We have received word from the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District regarding some abnormally bad air quality due to the air stagnation we are experiencing right now.  They have asked industry to consider curbing or delaying activities as much as possible until conditions change this weekend or early next week.  There is their statement:

The prolonged high temperature conditions in the Valley, dry conditions, impacts from wildfires, and a very strong high pressure system over the Valley will continue to negatively impact air quality in the region over the next several days, particularly in Madera, Fresno, Kings, Tulare, and Kern Counties.  This “lid” of high pressure firmly in place over the bowl of the Valley has continued to influence air quality, elevating ozone, PM2.5, and PM10 concentrations.  In light of the current elevated air quality impacts, the District strongly encourages the maximization of practices to reduce dust and other emissions as much as possible from agricultural and construction activities.  As poor dispersion conditions are expected to continue into early next week, any further actions taken to reduce emissions will help protect the health of all Valley residents during this challenging period.

While it may be a challenge, if the air quality worsens and the valley is thrown back into non-attainment for PM10 the consequences could be extreme, especially on sources of dust.  We encourage folks to seriously consider the District’s request when and where possible.

The California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association (CCGGA) is pleased to announce that $2 million has been allocated to the Funding Agricultural Replacement Measures for Emission Reductions (FARMER) Program in the final hours of the 2023-24 Legislative session. This funding, administered by the California Air Resources Board (ARB), will continue to support California’s agricultural sector in reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions through the replacement of outdated, high-emission equipment with cleaner alternatives.  The FARMER Program has been one of the most successful programs to date improving air quality across the state, particularly in regions heavily impacted by poor air quality, and directly contributes to California’s ambitious climate goals.  “We are thrilled to see the continued investment in the FARMER Program,” said Roger Isom, President/CEO of CCGGA. “This funding will enable our members to make meaningful strides in improving air quality, while also ensuring that California’s agriculture remains competitive.”

The $2 million allocation will be directed towards the replacement of high-emission tractors, trucks, irrigation pumps, and other agricultural equipment. These upgrades are not only essential for meeting state and federal air quality standards but also for protecting the health of California’s agricultural communities and preserving the state’s natural resources.  In a year of significant budget deficit, this funding would not be impossible without the leadership of Pro Tem Emeritus Senator Toni Atkins (D-San Diego). An ally of the agricultural community, Senator Atkins partnered with members like the chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, Esmeralda Soria (D-Merced), to ensure resources were included in the final hours of the Legislature’s budget negotiation.

“Even during tough budget years, we need to move forward with our climate goals,” says Senator Toni Atkins. “Investing in clean technology through the FARMER program is a win for all of us.” Since 2017, the FARMER program has resulted in the reduction of 368,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, over 1,500 tons of fine particulate matter, and over 26,000 tons of nitrous oxide.

“We need to continue to invest our resources in programs with a proven track record that serves our communities, our businesses and our environment. FARMER is the definition of multi-benefit,” says Assemblywoman Soria.

CCGGA extends its gratitude to the Senator and Assembly member for their ongoing commitment to supporting California agriculture. The Association remains dedicated to working with its members, CARB, and other stakeholders to ensure the successful implementation of the FARMER Program and to advocate for continued support in future budgets.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced its Vulnerable Species Action Plan (VSAP), finalizing its transition from its June 2023 Vulnerable Species Pilot (VSP) in order to help conserve federally threatened and endangered (listed) species from pesticides.  As part of implementing EPA’s Endangered Species Act Workplan, the VSAP is intended to provide a framework for EPA to adopt early, meaningful protections to address potential impacts for listed species that EPA identifies as particularly “vulnerable” to pesticides.  The plan describes the framework that EPA will use for vulnerable species when considering Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) actions for conventional pesticides (such as new chemical registrations and registration review).  EPA plans to incorporate mitigations from the VSAP into applicable pesticide actions, even if EPA has not yet determined effects under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) or consulted with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS). EPA will address species listed by the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) through a separate process.  The VSAP describes how the approach EPA plans to use to evaluate potential impacts to these listed species and any associated mitigations, and how EPA plans to expand the approach to additional listed species in the future.    In the VSAP, EPA has identified 27 species listed by FWS in the lower 48 states as “vulnerable species” and within the scope of the VSAP.  The species include the following:

The VSAP applies a three-step framework which builds off the herbicide and insecticide strategies and is intended to provide similar mitigations for the vulnerable species for pesticides with similar characteristics (e.g., exposure, toxicity, application method). The VSAP identifies the potential for impacts (Step 1), the type and level of mitigation (Step 2), and where mitigation applies (Step 3).  Any needed mitigations will only apply in geographically specific areas (referred to as Pesticide Use Limitation Areas or PULAs).  EPA is refining the species maps that it will use for PULAs and will not implement the VSAP in registration review until those maps are refined, which will likely be later in 2024.  The VSAP includes mitigations for common exposure routes, including spray drift and runoff, but also addresses other routes of pesticide exposure to the vulnerable species. Examples include on-field exposure to a vulnerable species and pesticide volatilization (the movement of pesticide vapors through the air). This action plan, along with the Ecological Mitigation Support document, are available in the public docket EPA-HQ-OPP-2023-0327 at regulations.gov, and on EPA’s website.

