Merced County almond, walnut and peach grower, Randy Fiorini is proud to be the first farmer to work with both the Henry Mayo Newhall Foundation and California Farmland Trust in a conservation fundraising campaign to protect agricultural land from urban expansion. Watch this brief video with Randy Fiorini as he explains the program and needed support to realize his goal.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
Washington is under a state of emergency, with more than 600 wildfires reported already this year. That’s about double the normal rate, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. Where there’s fire, there’s smoke that can expose outdoor workers in construction, agriculture, and other jobs to health risks from breathing particulate matter in the air.
To help these and other workers, the Department of Labor & Industries (L&I) filed emergency rules today to help protect employees exposed to wildfire smoke. Washington is just the second state to issue regulations regarding workers and wildfire smoke. California was the first, adopting its rules in 2019.
“This wildfire season is shaping up to be even worse than last year,” said L&I Director Joel Sacks. “We’re establishing these emergency rules to protect employees who have to work outside, breathing in smoky air all day long.”
Smoke from wildfires contains chemicals, gases, and fine particles that can harm health. The most concerning hazard is associated with the smallest particles, or Particulate Matter (PM), that are less than 2.5 micrometers (PM 2.5). These particles can get deep into the lungs, worsening existing health conditions like asthma, negatively impacting heart health, and increasing the risk of death.
The new wildfire smoke rules spell out to employers how to identify harmful smoke exposure risks and when to notify their workers. They also require employers to:
The rule sets the standard for dangerously poor air quality at PM 2.5 concentrations of 55.5 micrograms per cubic meter (μg/m3) or an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 151.
Measures to eliminate or reduce worker exposure may include:
Although not required, L&I also recommends employers take action to reduce employee exposure to dangerous air at even lower levels of particulate matter, especially for sensitive groups with asthma or other lung conditions.
Monitoring air quality
The emergency wildfire smoke rules include several ways employers can check PM 2.5 levels. They can check sites including the EPA’s AirNow website or state Department of Ecology’s Air Monitoring Network and download mobile apps like “EPA AirNow” or “Air Quality WA.” They can also purchase equipment to check it themselves.
What’s next
The emergency rules are in effect immediately (July 16, 2021); employers will be given a brief grace period before enforcement begins. L&I gathered stakeholder input and referenced California’s regulations to develop the emergency wildfire smoke rules. L&I will announce opportunities to provide input on permanent rules in the coming months.
The third edition of a booklet to help identify noxious and invasive weeds in New Mexico is now available.
“Noxious and Troublesome Weeds of New Mexico” provides information on about 67 plant species that are ranked in five categories – noxious weeds categories A, B and C, watch list, and troublesome weeds not included on the noxious weeds list.
New Mexico State University’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Cooperative Extension Service has published the third edition of this booklet in cooperation with the New Mexico Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, New Mexico Vegetation Management Association, U.S. Department of Agriculture and New Mexico State Highway and Transportation Department.
“It has been more than a decade since the booklet was updated,” said Leslie Beck, NMSU Extension weed specialist. “We tried to include a wide spectrum of plants within different families so when people use the booklet, they will have a starting point for identification.”
The booklet includes species common and scientific name with description of the plant, including its stems, leaves and flower appearances; various names it is known as; how it reproduces; and the do’s and don’ts for managing the plants.
“The state map has been updated to indicate which counties each species is found,” Beck said. “Also we have included photos of each of the plants to help with the identification.”
First published in 2006, and revised in 2010, “Troublesome Weeds of New Mexico” has been a popular tool for identifying the plants.
“Since the last revision a lot of the species have shifted into new noxious weed categories, or the plant may have been taken off or added to the list,” Beck said.
The 41 noxious species are divided into three categories in regards to how prevalent they are across the state from currently limited distribution, to severe infestation, to widespread.
Six species that have the potential of becoming problematic are on the watch list.
“This is the part of the publication that has changed the most,” Beck said. “More data is needed to determine if these species should be considered a problem. We ask people to document the location of these plants and contact appropriate authorities, such as their local county NMSU Extension offices or NMDA.”
In addition to the noxious weed and watch list species, the 2021 edition includes 20 species that are considered troublesome weeds.
“These are plants that have been commonly observed as invaders of multiple cropping systems, such as landscapes, gardens, agriculture, rangelands and pastures,” Beck said. “They may be native to the Southwest but commonly invade certain cropping systems as a weed.”
This list does not include every plant species with the potential to negatively affect the state’s environment or economy.
