Now comes the tough part: Keeping up with consumer demand. Inventories of bulk wine remain at an 11-year low, due to a string of smaller-than-expected harvests and a shift by some California farmers to other crops.  According to Allied Grape Growers, a Fresno-based grape growers association, 3.25 million tons of grapes were crushed statewide in 2011, a 10.4 percent drop from the previous year. Locally, the Lodi/Clarksburg area crop was off 5.2 percent with 670,000 tons of grapes crushed in 2011. On California’s Central Coast, grape crops were down a whopping 34.3 percent.  read more

This is good news for Western agriculture. The expansion of California nut acreage and production continues to set records. The California almond industry will likely surpass the 2-billion-pound production plateau, an industry record, this year barring significant weather events.

The U.S. is the top California almond customer followed by China, Spain, Germany, and India, respectively. The U.S. purchased nearly 500 million pounds of almonds in 2010/2011. China imported 168 million pounds.  As the worldwide economy improves,  it is predicted that China and other emerging markets including India, Brazil, Indonesia, and Vietnam will buy more consumer goods. This is due to a large number of citizens earning more income and climbing from the poverty bracket to the middle class.  read more 

The opening session, moderated by Hans Walter-Peterson of Cornell University Cooperative Extension, and a columnist for American/Western Fruit Grower magazine, kicked off with a discussion of global warming from Richard Snyder of the University of California-Davis.  Snyder said that global warming is a long-term problem, but a real problem nonetheless. He said by the end of the century we’re looking at a 4 degree increase in Celsius temperatures.  “It’s a big effect,” he said, “I don’t think you want to take this lightly.”

Snyder noted that during the ice age, temperatures only were reduced by 5 degrees Celsius.  Snyder said there could be some good effects. Carbon dioxide, which plants like, will increase, and crops will mature faster.  read more

The technique unveiled Sunday, which does not use genetic modification, pinpoints DNA variants which confer specific qualities in a plant.  Armed with this knowledge, breeders can then use classic methods to splice these genes into an existing strain.  Right now, it can take up to five or even 10 years to develop a strain, which is known as a cultivar. But the “MutMat” approach should speed this marathon to a sprint of little more than a year, say its inventors.  “Essentially, it helps to get to the needle in the haystack faster,” Sophien Kamoun, a professor at The Sainsbury Laboratory in Norwich, eastern England, told AFP.

The method, reported in the journal Nature Biotechnology, focussed on a Japanese wild rice cultivar called Hitomebore.  read more

The contracted planted acreage forecast is 8,000 acres more than under contract in the August 2011 California Processing Tomato Report.  This early processing tomato estimate is funded by the California League of Food Processors in cooperation with the California Department of Food and Agriculture. 

With the events being hosted or co-hosted by the American Business Council, American Chamber of Commerce, MMI (a leading Dubai distributor of California wines) and a special reception hosted by the U.S. Ambassador to the UAE, we are very excited about the opportunity and support for the establishment of ongoing trade relations in the UAE with quality offerings of California wines from California Grapes International, Inc.

“This opportunity presents an excellent platform to highlight samples from some of the very best U.S. wine producers who would not normally be exposed to a market like the UAE.  The intent of this exchange is to introduce the diversity and quality of U.S. wines, not only to the UAE, but throughout the region,” said Michael Burnett, commercial officer.  “The markets in Dubai and Abu Dhabi offer a tremendous location for education, promotion and exposure of the high quality wines being produced in California. As the largest import/export destination in the Middle East, it also provides for a very strategic location for opportunities into other untapped markets for CGI,” said Jeffrey Crittenden, CEO of CGI.  read more

“This plan (the Hazard Analysis Preventive Control program) is a prevention-oriented, risk-based tool that is designed to identify, control, and document hazards,” said Hurst. “You need to prove by documentation that you have control over those hazards you have identified.” Growers must identify any hazards from the time they plant the seed through to harvest, and then assign a control measure (i.e., sanitation step) to each defined hazard, he added.

