Almond Industry Headline Environmental News March 7, 2007

   Air Quality

• Statewide Rules Enacted on Diesel Engines - - New statewide regulations will require that older stationary diesel powered engines be upgraded or replaced with newer, cleaner engines beginning in 2011. The new rule requires that all ag diesel motors greater than 15 horsepower be registered with the local air district by March 1, 2008. “Air districts will impose registration application fees and annual maintenance fees on each registered motor, which could run from $30 to $250 per year,” said Gabriele Ludwig, senior manager of Global Technical & Regulatory Affairs for the Almond Board. In addition, older motors greater than 50 hp would need to be replaced or retrofitted with cleaner technologies.<more> March 2007 Newsletter
   

• New pesticide regulations loom in 2008 . VOC, spray drift seminar at World Ag Expo - - New state pesticide regulations loom next year to control smog-producing emissions from farms, but officials hope new technology, research and strategic alliances can minimize the impact of growers. At a seminar at the 2007 World Ag Expo in Tulare Wednesday, farmers were advised that new regulations on volatile organic compounds, which mix with nitrogen oxides and sunlight to create smog, will be finalized late this year, according to Jerry Campbell, assistant director of the California Department of Pesticide Regulation. "We expect to have VOC regulations on the books by December 31st of this year, with regulations to go into effect in 2008," Campbell said. "We hope to have a draft of the regulations in March and hearings on the VOC package during the summer and hopefully finalized by the end of the year." <more> Feb. 15, 2007 Capital Press
   

• DPR moving closer to VOC air quality rules - - The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) has taken the next step in its initiative to reduce the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are released into the air from pesticides. Late last summer, DPR proposed to cancel the registrations of 27 pesticide products that were on the agency’s hit list because the registrants had failed to comply with DPR orders to submit plans to reduce VOC emissions from their liquid products to a 20 percent level, or to justify their exemption from that DPR goal. “Some of these were voluntary cancellations,” says Bob Ehn, with R3 Ag Consulting LLC, a Clovis-based firm that provides research, registration and regulatory services to the crop protection chemical industry. “None of these are major-use products and in total, the agricultural chemical industry stepped up and provided DPR with the needed information. It’s not time to panic yet,” he added. <more> Jan. 24, 2007 Western Farm Press  

Water Quality

• Grower Takes Simple Steps to Reduce Spray Drift - - As water and air quality issues continue to focus scrutiny on how pesticides are applied, Kerman farmer Paul Toste is among the state’s almond growers taking simple steps to keep those sprays within the targeted orchard canopy. Toste, a Kerman area veterinarian who took over the family’s 400-acre almond orchard in 2004, has been working since to improve the efficiency and sustainability of his orchard. He reduces air quality impacts of his farming operation by maintaining a no-till floor and converting older diesel engine pumps to electric powered pumps or newer, low-emission diesel engines. He is also addressing water quality issues by working to reduce the offsite movement of applied pesticides. Toste says one of the simplest things he does to keep applied pesticides in the orchard canopy is to tune up and calibrate his air blast sprayer prior to each application. <more> March 2007 Almond Newsletter
   

• Tips to Reduce Offsite Movement of Pesticides -  -Stewardship through the use of Best Management Practices (BMPs) are aimed at minimizing off-site movement to waterways and sensitive sites.  These practices, when followed with product label directions, can provide growers and applicators the necessary tools to complete a successful spray application while minimizing potential environmental impacts. <more> March 2007 Newsletter

Crop Protection

• Nominations open for IPM Innovator Award - - Science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke once said, "Every revolutionary idea seems to evoke three stages of reaction ... (1) It's completely impossible. (2) It's possible, but it's not worth doing. (3) I said it was a good idea all along." If least-toxic pest management once seemed impossible, it's becoming the preferred strategy on the farm and in our urban environment. The California Department of Pesticide Regulation is now taking nominations for its 14th annual IPM Innovator Awards. IPM - - integrated pest management - - uses nature-based solutions that offer the least risk to people and their environment. For more information on how to nominate an individual or organization for an IPM Innovator Award, go to www.cdpr.ca.gov/docs/ipminov/innovatr.htm . Or contact DPR staffer Bob Elliott, 916 324 4156, belliott@cdpr.ca.gov March 4, 2007 DPR Press Release
   
• Pesticide illness cases rise in 2005, new toll-free line established -- The number of pesticide-related illnesses in California rose in 2005, and a new service announced by the state Department of Pesticide Regulation will make it easier for people to file pesticide complaints. DPR officials announced today in a department news release that 911 individual cases of pesticide illness were reported in 2005, up from 828 cases the prior year. Of the 911 cases in 2005, 647 cases -- or 71% -- were in agricultural settings. DPR Director Mary-Ann Warmerdam said that pesticide drift has been one of the major sources of injuries and illnesses in the agricultural sector, as the 2005 DPR data show. Half of the total cases related to agriculture in 2005 were related to one mishap from a farm fumigation in Salinas. <more> March 1, 2007 Capital Press
   