“These species were selected because they have frequently been sent to me for identification,” Beck said. “Some of them are a little bit more common than others.”
The PDF version of the publication is available at https://aces.nmsu.edu/pubs/_circulars/CR698.pdf. A printed copy of the booklet, sized to fit in a back pocket, will be available soon. — By Jane Moorman, New Mexico State University
On July 1, 1930, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) formally began its pecan research and breeding program in Austin, TX. With this support from ARS scientists, the United States became the world’s leading producer of pecans, a crop estimated to be worth over $560 million.
Nearly a century later at the ARS Fruit and Tree Nut Research Station in Byron, GA , team members David Shapiro-Ilan, Fernando Vega, Tshima Ramakuwela (visiting Borlaug Fellow), and collaborators from Fort Valley State University and University of Georgia continue to build upon this legacy by developing newer and smarter ways to protect this beloved crop.
According to their research, fungi that can naturally disable or eliminate insects may be key to protecting pecans’ future. Shapiro and his team identified two particularly “friendly fungi,” Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium brunneum.
Although harmless to humans, both fungi have shown an ability to effectively control economically damaging insects like pecan weevils, aphids, and stink bugs. There also appears to be a positive correlation between the presence of those fungi and the growth of the plants they’re applied to, leading to increased plant height, number of leaves, and root length.
“For growers and consumers interested in organically grown pecans, this is an exciting finding,” said Shapiro. “More than ever, conventional pesticides are discouraged because of the chemical residues they leave behind that can hurt not only nontarget organisms, but also the overall environment. Fungi like B. bassiana, on the other hand, are naturally occurring, relatively widespread, and safe for people and plants. This is a big step in ensuring the productivity, profitability, and environmental sustainability of U.S. pecan production.”
In conventional agriculture, crops are typically sprayed with chemically formulated pesticides. Insect-killing fungi such as B. bassiana and M. brunneum can also be sprayed using most standard agricultural equipment. However, fungi like B. bassiana are also endophytes – meaning they can live within the tissues of a host plant. Because of this characteristic, B. bassiana can coexist with and offer protection to pecan plants at the earliest stages of growth. The fungus is applied via a relatively simple inoculation process.
There are several different approaches that even home gardeners or noncommercial pecan tree growers can replicate, said Shapiro. For example, a pecan seed can be rolled in fungus-spore powder or soaked in a fungus-spore solution. If the pecan plant has already sprouted into a seedling, drenching the soil around it with a high concentration of the fungus or spraying the leaves with the spores will also inoculate the crop. The protection provided by the inoculation can last as long as 3 years, which may be critical to ensuring the plants reach pecan-producing maturity.
Beyond their potential as biopesticides and organic growth promoters for pecans, B. bassiana and M. brunneum have also successfully defended plants and people from threats like fungal diseases and pests such as mites, bedbugs, and mosquitoes. ARS continues to investigate the additional benefits of endophytes to pecan trees and other crops. – By Georgia Jiang, USDA-ARS Office of Communications
Today, American Farmland Trust, the organization that for 40 years has been saving the land that sustains us and advancing the principles of regenerative agriculture shares an updated AFT’s Retrospective Soil Health Economic Calculator (R-SHEC) Tool, providing farmers and the conservation community a means of evaluating the return on investment (ROI) of soil health conservation practices with 2020 price and crop data. The previous version of the tool used 2019 information. This updated pricing allows farmers to obtain a more accurate picture of the costs and benefits of their investments in soil health.
Impacts of climate change on agriculture and the need for farms to become more resilient to extreme weather are more obvious than ever before. In addition, society is asking farmers to improve environmental outcomes of agriculture, including impacts to water quality and wildlife habitat and to sequester carbon in their soils to mitigate climate change. Soil health practices like cover crops, no-till, nutrient management and conservation crop rotation can help address these challenges. However, despite farmers’ belief in the science underpinning the practices, they are often reluctant to change management techniques without knowing how much the practices will cost and what the financial benefits will be.
The R-SHEC Tool is part of a comprehensive set of resources available online and free of charge from AFT on the Soil Health Case Study Methods and Took Kit webpage. The methods, tools and training resources provided are those used by AFT in developing case studies featuring soil health successful farmers in its Quantifying the Economic and Environmental Benefits of Soil Health project funded by a USDA Natural Resource Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grant. The Tool Kit materials have all been updated for this re-release. The R-SHEC Tool allows evaluation of soil health practices adopted by row crop farmers (corn, soybeans, wheat and hay) for more than four years and within the last 15 years. The tool presents the net economic benefits in a partial budget analysis table and includes an estimate of the ROI in the soil health practices.