A control measure is a physical, chemical, or other factor that can control or minimize risk. “Once you create a control measure, you have to go through monitoring and record keeping,” said Hurst. “You need to document that you have control of the hazards.”  For example, Hurst encourages growers to take samples of their irrigation water, have it analyzed, and then keep track of the results of the analysis. “This is documentation that your irrigation water is safe,” he explained.

Hurst was quick to point out to the growers in the room that the Hazard Analysis Preventive Control program isn’t a stand-alone food safety program. The new program is HACCP (Hazard Anaylsis Critical Control Point)-based, but geared to fresh produce. He compared these programs to a heavy oak table with the safety program as the top, supported by four legs, the “prerequisite programs” — GAPs (Good Agricultural Practices), SOPs (Standard Operating Practices), SSOPs (Sanitation Standard Operating Practices), and GMPs (Good Management Practices) — that need to go along with it.

For example, he said the “Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables” or “GAPs document” (1998) from FDA tells growers what to do to minimize pathogen contamination, but the document doesn’t tell them how to get the job done. An SOP indicating that harvest and packing lines must be cleaned daily to prevent product cross contamination provides growers with the “how-to” information they need to accomplish good agricultural practices.  The principles of food safety, added Hurst, are the same for all growers. These programs can be tailored for small, medium, and large operations. “It can be done and it needs to be done,” he said.  read more

The discovery, reported in the November/December issue of mBio, a journal of the American Society for Microbiology, offers new directions for basic research on how L. monocytogenes and other bacteria survive in a wide range of rapidly changing hostile conditions, from fluctuating temperatures to the low pH levels found in the human stomach. Also, there is a strong possibility that FPSS eventually may be developed as a drug to combat listeriosis and other bacterial infections.

“This is absolutely the most exciting work in my career to date,” said Kathryn Boor, Cornell professor of food science, the Ronald P. Lynch Dean of Agriculture and Life Sciences and the paper’s senior author. Mary Elizabeth Palmer, Ph.D. ‘09, a former graduate student in Boor’s lab and now at Vitamin Research Products in Carson City, Nev., is the lead author.

For a foodborne pathogen to infect a human, it must be able to survive rapid changes in its environment, ranging from cold of refrigeration and heat from cooking to highly acidic stomach conditions and osmotic and anaerobic states found in the small intestines. To do so, L. monocytogenes and certain other bacteria employ a “stress-responsive alternative sigma factor” called sigma B, which controls more than 150 genes, including those that contribute to virulence and survival in host-associated stress conditions, including genes essential for the bacteria to cross the gastrointestinal tract, according to the study.  read more

“The Joint (or Select) Committee process would have locked in ag’s contribution to deficit reduction of $23 billion,” he said. “While more than agriculture’s fair share, it is significantly less than any other plan made public during 2011 and is probably well below what we think will be proposed in 2012.”  Speaking at the Beltwide Cotton Conferences’ general session in Orlando Wednesday morning, Maguire said the proposal developed by the ag committees offered producers a choice of programs tailored to fit their region and crop mix rather than a one-size-fits-all program.  The proposal also included a shallow-loss revenue insurance program, known as STAX, which was developed by the cotton industry to maximize use of limited budget resources and serve as a basis for the resolution of the U.S.-Brazil WTO case.

“In summary, the Joint Committee produced a plan with timely, predictable and flexible policy, including a cotton program that meets the unique requirements of the cotton industry,” Maguire noted. “Unfortunately, that opportunity may have been lost.”  While it is possible that the ag proposal developed for the Joint Committee could be added to a legislative vehicle early this year, it is more likely the development of a new farm law will be conducted under what is known as regular order. That is, full hearings, mark-ups, floor debates with amendments, passage, conference committee, more debate, amendments and votes and signature or veto by the president.

That could take most of 2012, and there is no guarantee, according to Maguire, that the legislation could survive a floor debate in the House of Representatives. Meanwhile, 2012 will be a short, legislative year because of the congressional and presidential elections in the fall.  read more