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) visited Clovis this week to meet with agricultural organizations and representatives to provide an update on CDPR activities and hear concerns from agriculture.  Representing CDPR was Director Julie Henderson, Deputy Director Karen Morrison, Deputy Director for Enforcement Ken Everett, and Deputy Director for Environmental Justice and Equity Celia Pazos.  CDPR opened the meeting by providing a quick look at what they are currently working on including:

• Wrapping up their 5-year Strategic Plan to be released soon
• Working to streamline their pesticide registration process to shorten the time to register new pesticides
• Increasing staff
• Strengthening enforcement
• Finalizing their Advance Notification regulation in November for a tentative release in January.
• Working on the next set of 1,3-D restrictions to address concerns with innocent bystanders, which should be filed in November
• Working on next set of rodenticide restrictions with no timeline proposed

Association President/CEO Roger Isom was among the agricultural representatives in attendance and expressed concerns over invasive species, lack of alternatives if chemicals are phased out under the CDPR Sustainable Pest Management Program (SPM), concern that the legislature is regulating pesticides without science, and the need to coordinate with the California Department of Food and Agriculture on all these items.  Isom also expressed concerns with CDPR not addressing the rhetoric that is spewed at some of CDPR’s hearings and their lack of explanation of their intensive and robust registration process and their own regulations, which make them the toughest pesticide agency in the country.  Isom did express appreciation for the CDPR leadership to come to Clovis and sit down with agriculture moving forward.  Other groups in attendance included the American Pistachio Growers, California Table Grape Commission, California Citrus Mutual, Nisei Farmers League, and the Fresno County Farm Bureau.  In addition, the Monterey County Ag Commissioner Juan Hidalgo was present along with a representative from the Fresno County Ag Commissioner’s office. 

Senator Anna Caballero and current California Department of Food and Agriculture Chairman Don Cameron kicked off the new Ag Systems Certificate under the F3 Agrifood Technology Engineering Collaborative (AgTEC) program.  The Kickoff was attended by Association President/CEO Roger Isom and held in Fresno.  The certificate is designed to provide farmworkers and people interest in pursuing a career in agriculture and is administered by community colleges throughout the Valley.  The program provides these individuals with the opportunity to update their skills with current and emerging technology and software, while also emphasizing soft skills like communication and problem solving.  To obtain the certificate, the participant must complete all 14 core competencies which are provided through seven different community colleges in the Valley including Merced, Coalinga, Fresno City, Lemoore, Reedley, Clovis Community and Madera Community Colleges.  The 14 core competencies are:

• Digital literacy
• Basic equipment operations
• Basic equipment troubleshooting
• General agricultural systems fundamentals
• Crop production systems
• Tool operations
• Applied technical reading
• Interpersonal skills
• Animal production systems
• Food safety
• Basic safety
• Industry communication
• Applied technical writing

There already over 100 participants enrolled in the program.  For more information, please contact one of the participating colleges or you can reach out to Karen Aceves at Karen@arkeninc.com.

The California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association hosted Senate District 23 Candidate Suzette Valladares as part of a two-day agricultural tour in partnership with several ag organizations including the Western Agricultural Processors Association, California Fresh Fruit Association, California Citrus Mutual, and California Dairies, Inc.  For our part of the tour, Valladares met with the Cauzza brothers, Jake, Matt and Luc at their Cauzza Growers farming headquarters in Buttonwillow for an issues roundtable discussion.  She learned first-hand how their family farming operation began and how it works today, while learning about many of the challenges our industry faces on lack of pesticide tools, the impact of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), energy, air quality, and just the everyday trials and tribulations of farming in California today.  The tour is the first of many this year and part of the Association’s efforts to educate the legislature on the critical issues facing our industry. 

The California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced Sapna Thottathil will lead the department’s statewide collaboration and coordination to foster sustainable pest management (SPM) across California’s urban, agricultural and wildland settings. Thottathil brings 20 years of experience as a leader in sustainable food and farming, and climate, health and equity program management, policy and research to her role as DPR’s Deputy Director of Sustainable Pest Management.  Prior to joining DPR, Thottathil was Managing Director at the University of California (UC) Center for Climate, Health and Equity, where she oversaw more than 20 research and education programs and facilitated a multi-stakeholder strategic planning process. Previously, she was the Associate Director of Sustainability at the UC Office of the President, where she helped lead a UC Regent-supported task force that developed a statewide IPM policy for UC’s 10 campuses and six health systems. Thottathil was also a leader in a variety of other roles that will advance her collaborative work in addressing the challenges of SPM adoption, including building strategic partnerships and supply chains between institutions like K-12 schools and hospitals and food producers. Earlier in her career, Thottathil was a climate researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research in England and documented on-the-ground organic farming practices in India. She began her career at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as an Environmental Protection Specialist. Thottathil earned a BA in environmental studies and at BA in international studies from the University of Chicago, an MS in environmental change and management from Oxford University, and a PhD in Geography from UC Berkeley.  Thottathil will join the department beginning Sept. 9, 2024.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released its final Herbicide Strategy to protect over 900 federally endangered and threatened (listed) species from the potential impacts of herbicides. EPA will use the strategy to identify measures to reduce the amount of herbicides exposure to these species when it registers new herbicides and when it reevaluates registered herbicides under a process called registration review. The final strategy incorporates a wide range of stakeholder input, ensuring EPA not only protects species but also preserves a wide range of pesticides for farmers and growers. The Herbicide Strategy identifies protections for hundreds of listed species up front and will apply to thousands of pesticide products as they go through registration or registration review, thus allowing EPA to protect listed species much faster. In response to comments on the initial draft, EPA made many improvements to the draft, with the primary changes falling into three categories:

