Environmental Information for the
California Almond Industry

Almond Industry Headline Environmental News  July 18, 2007

   Air Quality

  • Simple Steps to Reduce Dust at Harvest - - Almond growers in the San Joaquin Valley continue to face pressure from air quality regulators and the public to reduce dust emissions from their harvesting operation. The Almond Board of California for the past four years has been supporting research to help better understand and reduce PM10 dust emissions at harvest. The Valley has been narrowly in compliance with federal PM10 standards in recent years, but growers still need to pay attention to dust and find ways to further reduce their emissions at harvest. A careful look at the different stages of almond harvest by Flocchini and Cassel at UC-Davis reveals that pick-up at harvesting emits the most dust, followed by sweeping and then shaking. Pickup machines typically emit four times more dust than sweeping, which is about 10 times dustier than shaking. Research efforts, as a result, have focused more on reducing PM10 and other dust emissions from pickup harvesting and sweeping. Downey & Giles at UC-Davis have measured relative amounts of dust from sweepers and pick-up machines with various set ups. <more> July 2007 California Almonds Newsletter
     

  • Farm Bureau indicates concerns over fumigant use rules - - In the continuing effort to improve California's air quality, the Department of Pesticide Regulation is proposing to sharply reduce and cap the use of certain soil fumigants. The regulatory effort is aimed at cutting volatile organic compound (VOC) emissions that are a component of smog. "While we continue to review the proposed regulations, our preliminary analysis indicates, however, that DPR's methodology seriously overestimates VOC emissions from fumigants," said Cynthia Cory, California Farm Bureau Federation governmental affairs division. "Application methods proposed for elimination are critical to growers and the economic impacts are significantly greater than DPR has previously indicated." <more> July 16, 2007 Ag Alert
     

  • Federal government will pay growers to up the precision in pesticide application. - - Machinery that can zap weeds and apply pesticides more efficiently is at the center of a plan unveiled Thursday to help farmers do their part for clean air. The federal government will spend nearly half a million dollars over the next three years to make use of precision spray equipment available to more farmers. "This should help to keep agriculture competitive and productive while ... providing environmental benefits," said Mark Rey, U.S. Department of Agriculture deputy undersecretary for natural resources and the environment. <more> July 13, 2007 Fresno Bee
     

Water Quality

  • Watershed Coalition newsletter available online - - The latest edition of the Watershed Coalition News is now available from the Coalition for Urban/Rural Environmental Stewardship (CURES.) Developed by CURES with funding from the Almond Board of California, the project’s goal is to link growers to the watershed coalitions. The Winter/Spring 2007 edition features stories about the boost in watershed coalition memberships; the new scrutiny facing those applying for membership after the Dec. 31, 2006 deadline; a UC Davis study that says high E. Coli levels in many Central valley waterways may be coming from human sources; ongoing surveys to document grower use of Best Management Practices; and new methods to determine orchard sprayer coverage. The newsletter can be download as a PDF file at the CURES website www.curesworks.org/newsletter.asp  June 2007 CURES Press Release

General Industry News

  • Boxer's push to protect honeybees -- In addition to representing her 36 million human California constituents, Sen. Barbara Boxer wants to serve the nation's billions and billions of hardworking honeybees. U.S. populations of pollinating honeybees are mysteriously collapsing, and that could cause irreparable damage to crops worth billions of dollars a year across the nation. That in turn could mean higher food prices, and because all kinds of wildlife depend on pollinated plants for food, the decline of pollinators could spell trouble for other animals. "California's almond crop alone is worth $2 billion per year and requires nearly one-half of all the honeybees in the country," Boxer said in introducing her bill recently. "The future of that crop and other important crops such as avocados, apples, berries and soybeans is in jeopardy if there aren't enough bees to pollinate them for harvest." <more> July 6, 2007 SF Chronicle
     

  • 2007 Almond Forecast: 1.330 billion pounds - - The June 29, 2007 objective almond forecast for the 2007-2008 crop year is 1.330 billion meat pounds, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service – California Field Office (NASS/CFO).  This forecast is based on 615,000 bearing acres. Doug Flohr, statistician for USDA-NASS, California field office, said the forecast is up 1.5 percent from the May 9, 2007 subjective forecast of 1.310 billion pounds and up 19 percent from this year’s crop to date of 1.113 billion pounds as of May 31, 2007.   The official announcement was made today at the Modesto office of the Almond Board of California, which funds the forecast. The average nut set per tree is 7,413, up 10 percent from the 2006 almond crop.  The Nonpareil average nut set of 7,067 represents a 3 percent increase from last year’s set.  The average kernel weight for all varieties sampled was 1.47 grams, down 6 percent from last year. To view the NASS report, please click here (Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader)   June 29, 2007 Almond Board of California Press Release.   

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The Almond Board of California
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Modesto, CA 95354 USA

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