Pacific Nut Producer Magazine

Category: Economics

  • Often Overlooked Legal Employee Reimbursement Requirements (Farm Liability Series Part 3 of 3)

    Farmers are some of the best people on the planet.  They work hard and do their very best to keep food on the table in homes all over the world.  Like anyone though, sometimes they make mistakes too and can overlook some of the ever-changing laws and requirements for their farm employees, and end up in court over violations that could have been prevented.  To keep farmers out of the court room, we have put together a series of three videos with simple tips and employee requirements featuring Ag Attorney Stacy Henderson, as shared in her presentation earlier this year at the annual Convention of the Almond Alliance of California.  Watch these brief videos to help reduce liabilities on the farm and read more in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.

     

    Please thank our sponsor Duarte Nursery for their industry support by visiting them at their booth at the following November Events: Tree & Vine Expo, the Grape, Nut & Tree Fruit Expo & Blue Diamond Growers Annual Membership Meeting.

  • Legal Care for Injured Farm Employees (Farm Liability Series Part 2 of 3)

     

    Farmers are some of the best people on the planet.  They work hard and do their very best to keep food on the table in homes all over the world.  Like anyone though, sometimes they make mistakes too and can overlook some of the ever-changing laws and requirements for their farm employees, and end up in court over violations that could have been prevented.  To keep farmers out of the court room, we have put together a series of three videos with simple tips and employee requirements featuring Ag Attorney Stacy Henderson, as shared in her presentation earlier this year at the annual Convention of the Almond Alliance of California.  Watch these brief videos to help reduce liabilities on the farm and read more in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.

     

    Please thank our sponsor Duarte Nursery for their industry support by visiting them at their booth at the following November Events: Tree & Vine Expo, the Grape, Nut & Tree Fruit Expo & Blue Diamond Growers Annual Membership Meeting.

  • Friant Water Authority Shares Blueprint to Save Central Valley Farmland & Water

    With the tasking demands of Sustainable Groundwater Management Act coming down on California farmers, a considerable amount of farmland will have to be retired and will have a severe economic impact on the Central Valley.  But there has to be a way to meet the demands of the state without devastating our farming communities.  Watch this brief interview with Friant Water Authority CEO Jason Phillips as he shares their Water Blueprint initiative to meet both the State’s demands without robbing our critical farming communities of the water they need to continue feeding the world.  Read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.

    Please thank our sponsor Duarte Nursery for their industry support by visiting them at their booth at the following November Events: Tree & Vine Expo, the Grape, Nut & Tree Fruit Expo & Blue Diamond Growers Annual Meeting.

  • Oregon Hazelnut Growers Anticipate Largest Crop Ever

    As the hazelnut industry continues to grow in the Pacific Northwest, Oregon growers are expecting a record breaking crop this year, as shared by Larry George of George Packing Company at the Annual Summer Tour of the Nut Growers Society recently held in Albany, Oregon.  Watch this brief interview with Larry as he provides some special insights on the developing crop and current state of the hazelnut market.  Read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.  Don’t currently receive this monthly publication. Subscribe for FREE at https://malcolmmedia.com/pacific-nut-producer-magazine-subscriptions/.

  • Farmer Member on CA Water Resources Control Board Urges Farmers

    Although the California Water Resources Control Board may not be terribly popular amidst local farming communities due to recent actions that have not been in the best interests of agriculture, what you may not know is that there are farmers that sit on this board, including Dorene D’Adamo.  Watch this brief interview with Dorene as she explains that it will take much more that a couple farming board members to make a difference in water issues today.  Read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.

    Please thank our sponsor Duarte Nursery and attend one of their upcoming Bennett Hickman Almond Field Days in Pixley or Modesto.

  • Current Status of CA Groundwater Sustainability Agencies – Deadline Approaching

    The California State Water Resources Control Board is getting ready to crack down on farmers for their increased use of groundwater unless their local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies can come up with a sustainable plan that will not overdraft local groundwater resources.  Watch this brief interview with Taryn Ravazzini from the California Department of Water Resources as she shares a progress report of this local GSAs at work.

    Please thank our sponsor Duarte Nursery and attend one of their upcoming Bennett Hickman Almond Field Days in Pixley or Modesto.

