SACRAMENTO, March 1, 2022 – The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is announcing three vacancies on the Feed Inspection Advisory Board (FIAB). This board makes regulatory and enforcement recommendations to CDFA to help ensure that commercial feed inspections contribute to a clean and wholesome supply of milk, meat and eggs.
The FIAB vacancies are for three commercial feed industry representatives. Applicants must hold a current California Commercial Feed License. The term of office for board members is three years. Members receive no compensation, but are entitled to payment of necessary travel expenses in accordance with the rules of the California Department of Human Resources.
Individuals interested in a board appointment must submit a resume and a completed Prospective Member Appointment Questionnaire (PMAQ), available on the CDFA website at: http://www.cdfa.ca.gov/is/ffldrs/pdfs/PMAQ_Feed_IAB.pdf, by March 31, 2022.
Send resume and PMAQ via email to Brittnie.Williams@cdfa.ca.gov or by mail to: CDFA Feed, Fertilizer and Livestock Drugs Regulatory Service Branch Attn: Brittnie Williams 1220 N Street Sacramento, CA 95814
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Inspection Services Division Director Natalie Krout-Greenberg (back row, center) meets in Sacramento February 23 with Future Farmers of America (FFA) students from throughout California participating in the Sacramento Leadership Experience (SLE) during #FFAweek. #CaliforniaFFA students participating in the week-long SLE experience step into the role of one of California’s State Legislators to learn about the role of government, agriculture policy and advocacy. Krout-Greenberg, FFA alumna and American FFA Degree recipient (2000), discussed with FFA students their key interest points, CDFA’s broad mission and the role of the Inspection Services Division.
First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom and CDFA Secretary Karen Ross have toured key Farm to School sites together, including this visit to Three Sisters Gardens in Yolo County.
Building on her commitment to ensuring California children have the best start in life, First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom today announced the release of Planting the Seed: Farm to School Roadmap for Success, a report promoting the expansion of farm to school programs across California to advance child well-being, equity, economic growth, and environmental resilience.
“Last year, California made history as the first state to establish permanent universal school meals. Through farm to school programs, we are going one step further to ensure children don’t just have access to free meals in school, but that those meals are healthy, nutritious, and locally-grown,” said Governor Newsom.
Access to high-quality, fresh foods can increase students’ consumption of fruits and vegetables and support children’s physical health, while hands-on experiential learning opportunities like gardening and cooking serve to improve educational outcomes and support whole-child development. Farm to school programs allow students to learn about the relationships between food systems and the environment.
“Schools play a crucial role in feeding California children and communities, with school meal recipients consuming almost half of their daily caloric intake from school meals alone,” said First Partner Siebel Newsom. “Planting the Seed is a roadmap to strengthen the state’s school food systems, nurture children’s minds and bodies, and cultivate a healthier, more equitable, climate smart California for all.”
School meals are crucial sources of nutrition for children and an important tool to improve food access and nutrition security among children and their families, especially in communities of color. During the pandemic, approximately one in four low-income families in the state relied on food from schools to cover food shortages. Nationally, people of color are more likely to experience food insecurity, hunger, childhood obesity, and diabetes in both rural and urban communities.
“California, which produces over a third of the nation’s vegetables and two-thirds of the country’s fruits and nuts, is well-positioned to improve child health and well-being through the expansion of farm to school programs,” said California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Secretary Karen Ross.
At the NASDA Winter Policy Conference (from left): Nono Zhang (UC Davis), CDFA Undersecretary Christine Birdsong, Maya Horvath (University of Kentucky) and CDFA Inspection Services Division Director Natalie Krout-Greenberg.
Nono Zhang and Maya Horvath, two California students, had the opportunity to join CDFA Undersecretary Christine Birdsong and CDFA Inspection Services Division Director Natalie Krout-Greenberg at the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Winter Policy Conference in Washington D.C. Nono is from China and attends UC Davis. Maya is from Southern California and is studying at the University of Kentucky. Both students participated in a scholarship program supported by CDFA, the NASDA Foundation and the Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANRRS) organization.
NASDA and the NASDA Foundation, along with CDFA, are committed to building a sustainable workforce to support a resilient agriculture and food supply chain. This partnership is not only working to increase minority college students’ exposure to employment, education and business opportunities through state departments of agriculture, but is also committed to providing resources for students seeking to enter the agricultural workforce.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture Office of Farm to Fork (CDFA-F2F) announces it is seeking public comment February 15 – March 7, 2022, for the 2022 California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program’s request for applications (RFA).