In addition to updating price and cost data in the tool, AFT is releasing a customized almond version to estimate the economic effects of almond-specific soil health practices such as conservation cover, nutrient management, mulching and compost application. AFT believes the Almond R-SHEC Tool is very relevant at this time given the water struggles in California, a key almond producing region and almonds being a high-water use crop. In 2018, AFT worked with Almond Farmers Tom and Dan Rogers and found they experienced a 25 percent reduction in irrigation water use which they attribute to the increased water holding capacity from the soil health practices used on their farm.
The next phase of this work, a Predictive Soil Health Economic Calculator (P-SHEC) Tool will enable conservationists to partner with farmers who are “on the fence” about soil health practices to estimate the potential short and long-term economic effects of an investment in practices, hopefully giving the farmers the information they need. This tool will be previewed at the Soil and Water Conservation Society Annual Conference to be held virtually on July 26-28, 2021. Interested parties should sign up for Workshop 2 to learn about P-SHEC. The tool will not be released publicly until the fall.
“AFT encourages our fellow conservationists to use this suite of resources and the new R-SHEC Tools released today to produce their own case studies demonstrating the economic and environmental benefits of soil health,” said Michelle Perez, AFT Water Director. “Our hope is that farmers who have been considering adopting soil health practices will find the economic evidence quantified for a farmer in their area sufficiently compelling to get them to ‘say yes’ to trying soil health practices themselves.”
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 Food message. Since our founding in 1980, AFT has helped permanently protect over 6.8 million acres of agricultural lands, advanced environmentally-sound farming practices on millions of additional acres and supported thousands of farm families.
On June 29, Nisei Farmers League, along with other agricultural organizations, held an in-person demonstration pilot project at a vineyard in Madera County to display alternatives to agricultural burning. The project is looking for cost-effective solutions to orchard and vineyard removals due to most agricultural burning being phased out by December 31, 2024, as passed earlier this year by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
Participating in the event were Jared Blumenfeld, Secretary of Cal-EPA; Carlos Suarez, State Conservationist for USDA-NRCS; Richard Corey, Executive Officer for California Air Resources Board; Samir Sheikh, Executive Director and Air Pollution Control Officer for the San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District (SJVAPCD); Dr. Tania Pacheco- Werner, CARB and SJVAPCD board member; Fresno County Supervisor Buddy Mendes, as well as SJVAPCD board member; Madera County Supervisor Tom Wheeler, as well as SJVAPCD board member; and City of Los Banos Mayor Pro Tem Deborah Lewis, as well as SJVAPCD board member.
Equipment demonstrated included:
An air curtain burner built by AirBurners. This machine utilizes a constant stream
of air on the top of the wood waste to push emissions/smoke back into the fire to
reburn, which significantly reduces particulate matter.
A horizontal grinder, provided by Bandit Industries, that chips wood debris and
can remove metal, including wire, from the material.
A vineyard mulcher, built by Seppi, which drives over the top of the vine and
mulches it back into the soil.
A mobile grinder that would grind trees, brush and vines (material that does not include metal.)
Other equipment used in the demonstration process included excavators, tree grapple machines, and log and brush loading equipment.
With some agricultural entities losing the ability to burn by December 31 of this year, finding economical alternatives quickly has become a top priority. Agricultural organizations are working with the SJVAPCD and CARB to locate and distribute funds for these alternative methods. All the demonstrated alternatives are many times more expensive than open burning because of the additional labor and equipment needed.
Agricultural groups sponsoring the event included: Fresno County Farm Bureau; Allied Grape Growers; California Fresh Fruit Association; California Cotton Ginners and Growers; Western Agricultural Processors Association; and
Nisei Farmers League. Other participating agricultural groups included: Sun-Maid Growers of California, Madera County Farm Bureau, Tulare County Farm Bureau, Raisin Bargaining Association and Milk Producers Council.
Equipment being demonstrated was provided by Shawn Sage, Cal-Line Equipment and Bandit Enterprises; Ed Martinez, Mowbray’s Tree Service; John Yergat, JFS Enterprises; and Jordan Harris, Seppi Subsoiler. Special thanks to these companies and their employees.
Local chippers and grinders participating included: Bill Boos of William Boos and Company; Lionudakis Orchard Removal; and Myron and Ryan Liebelt.
Special thanks go to Samir Sheikh and his staff at the SJVAPCD for helping with the demonstration, the documentation and acquiring the funding needed to make the alternatives available to growers in the San Joaquin Valley.
