo: Kevin Hecteman (reprinted with permission from the California

Farm Bureau Federation)

mechanism to prevent the importation of low-quality, poor-condition tomatoes from Mexico, which can have price suppressive eff ects in the market. In addition, the draft agreement allows the Department to audit up to 80 Mexican tomato producers per quarter, or more with good cause.

The statute requires a 30-day notice period after today’s initialing of the draft agreement. At that point, on September 19, Commerce



Farmers Need More Agreements like Mexican Tomato DealThe following can be attributed to American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall:

“The U.S. and Mexico recently concluded an agreement that should give tomato farmers much needed stability in the coming years. Other crops, however, haven’t received such relief, so other farmers struggle to keep up with surging imports from Mexico such as cucumbers, peppers, blueberries and more.

“The United States Trade Representative has a duty to defend all agricultural markets,

Comments from Leaders in Trade Discussionsso it’s our sincere hope his offi ce will move quickly to forge similar agreements over other products that are too often sold at artifi cially low prices.”

Secretary Perdue Statement on New Draft Suspension Agreement on Fresh Tomatoes from MexicoU.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue issued the following statement after U.S. Department of Commerce announced a new Draft Suspension Agreement on Fresh Tomatoes from Mexico:

“I want to thank my colleagues at the U.S. Department of Commerce for working dil-

talking trade:

igently to reach a mutually benefi cial agree-ment for tomato growers in both the U.S. and Mexico. Protecting America’s tomato producers from the glut of Mexican imports is yet another example of President Trump’s commitment to ensuring our farmers have the ability to succeed in international mar-kets, as well as right here at home. Tomato producers across America, including those in Arizona, California, the Carolinas, Florida, and Georgia will benefi t from the elimination of the unfair trade practices we have seen from these Mexican tomato imports,” said Secretary Perdue. “America’s farmers are the most productive on earth and President Trump recognizes that – I thank him for his continued work to secure fair trade that benefi ts our nation’s producers and consumers alike. When it comes to trade and agriculture, we have a mutually dependent relationship with Mexico and reaching a compromise here allows us to refocus our eff orts towards quick passage by Congress of the broader U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.”

Produce Marketing Association on Draft Suspension Agreement on Fresh Tomatoes from MexicoPMA is pleased that a new draft agreement has been reached to bring certainty to the marketplace. Implementation will be critical to ensure the expectations of all parties are achieved and that the industry can contin-

ue to supply consumers with high-quality, year-round products at aff ordable prices. PMA looks forward to seeing details of the agreement, particularly provisions that outline the level of increased inspections that will impact the supply chain.

Another China Tariff Announcement Signals More Trouble The following may be attributed to American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall:

“China’s announcement of imposing addition-al tariff s on $75 billion of U.S. imports signals more trouble for American agriculture. Farm Bureau is currently assessing the details of this announcement, but we know continued retaliation only adds to the diffi culties farm and ranch families are facing and takes the situation in the exact wrong direction.

“The U.S. exported $19.5 billion of agricul-tural products to China in 2017. Agricultural exports to China were reduced to $9.1 billion in 2018 because of retaliatory tariff s and exports were already down in the fi rst half of this year by $1.3 billion.

“Continuing negotiations is the best way to restore certainty to export markets farmers and ranchers depend on. We need substantive trade agreements that ensure American agri-culture can provide an abundant and safe food supply for the world’s growing population.”

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ALTERNATIVES TO CHLORPYRIFOS WORK GROUP ANNOUNCED FROM PAGE 3said CDFA Secretary Karen Ross. “We must be practical in fi nding solutions that fi t the pest management realities farmers face, and it is critical that we all work together to address this challenge.”

The Work Group will:• Develop short-term, practical solutions to transition to safer more sustainable pest-man-agement solutions.

• Develop a fi ve-year action plan to identify and develop safer, more sustainable pest man-agement tools, practices, and alternatives.

• Begin work in August 2019 and conclude in the spring of 2020.