Sustainability

• Regulators Show Interest in Sustainability at International Conference - - State and federal regulators were well represented at the International Conference on the Future of Agriculture in Sacramento, illustrating intensifying interest in the dominant themes of stewardship and sustainability. California Department of Pesticide Regulation chief Mary-Ann Warmerdam emphasized, “Governor Schwarzenegger wants clean water, air, and soils and no excuses.  He wants environmental improvement with economic growth within the concept of sustainability.” Bottom line?  Assessment of sustainability could become a tool for development of agricultural policy.  <more> March 2007 Newsletter
   

• Time is ripe to support sustainable food system.  Keynote speaker at California Farm Conference appeals for support to develop sustainable food system by 2030 - - Small-scale farmers who are adept at growing healthy food, can help urban consumers reconnect to their agrarian roots and develop a network of supporters for a sustainable food system in California by 2030. Michael Dimock, executive director of Roots for Change, an alliance of California-based foundations, today delivered that message to more than 300 participants at the 2007 California Farm Conference in Monterey. Launched in 2002, the program promotes social goals such as food choices that lead to more healthy eating, environmental benefits, and economic goals to create new revenue streams on farms through tourism, on-farm energy production and direct farm-to-consumer marketing. <more> March 6, 2007
   
• Group spreads message about ag. Nonprofit visits Fresno on a mission to make Calif. ag sustainable. - - How can California ensure a sustainable agriculture future? That's the question that the Roots of Change Fund, a nonprofit seeking to raise millions of dollars for community-based projects, asked in Fresno on Wednesday. In the first of a series of meetings across the state, the San Francisco-based nonprofit met with government, nonprofit and business groups interested in joining its mission to make California agriculture "sustainable" by 2030. <more> March 1, 2007 Fresno Bee
   

• Book Cites Cooperative Learning Model for Solving Environmental Issues - - In Agroecology in Action, author Keith Douglass Warner provides detailed case studies in agroecology, an emerging scientific approach to agriculture's environmental issues characterized by cooperative public/private partnerships between growers, scientists, agricultural groups and public agencies. Agroecology in Action shows that agroecology can be put into action effectively only when networks of farmers, scientists, and other stakeholders learn together. Warner outlines how these successful cooperative learning models, including the Almond Industry’s Pest Management Alliance, have helped develop and incorporate innovative, ecologically based techniques into conventional farming systems to reduce reliance on agrochemicals. Warner is Faith, Ethics, and Vocation Project Director in the Environmental Studies Institute at Santa Clara University, where he is also a lecturer and Franciscan Friar.  For information or to order Agroecology in Action, log on to the MIT Press web site at www.mitpress.mit.edu.

General Industry News

• Almond growers raising environmental consciousness - - It was too blustery to be buzzing about Dave Phippen's almond orchard on Friday - only one bee could be found pollinating the white blossoms. There was plenty of sweet talk, though, about farmers' efforts to aid the environment. For the third time, the Almond Board of California hosted a tour promoting the crop and the way it is grown. <more> March 3, 2007 Stockton Record
   

• Panel Urges Growers to Stay Involved in Environmental Issues - - Environmental issues ranging from groundwater monitoring to air quality and food safety will top legislative and regulatory agendas and continue to remain high on the minds of consumers in 2007, according to a panel of experts speaking at the Almond Board Conference in December. Panelists said almond farmers must be involved at all levels, from how their products are marketed, to holding their legislators and regulators accountable to be sure science prevails above uninformed reaction when it comes to environmental laws and regulations. State Senator Jeff Denham (R-Merced), an almond farmer and former chair of the Senate Ag Committee, said a number of bills were passed in 2006 or are on the horizon for 2007 that will place higher standards on air and water pollution and are likely to affect how farmers operate in California. <more> March 2007 Newsletter 
   

• Bad biz for bees. Almond growers, beekeepers stung by disappearance, death rate of insect. - - In this high-tech age of tractors steered by Global Positioning System, some things in agriculture come down to what Bryan Beekman held in his hand. Bees. The insects are needed desperately for production of almonds and many other crops. A simple act of nature -- pollination by these critters -- is the key to a third of the world's food production. But disaster lurks in bee country. The insects are dying -- or disappearing -- in droves. Many of Beekman's pollinators, for example, are dead. And nobody knows what happened to half of the 100 million bees owned by David Bradshaw of Fresno. They simply vanished. <more> March 7, 2007 Fresno Bee
   

• Plight of the Bees. Growers worry as pollinators decline - - This time of year, John Cox usually has 300 bee colonies ready for duty in almond orchards about to pop into bloom. This year, he has 35. The rest of the colonies failed to live through the winter, for reasons that elude him and many of the other beekeepers across the nation. "It's somewhat depressing to try to keep overcoming all the odds," said Cox, who raises bees near Stevinson as a sideline to his job with a food-processing company. Concern about the bee supply has been growing for several years among nut and fruit growers who depend on the insects for pollination. The concern has become acute this year, with beekeepers in several states reporting major losses. Nowhere does this matter more than in the almond orchards of the Central Valley. They grow 80 percent of the world's supply of the nuts and use two-thirds of the commercial bee colonies in the nation each February. "It's the single most important time of the year for us in terms of determining the crop," said Chris Heintz, who manages pollination research for the Almond Board of California, based in Modesto. <more> Feb. 10, 2007 Modesto Bee

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