Lastly, a special thanks to Daniel Hartwig and Woolf Farms for providing the vineyard site.
Nisei Farmers League will continue seeking viable alternative to agricultural burning over the coming months.
What is the current status of the international trade war impact on almonds and what changes can we anticipate in the foreseeable future? Watch this brief video with Julie Adams from the Almond Board of California and read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
In addition to the temporary effects of port congestion, COVID-19 and international trade wars, aflatoxin inspections and rejections have been a longer term issue and limiting factor for our almond industry exports. Julie Adams provided an update at the recent Almond Alliance Convention on how the industry is doing in keeping aflatoxin levels down to a minimum in their orchard and post harvest practices, as well as current discussions abroad on lowering the costly inspection requirements. Watch this brief video with Julie, and read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
As farmers face drought conditions once again this summer, local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies are still working on the planning and implementation of their Groundwater Sustainability Plans. Watch this brief video with Patricia Poire, Executive Director of the Kern Groundwater Authority, as she shares concerns and needs for both farmer and government support to meet the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requirements.
Please thank this video’s sponsor Suterra for their industry support.
Following a comprehensive certification process, the Blue Diamond Growers plant in Turlock, Calif., has earned distinction by becoming Green Business Certified by the Modesto Chamber of Commerce’s California Green Business Network, Stanislaus County program.
The achievement marks the second such honor for the 111-year-old almond cooperative this year as the Blue Diamond Growers’ Salida facility was recognized as Green Business Certified in April. The Green Business Certified honor goes to companies that achieve a verified set of standards, including reducing water use, conserving energy, preventing pollution, increasing recycling, avoiding waste, encouraging alternative transportation, and partnering with other local vendors.
“Blue Diamond Growers has a long-standing commitment to implementing sustainable practices across all of our facilities and in our almond orchards, too,” said Mark Jansen, president and CEO of Blue Diamond Growers. “This recognition further demonstrates that we are committed to doing our part to build a healthier and more sustainable future for our local communities through adopting new technologies and practices that improve our sustainability efforts. We are proud to have not one, but two facilities to have earned this honor and important recognition.”
The Green Business Certified recognition was awarded at a ceremony on June 3, organized by the Modesto Chamber of Commerce at the Turlock facility on Washington. The ceremony was attended by Blue Diamond leadership as well as Congressman Josh Harder, Turlock Mayor Amy Bublak, and several other state and local dignitaries.
The 250,000-square-foot plant located at 1300 N. Washington Road in Turlock is celebrating its eighth anniversary this month and is currently under the direction of Site Leader Zach Lewis. In 2014, the facility was named “Plant of the Year” by Food Engineering Magazine. The state-of-the-art Turlock plant specializes in processing almonds (blanching, roasting, slicing, dicing, slivering, etc.) to be used by major global food customers in cereals, snack bars, yogurt toppings, baked goods and candies. The Turlock location also prepares the beverage base for Blue Diamond Growers’ Almond Breeze® Almondmilk and produces Blue Diamond Growers’ Almond Flour and other value-added almond products.
In addition to the sustainability efforts at the Blue Diamond Growers’ manufacturing facilities, the co-op emphasizes sustainable field practices, including irrigation management, pest management, and bee health. Blue Diamond Growers actively participates in the California Almond Sustainability Program (CASP), led by the Almond Board of California, to collect grower-submitted production practice information. CASP helps growers find ways to improve the efficiency of their farming operations.
To further underscore its ongoing commitment to improved sustainability, Blue Diamond Growers recently hired Dr. Daniel Sonke, who spoke at today’s event, as the new Director of Sustainability. In this role, Dr. Sonke is leading global sustainability efforts across all segments of the Blue Diamond Growers’ business. He will be responsible for integrating company performance with Blue Diamond Growers’ sustainability pillars of economic viability, environmental stewardship, and community well-being.
About Blue Diamond
Blue Diamond Growers, a grower-owned cooperative representing over 3,000 of California’s almond growers, is the world’s leading almond marketer and processor. Established in 1910, it created the California almond industry and opened world markets for almonds. Blue Diamond is dedicated to delivering the benefits of almonds around the world and does so by providing high-quality almonds, almond ingredients and branded products. Headquartered in Sacramento, the company employs more than 1,800 people throughout its processing plants, receiving stations and gift shops. To learn more about Blue Diamond Growers, visit www.bluediamond.com and follow the company on Facebook,Instagram, LinkedIn and Twitter.