  • US Pistachio Shipments Remain Strong Despite Increased Tariffs

    Despite the recent increased tariffs slapped onto US pistachios in the midst of an international trade war, consumers worldwide just can’t get enough of them.  Watch this brief interview with Richard Matoian from American Pistachio Growers and read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.

    Please thank our sponsor Duarte Nursery and attend one of their upcoming Bennett Hickman Almond Field Days in Pixley or Modesto.

  • New Studies Show Soil Health Practices Increase Farm Profitability

    Today, American Farmland Trust(AFT), the organization behind the national movement No Farms No Food®,is releasing four case studies that show that healthier soil on farmland brings economic benefits to farmers and environmental benefits to society. These case studies were developed in partnership with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

    AFT Water Initiative Director Dr. Michelle Perez, the lead researcher on the project, is unveiling the case studies at the Soil and Water Conservation Society annual conference today. The case studies were developed as part of a 2018 NRCS Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) project, “Accelerating Soil Health Adoption by Quantifying Economic and Environmental Outcomes and Overcoming Barriers on Rented Lands,”and feature farms in California, Illinois, Ohio and New York.

    “Increasingly, we understand that better soil health – and specific practices aimed at building soil organic matter, fostering microbial life in the soil, reducing nutrient loss, and protecting soil from erosion – lead to higher net income for farming operations. These case studies contribute to the growing body of quantitative evidence that improving soil health increases farmer profitability,” said Dr. Perez.

    The two-page case studies focus on corn-soybean production in Illinois and Ohio, almond production in California and a diversified rotation (sweet corn, alfalfa, corn for silage or grain) in New York. The four farmers featured implemented soil health practices like no-till or strip-till, nutrient management, cover crops, compost, and mulching.

    “When it comes to conservation, producers have to make decisions based on what makes the most sense for their operations,” said NRCS Chief Matthew Lohr. “These case studies provide information on the economic benefits of using soil health management systems, demonstrating the value of adopting these systems.”

    With soil health management, producers can increase their yield, decrease their risk and input costs, and improve their profits, all while conserving our nation’s resources for the public at large, on their farms, in their watersheds, and beyond. Soil health management systems are good for farmers and for the public.

    “Increased implementation of soil health is critical to AFT’s holistic approach to saving the land that sustains us. Ensuring a sustainable future for this planet and our society requires we value the land, the practices on the land and the people who steward that land. AFT’s case studies showcase farmers who took the risk and are now enjoying the benefits of implementing practices that will support food production for a growing population while improving our environment and sequestering carbon. Farmers across the country can now embrace these practices and, with the help of staffers from AFT and our partner NRCS, put them into practice with greater confidence and profitability,” says John Piotti, AFT president and CEO.

    Highlights from the case studies include:

    • All four of the farmers profiled saw improved yields ranging from 2% to 22% that they attributed, in part, to their soil health practices. The average return on investment was 176% for the four farms in the study and ranged from 35% to 343%. The study accounted for other factors at play in increased yield such as improved seed varieties and increased seeding rates.
    • All four farmers saw improved water quality outcomes, both by witnessing reduced soil and water runoff and as estimated by USDA’s Nutrient Tracking Tool (NTT). NTT estimated that nitrogen reductions ranged from 40% to 98%, phosphorus reductions ranged from 74% to 92%; and sediment reductions ranged from 76% to 96% from specific fields in each farm.
    • All four farmers saw improved climate outcomes, as estimated by USDA’s COMET-Farm Tool. The tool estimated that total greenhouse gas emission reductions from specific fields in each farm ranged from 16% to 560%, corresponding to taking three-fourths of a car to 17 cars off the road.

    All four farmers have been implementing different soil health practices over different time frames and a variety of cropping systems. With these case studies and the ones that will be released in the fall, AFT is building a diverse library of on-farm examples of soil health investments that have led to economic gain.

    We hope that farmers who have been considering adding soil health practices to their operation will be able to use these case studies to approach their existing landowners, from whom they rent their land, to discuss sharing the risks and rewards of the soil health investments. We think farmers may be able to use the case studies with a new landlord to add new fields. Should that materialize, we hope farmers will also share the case studies with their bankers to secure additional financing for the farm expansion.

    Farmers across the country can reach out to their local NRCS and Soil and Water Conservation District staff to help them implement soil health practices on their farm. In the watersheds featured in the four case studies, farmers can reach out to both the local NRCS and SWCD staff as well as the four AFT authors of the case studies.

