Amy Mayer

During a visit to California Tuesday, EPA Administrator Michael Regan reiterated the Biden administration’s commitment to a multiagency effort to increase the resiliency of farms, ranches and communities to wildfire and climate change.

Grape breeders across the country are working to develop varieties that won't fall victim to powdery mildew, a fungus that threatens grapes just about anywhere they are grown, and now artificial intelligence is speeding up the process, a USDA scientist says.

West coast seafood industry groups are asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to consider the impact on near-shore fisheries as they prepare a congressionally ordered report on the reintroduction of sea otters.

Californians identified water supply and drought as their top environmental concern in a recent survey, and the number of respondents who said they believe climate change is contributing to drought increased.

During a visit with Gov. Gavin Newsom to the site of the massive 2020 August Complex fire, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack promised the federal government would send more resources to California, and other states combatting increased wildfire threats, to prevent catastrophic fires.

California has its first known appearance in a commercial crop of the black fig fly, a pest that only feeds on that particular fruit. Figs are not a major crop in California, though more are grown in the state than anywhere else in the United States.

Republicans and Democrats both say they are close to wrapping up the final details of a bipartisan infrastructure package for the Senate to consider.

Now that farmers and the companies and consultants who support them have embraced the need for field-level data collection and have adopted myriad methods for gathering it, ag leaders say the industry has reached the critical juncture of figuring out what to do with all that information.

Fewer acres of California farmland are dedicated to growing stone fruit compared to 10 years ago when growers of freestone peaches and nectarines voted to end the California Tree Fruit Agreement. But apricots, nectarines, peaches, plums, prunes (which USDA distinguishes from plums in its data) and sweet cherries continue to perform well.

Technology that automates weeding, harvesting or other farm work is not taking jobs away from humans. Rather, it’s helping bridge the gap between work that needs to be done and a labor force that isn’t sufficient, a panel of ag technology leaders said during the Agri-Pulse Summit in Sacramento Monday.