The California Budget Act of 2021 includes a $60 million, one-time General Fund allocation for CDFA-F2F to sustain and expand the California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program, with $30 million allocated for fiscal year 2021-22 and $30 million allocated for fiscal year 2022-23. The 2022 California Farm to School Incubator Grant Program will award competitive grants to support projects that cultivate equity, nurture students, build climate resilience, and create scalable and sustainable change. To support a wide array of farm to school projects, the program offers four funding tracks:
Track 1: The California Farm to School K-12 Procurement and Education Grant
Track 2: The California Farm to School Partnership Grant
Track 3: The California Farm to Early Care and Education (ECE) Grant
Track 4: The California Farm to School Producer Grant
CDFA Secretary Ross is interviewed February 14 by Christina Salerno for a piece about the CDFA Farm to School Program that will run at 7:30 p.m. March 16 on PBS KVIE’s “Inside California Education.” CDFA’s Farm to School program supports California schools in developing programs, school gardens and more to improve the health and wellbeing of California schoolchildren through integrated, food-based education and healthy food access. Six million school meals are served daily in California. This program aims to expand local food procurement to support small and historically underserved farmers and ranchers and build demand for food produced with climate smart regenerative practices. View this original post on the CDFA Planting Seeds blog.
California First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom joins CDFA Farm to School Program staff during a February 10 tour of Vue Certified Produce hosted by the Asian Business Institute and Resource Center (ABIRC) in the Central Valley. ABIRC received a $500,000 grant in the first round of the California Farm to School Incubator Grant to introduce more locally grown, culturally appropriate crops for school meals, while also allowing participating farmers the opportunity to visit schools, talk about their specialty crops, conduct taste tests and share stories about their careers in agriculture. “I had such an amazing day with the folks at Vue Certified Produce in Fowler learning more about the experience of small, BIPOC farmers working to enter the school food marketplace,” Siebel Newsom said. “Thanks to all of them for their hospitality and generosity!”
Save the date for a western states webinar 10-11 a.m. (PST) March 11 on a revision proposed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to Subpart E of its Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) Produce Safety Rule that would change the pre-harvest agricultural water requirements for covered produce (other than sprouts).
The webinar is co-hosted by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) and California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) for the western states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah.
FDA’s proposed revision, for which FDA developed an Agricultural Water Assessment Fact Sheet, is intended to address stakeholder concerns about the complexity and practical implementation of certain pre-harvest agricultural water requirements. The proposed revision does not change requirements for agricultural water used during and after harvest, or for sprouts. If enacted as proposed, the revision would introduce a systems-based, pre-harvest agricultural water assessment to evaluate potential hazards and guide risk management decision-making on the farm. Public comments about the FDA’s proposed revision may be submitted via the Federal Register until April 5, 2022.
During the webinar, CDFA Secretary Karen Ross will give opening remarks, then a subject matter expert from FDA will provide a brief overview of the proposed revision. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask FDA officials questions about the proposed revision. In California, the Produce Safety Rule is regulated on FDA’s behalf by the CDFA Produce Safety Program. Questions may be shared with presenters and hosts ahead of the webinar by submitting them to producesafety@cdfa.ca.gov. Visit https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WesternProposedAgWater to receive login instructions for the March 11 webinar. Participation is limited to 500 people on a first-come, first-served basis.
CDFA has received $2 million from the USDA for a research consortium to implement a demonstration and outreach approach to help farmers improve nitrogen fertilization and irrigation practices. These funds are being awarded through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service Conservation Innovation Grants program, which this year is providing $15 million to 19 projects nationwide to support the development of new tools, approaches, practices and technologies to further natural resource conservation on private lands.
This project will be led by CDFA’s Fertilizer Research and Education Program (FREP) and is a collaboration with the University of California’s Agriculture and Natural Resources division and UC Davis to support farmer-led coalitions in protecting the long-term viability of farming in the San Joaquin Valley.
The three-year project will deploy seven UC Cooperative Extension personnel to the San Joaquin Valley to perform education and demonstration projects, provide on-farm consultation, and conduct outreach activities to promote locally appropriate best practices.
Program staff will consult with farmer-led water quality coalitions in each region to further assess grower needs. UC Davis researchers will study the effectiveness of this demonstration-and-outreach approaches and will identify extension methods that can efficiently help farmers adopt new conservation practices.
This is a blog for the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Inspection Services Division (ISD). Read here for the latest news about how ISD is providing Californians professional services that support and contribute to a safe, abundant and quality food supply; environmentally sound agricultural practices; and an equitable marketplace for California agriculture.
