Articles by Amy Mayer

A new multi-disciplinary study combining a common model of agricultural landscapes with river system models has found the most cost-effective way to reach policy goals for reducing nitrogen and sediment loss requires more collaboration across multiple agencies.

Grant Lundberg is CEO of Lundberg Family Farms in Richvale, California, which he describes as a vertically integrated consumer packaged goods company. Lundberg talked with Agri-Pulse about how consumer demand and drought are impacting organic rice in California.

California’s law mandating minimum space requirements for certain livestock and poultry survived a challenge at the Supreme Court this week, though meat industry groups plan to continue their efforts to block implementation of Proposition 12.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has appointed Randy Moore, a regional forester in California, as the new chief of the U.S. Forest Service.

In January 2020, California Organic CEO Kelly Damewood outlined her organization’s plans to push for more organic acres in California and offered her take on Gov. Gavin Newsom. A pandemic and two legislative sessions later, organic demand is high and more farmers are looking into the potential transition.

California’s statewide office of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has awarded $319,000 in conservation innovation grants that will address soil health and carbon storage on rangelands, tillage management for rice, and the economics of soil health and water management.

The Biden administration’s climate goals are bringing attention to the role of forests in storing carbon and the need to offer incentives to private forest owners to manage their trees sustainably.

Walmart has announced it will phase in new guidelines for its fresh produce and flower suppliers including reducing their use of certain pesticides, even as both the Environmental Protection Agency and the California Department of Pesticide Regulation complete re-evaluations of the same chemicals.