    We hope our conservation partners at NRCS, SWCD and Extension, plus our partners in the private sector, crop consultants, cover crop seed dealers, and strip-till equipment providers, use these case studies with their customers to help answer questions about the costs and benefits of adopting soil health practices.

    AFT’s first four case studies can be foundon AFT’s “Accelerating Soil Health” webpage.

    American Farmland Trust is the only national organization that takes a holistic approach to agriculture, focusing on the land itself, the agricultural practices used on that land, and the farmers and ranchers who do the work. AFT launched the conservation agriculture movement and continues to raise public awareness through our No Farms, No Foodmessage. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.5 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.

    USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) mission is “Helping People Help the Land.” NRCS helps America’s farmers, ranchers and forest landowners conserve the nation’s soil, water, air and other natural resources. All programs are voluntary and offer science-based solutions that benefit both the landowner and the environment.

  • Economic Study Bolsters Value Of Generic Marketing Efforts By Pistachio Industry

    American Pistachio Growers’ (APG) efforts to reduce or eliminate trade barriers in several key overseas markets have been a significant boon to pistachio exports and to growers’ bottom-line. A new study, “An Analysis of the Effects of the American Pistachio Growers’ Program to Reduce/Eliminate Tariffs on U.S. Pistachios,” has quantified, for the first time, the direct benefit 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 tariffs had not been lowered 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 tariffs were reduced in all five geographic areas.

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

    While Tootelian did not have any prior expectations of what his study would show, he was surprised by the findings.

    “To see this kind of an increase in shipments on a before and after basis with the tariffs 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 tariffs come down, foreign markets want to buy them.”

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

    “If you take the price fluctuations 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 tariffs were in effect to after they were reduced or eliminated,” 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 they were not diverted to other markets. While the effect 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 tariffs are lowered or eliminated, traditional economics would dictate that increased shipments 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 consumers can buy from other countries,” said Tootelian. “And third, there are a lot of reputable health studies that show nuts are healthy and nutritious.  APG has invested considerable 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 officials and with foreign governmental bodies to alleviate burdensome trade barriers and create a more open market for U.S-grown pistachios.

    “Quantifying the value of APG’s efforts to growers has been difficult 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 director. “Frankly, we were quite surprised at the magnitude of these numbers.  It’s our strong belief that whenever and wherever trade barriers exist to the free flow 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.”

  • USDA Extends Deadline to May 17 for Producers to Certify 2018 Crop Production for Market Facilitation Program Payments

    USDA extended the deadline to May 17 from May 1 for agricultural producers to certify 2018 crop production for payments through the Market Facilitation Program (MFP), which helps producers who have been significantly affected by foreign tariffs, resulting in the loss of traditional exports. USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) extended the deadline because heavy rainfall and snowfall have delayed harvests in many parts of the country, preventing producers from certifying harvested production.

    Payments will be issued only if eligible producers certify before the updated May 17 deadline.

    The MFP provides payments to producers of corn, cotton, sorghum, soybeans, wheat, dairy, hogs, fresh sweet cherries and shelled almonds. FSA will issue payments based on the producer’s certified total production of the MFP commodity multiplied by the MFP rate for that specific commodity.

    “Trade issues, coupled with low commodity prices and recovery from natural disasters, have definitely impacted the bottom line for many agricultural producers,” said FSA Administrator Richard Fordyce. “The MFP payments provide short-term relief from retaliatory tariffs to supplement the traditional farm safety net, helping agricultural producers through these difficult times. Weather conditions this fall, winter and early spring have blocked many producers from completing harvest of their crops, and we want to make sure producers who want to finalize their MFP application have an opportunity.”

    Producers can certify production by contacting their local FSA office or through farmers.gov.

    About the Market Facilitation Program

    U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue launched the trade mitigation program to assist farmers suffering from damage because of unjustified trade retaliation by foreign nations. FSA implemented MFP in September 2018 as a relief strategy to protect agricultural producers while the Administration works on free, fair and reciprocal trade deals to open more markets to help American farmers compete globally. To date, more than $8.3 billion has been paid to nearly 600,000 applicants.

    The MFP is established under the statutory authority of the Commodity Credit Corporation Charter Act and is administered by FSA.

    More Information

    For more information, contact your local FSA office or visit www.farmers.gov/MFP.