In January, the Work Group will hold three public workshops in diff erent regions of Cali-fornia to solicit public input on the action plans. Dates and locations of these workshops will be publicized at a later date. In the interim, the public can provide input to the Work Group via email at [email protected]. The public can also sign up for updates about the Work Group at alternatives to chlorpyrifos list serve .

The development of safer, more sustainable alternatives to chlorpyrifos will be supported by Governor Newsom’s 2019-2020 budget, approved by the Legislature, which appropri-ates over $5 million in grant funding for that purpose. The availability and solicitation of the grants will be announced in the coming months.

In May, the California Environmental Protec-tion Agency announced that DPR was acting to cancel chlorpyrifos. Restrictions on chlorpy-

rifos use that went into eff ect in January 2019 following DPR’s identifi cation of the pesticide as a toxic air contaminant will remain in eff ect pending the cancellation action.

The decision to ban chlorpyrifos follows mounting evidence, including fi ndings by the state’s independent Scientifi c Review Panel on Toxic Air Contaminants, that this pesticide causes serious health eff ects in children and other sensitive populations at lower levels of exposure than previously understood. These eff ects include impaired brain and neurological development.

You can fi nd more info on chlorpyrifos, can-cellation and the Work Group @ https://www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/chlorpyrifos/index.htm

Quick facts about Chlorpyrifos• Chlorpyrifos is used to control pests on a variety of crops, including alfalfa, almonds, citrus, cotton, grapes and walnuts. It has de-clined in use over the past decade as California growers have shifted to safer alternatives. Use of the pesticide dropped more than 50 percent from two million pounds in 2005 to just over 940,000 pounds in 2017.

• In 2015 DPR made chlorpyrifos a Califor-nia restricted material. This means that only trained, licensed professionals who have a permit from a local county agricultural com-missioner (CAC) may use products containing chlorpyrifos.

• Chlorpyrifos has been prohibited by U.S. EPA for virtually all residential uses since December 31, 2001.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE ANNOUNCES A NEW DRAFT SUSPENSION AGREEMENT ON FRESH TOMATOES FROM MEXICO FROM PAGE 12and the Mexican growers could sign a fi nal agreement. If this occurs, Commerce will suspend the ongoing AD investigation without issuing a fi nal determination.

The draft agreement stems from a November 14, 2018 request from the Florida Tomato Exchange that Commerce terminate the 2013 Suspension Agreement on Fresh Tomatoes from Mexico. On February 6, 2019, Com-merce notifi ed the Mexican signatories that it would withdraw from the 2013 Suspension Agreement. On May 7, 2019, the 2013 Sus-pension Agreement was offi cially terminated and, as a result, Commerce continued its AD investigation on imports of fresh tomatoes from Mexico.

Today’s action exemplifi es the Trump Admin-istration’s priority of enforcing our trade laws, while ensuring that trade agreements are fair, reciprocal, and benefi t American farmers, workers, businesses, and consumers. Tomato producers across America, including those in Florida, Texas, and Arizona, will benefi t from this agreement.

The Department’s Enforcement and Com-pliance unit in the International Trade Ad-ministration, which negotiated today’s draft suspension agreement, is responsible for vig-orously enforcing U.S. trade law and does so through an impartial, transparent process that abides by international rules and is based on factual evidence provided on the record.

RIO BRAVO RANCH – ORGANIC, AWARD-WINNING OLIVE OIL … LOCALLY GROWN FROM PAGE 1oil—a benefi t that European producers are unable to guarantee the American consumer.

Rio Bravo Ranch fi nally feels like the word is getting out that you can in fact produce high quality olive oil right here in California. Sales are picking up each year, and each year they are winning high honors and awards. In 2017the entire Rio Bravo Ranch line was recognized with gold medals from the Califor-nia Olive Oil Council and the Central Coast Olive Growers Association with the Miller’s Reserve blend receiving Best in Class and Best in Show from the CCOGA.

“Bakersfi eld has been great in pushing

our local product, and we now feel like the time has come to expand into larger mar-kets in southern California,” states Stefanie Wickensheimer who handles the bulk of the production and sales for Rio Bravo Ranch. She adds, “now that we’ve proven ourselves, we feel our locally grown, organic mantra still applies over the hill into Los Angeles”.