1. Making the strategy easier to understand and incorporating up-to-date data and refined analyses;
2. Increasing flexibility for pesticide users to implement mitigation measures in the strategy; and,
3. Reducing the amount of additional mitigation that may be needed when users either have already adopted accepted practices to reduce pesticide runoff or apply herbicides in an area where runoff potential is lower.

The final strategy includes more options for mitigation measures compared to the draft, while still protecting listed species. The strategy also reduces the level of mitigation needed for applicators who have already implemented measures identified in the strategy to reduce pesticide movement from treated fields into habitats through pesticide spray drift and runoff from a field. The measures include cover crops, conservation tillage, windbreaks, and adjuvants. Further, some measures, such as berms, are enough to fully address runoff concerns. Growers who already use those measures will not need any other runoff measures.  The final strategy also recognizes that applicators who work with a runoff/erosion specialist or participate in a conservation program are more likely to effectively implement mitigation measures.  Geographic characteristics may also reduce the level of mitigation needed, such as farming in an area with flat lands, or with minimal rain such as western U.S. counties that are in the driest climates. As a result, in many of those counties, a grower may need to undertake few or no additional runoff mitigations for herbicides that are not very toxic to listed species.  The final strategy uses the most updated information and processes to determine whether an herbicide will impact a listed species and identify protections to address any impacts. To determine impacts, the strategy considers where a species lives, what it needs to survive (for example for food or pollinators), where the pesticide will end up in the environment, and what kind of impacts the pesticide might have if it reaches the species. These refinements allow EPA to focus restrictions only in situations where they are needed.  The final strategy itself does not impose any requirements or restrictions on pesticide use. Rather, EPA will use the strategy to inform mitigations for new active ingredient registrations and registration review of conventional herbicides. EPA is also developing a calculator that applicators can use to help determine what further mitigation measures, if any, they may need to take in light of mitigations they may already have in place.

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has been sending out notices to applicable vehicle owners, requesting that they register with the new Heavy-Duty Inspection & Maintenance rule.  Any owner/operator of a 14,000 GVWR truck or heavier, must report their equipment into the new database developed by CARB as well as pay a per truck annual compliance fee.  Along with registering, the fleet owner is then required to conduct and submit annual opacity or emission controls inspections done by a 3^rd party in order to obtain the vehicle’s annual registration paperwork.  It was recently noticed to all applicable businesses and vehicle owners that the testing requirement of the rule has been postponed for the 2024 year, and will take effect in 2025.  Currently, CARB is still awaiting an approval waiver from EPA Region 9.  CARB is being challenged on the several of their approved rules, specifically the Advanced Clean Fleets regulation, which pushes businesses to expedite the deployment of electric vehicles within a fleet.  Stay tuned for more updates.

Last week, the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District provided an update on their efforts to implement their PM2.5 State Implementation Plan to meet the National Ambient Air Quality Standard (NAAQS) for the 24-hour standard of 12 ug/m3 for PM_2.5.  In public testimony, Association President/CEO Roger A. Isom urged the Board to reinvigorate the Governing Board’s Study Agency. Isom reminded the board that the Air District achieved the one-hour ozone standard, the PM₁₀ standard and the 65 ug/m3 PM_2.5 standard, based on the results and guidance from all the research that was conducted under the Central California Ozone Study (CCOS) and the California Regional Particulate Matter Air Quality Study  (CRPMAQS), both of which were overseen by the Governing Board’s Study Agency. Isom urged science be the driving factor as the District looks to add new or stricter Conservation Management Practices (CMPs) for farming operations, and to low dust harvesters for tree nut operations. This will become especially important as the District begin looking at the next standard set forth by Federal EPA, which is the 9 ug/m3 PM_2.5 standard.  Governing Board Chairman Vito Chiesa (Stanislaus County Supervisor and walnut grower) wrapped up comments by agreeing with Isom and stating that meeting the new 9 ug/m3 PM_2.5 standard is “going to be very difficult and we’re going to need lots of help like FARMER funding”.  The Association will continue to stay at the forefront of this issue as it does on all regulatory items facing the agricultural industry.