Rio Bravo Ranch plans to continue its award-winning streak as they approach the 2019-2020 harvest and hopes to continue expansion in stores and restaurants, not only in the surrounding counties, but here locally as well.

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By: Sandy Mittelsteadt, Valley Ag Voice

More than a Farmer’s Wife

An amazing woman has come to my atten-tion. Her name is Jean Hardy and she was the daughter of a farmer, then became a farmer’s wife, and now at the age of eighty-eight, she is the farmer, so she has lived on a farm for almost all of her eighty-eight years here on this earth. She was born in St, Angelo, Texas and came to California when she was just six years old.

At fi rst, her fam-ily settled in the Salinas Valley to help with vege-tables. Then, the family bought a twenty-acre f a r m a n d moved to Ker-man, which is west of Fresno, when Jean was twelve years old. On this farm, the family grew zinnias and sold the fl ower seeds. (Zinnias thrive in the heat and sun of the San Joaquin summers.)

Several years later when Jean was sixteen and a half, she caught the eye of the son of a cotton farmer next door. His name was LeRoy and their fi rst date was to attend church together, because her dad said that was where LeRoy could escort her. Thereafter, most of their dates were attending church. LeRoy and Jean were married on June 30th,1948 and bought their own farm in Kerman, which is west of Fresno, in 1950. They lived as farmers for seventy-one years and had two daughters, Pat Abercrom-

bie and Bev Allen. Pat still lives by Jean (just three miles down the road) and Bev and her husband, John, have an almond orchard here in Bakersfi eld. You can say that the Hardys are a farming family, and you can also say that LeRoy was the love of Jean’s life.

Jean has seen a lot of changes in farm-ing over the many years she has lived on farms. She states that the biggest change in farm-ing is agricultural technology. When she was just a girl living on the farm, they did everything by hand, especially in growing cotton, and now every-thing is done by machines.

Today, Jean’s farm is three thousand acres of grapes and almond trees. With

the help of a couple of foremen, including her brother, Everett Hilliard, and twenty-fi ve steady workers, Jean grows grapes for Gallo and also raises almonds trees. Jean enjoys the excitement and challenges of farm life and she stays busy. Her workers are very special to her. Her grapes are also special, and the types of grapes that she grows arecabernet, ruby cabernet, grenache, French colombard, syrah, renoit, and ruby red. She raises three kinds of almonds, including the monterey and nonpareil. The day that I called to interview Jean she told me that that very evening, she along with her workers, plus

six machines, were meeting at 9:00 at night to harvest grapes and she planned on harvesting at least fi fteen to sixteen rows of grapes.

During the interview, I asked Jean how im-portant faith was to her and she said, “Faith is the only thing that can get your through the business of farm-ing.” By that, she meant that farm-ing is so complex today and farmers face so many issues and uncontrollable challenges that a farmer knows and understands that he (in this case, she) needs the help of an almighty God, who does control the weather and the economy.

I can only pray that when I am eighty-eight (if God blesses me with that many years) that I am as enthusiastic and feisty and interesting as Jean Hardy. What a blessing to still be able to work and help others at a time when most people are giving up on living. Farmers, as Jean typifi es, defy the odds and keep on doing the best job that they possibly

can, every single day.

Prayer: God, send a blessing on the houses, barns, and fi elds of the farmers and ranchers. Bless their crops and animals that they raise. Keep their equipment reliable and send the sun and rain in its due season. Remind the farmers that you are the One who helps the crops grow.

As Psalm 65:9 & 10 states: “Thou visitest the earth, and waterest it: thou great ly enriches it with the river of God, which is full of water: thou pre-pares them corn, when thou hast so provided for it. Thou waterest the ridges there-of abundantly: thou settlest the furrows thereof: thou makest it soft with show-

ers: thou blesses the springing thereof.”

(If you know of an interesting farmer/s who thinks that faith is important, please send me their name and contact info to: [email protected]. I would like to write an article about them.)

Newlyweds 1948 in Kerman, California

Nokomis, Louie, Jean and Daisy Hilliard

1938 in Corpus Christie Texas

Leroy and Jean (1980)

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