California Ag Network

Category: Non-Video

  • New Legislation Aims to Boost Farmworker Pay and Support Ag Employers

    On February 2nd, Senators Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield) and Melissa Hurtado (D-Bakersfield) introduced legislation to create a tax credit for agricultural employers to help cover the costs of providing overtime wages to farmworkers. SB 921, co-sponsored by California Association of Winegrape Growers (CAWG) and California Farm Bureau, aims to ensure farmworkers have more opportunities to earn overtime pay while also providing relief to struggling agricultural businesses.

    “I’m proud to introduce SB 921, a straightforward bill that gives California’s farm employers a payroll tax credit to help cover the extra cost of overtime pay for our hardworking farmworkers,” said Senator Shannon Grove. “This means more overtime hours and better take-home pay for the folks who put food on America’s tables. This is a win-win solution for both the business and our farmworkers who want to work more hours during their peak season. A huge thank-you to my friends at the California Farm Bureau and the California Association of Winegrape Growers for partnering with me on this common-sense solution.”

    Senator Melissa Hurtado added, “Behind every meal is a story of love, sacrifice and hard work in the fields. SB 921 honors the sweat and sacrifice behind our food with a modern, fair approach to wages — because in agriculture, farms, workers and families rise or fall together.”

    SB 921 would do the following:

    • Establish a payroll tax credit allowing agricultural employers to offset the cost of overtime wages paid to their ag employees. NOTE: “Overtime wages” means the difference between the employees’ overtime rate of pay and their regular rate of pay.
    • Help increase available overtime hours for farmworkers, boosting their take-home pay and supporting much-needed financial stability in rural California.

    “California lawmakers need to come together in a bipartisan manner, just as leaders have done in Oregon, Massachusetts, and New York, to ensure farmworkers can earn overtime pay while keeping farms viable,” said Natalie Collins, President of the California Association of Winegrape Growers.“Last year, California found $420 million to expand a tax credit for the entertainment industry. California invests in what it values, and agriculture is asking to be valued. CAWG thanks Senators Grove and Hurtado for their leadership on this important issue.”

    “Farmers warned the Legislature a decade ago that changes to the agricultural overtime law would reduce work hours and cost farmworkers wages, and those concerns have proven true,” said California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass. “Many farmworker families have seen hours and earnings decline, a reality farmworkers themselves shared with lawmakers in Sacramento last year in support of Senator Grove’s ag overtime tax credit bill, while family farms operating on thin margins have been forced to make hard choices just to avoid operating at a loss. This tax credit is a practical solution that puts money directly back into the hands of farmworkers, helps farms remain viable employers and strengthens the rural communities that grow our food. It’s an investment in California’s food security and the people who make it possible.”

    Recent research supports these concerns. A 2023 study by the University of California, Berkeley (“California’s Overtime Law for Agricultural Workers: What Happened to Worker Hours and Pay?” ARE Update 27(1): 1–4. University of California Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics) found that California farmworkers have been earning less since the “Phase-In Overtime for Agricultural Workers Act of 2016” became law. The study concluded, “This early evidence suggests that the law may not be benefiting the workers they aim to protect.”

    SB 921 builds on the success of the $420 million annual increase in California’s Film and Television Tax Credit Program in 2025. Recently, 52 film projects were selected for the latest round of film tax credits. Collectively, those productions will employ an estimated 8,900 cast & crew and 46,400 background performers statewide. Conversely, the effect of a tax credit for agricultural overtime could be much greater for those working in roughly 415,000 (full-time equivalent) jobs.

    SB 921 follows the lead of other states that have, in a bipartisan manner, recognized the unintended consequences of agricultural overtime laws and taken action to ensure farmworkers can still earn overtime pay:

    • Oregon offers a refundable personal or corporate income tax credit for employers based on overtime wages paid to agricultural workers through 2028.
    • New York offers a similar tax credit through 2032, based on the eligible overtime agricultural businesses pay.
    • Senator Adam Gómez (D-Springfield) is pursuing a tax credit in Massachusetts to reimburse growers for the cost of overtime wages in agriculture.

    SB 628 in 2025 proposed a similar tax credit as SB XXX. The California Federation of Labor Unions opposed SB 628 arguing, “At a time when the California legislature is debating how to allocate tax dollars to fund all the state’s priorities in education, housing, health and human services, infrastructure, energy, etc., this proposal is additionally harmful.”

    Together, Senator Shannon Grove, Senator Melissa Hurtado, CAWG, and the California Farm Bureau are advocating for a policy that both increases farmworker earnings and provides relief to an industry facing unprecedented financial challenges. California must ensure that policies designed to help farmworkers do not inadvertently reduce their wages.

    About the California Association of Winegrape Growers: CAWG is a statewide nonprofit trade association advocating for California’s winegrape growers to ensure the sustainability of the winegrape industry. CAWG promotes the industry’s long-term success by advancing the adoption of sound public policies and fostering awareness and understanding of winegrape growers’ contributions to the economy, environment, and California communities. Learn more at cawg.org.

    About the California Farm Bureau: The California Farm Bureau works to protect family farms and ranches as part of a nationwide network representing more than 5 million Farm Bureau members. Learn more at www.cfbf.com or follow @cafarmbureau on Instagram, LinkedIn, X or Facebook.

    About Senator Shannon Grove: Representative of California’s 12th Senate District, which encompasses large portions of Fresno, Kern, and Tulare counties.

  • USDA Shifts Fly Dispersal Efforts to U.S. Border

    The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is announcing a shift in its 100 million per week sterile fly dispersal efforts to stop the northern spread of New World screwworm (NWS). USDA will reallocate aircraft and sterile insects to reinforce coverage along the U.S.-Mexico border. The new dispersal area, or polygon, will include operations about 50 miles into Texas, along the U.S. border with the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico. Mass production and targeted dispersal of sterile insects are critical components of an effective strategy to fight NWS. Other tools including import protocols and surveillance continue to support these robust efforts to keep NWS out of the United States.

    “At Secretary Rollins’ direction, our highest priority is protecting the United States from screwworm,” said Dudley Hoskins, Under Secretary of Marketing and Regulatory Programs for USDA. “The northernmost active case of NWS in Mexico is still about 200 miles away from the border, but we’ve seen cases continue to spread in Tamaulipas and further south in Mexico, so we are proactively shifting our polygon as we make every effort to prevent NWS from reaching our border.”

    Sterile Fly Dispersal

    Sterile insect technique, when paired with surveillance, movement restrictions, and education and outreach, is an effective tool for controlling and eradicating New World screwworm. Female New World screwworm flies only mate once in their lives, so if they mate with a sterile male, they lay unfertilized eggs that don’t hatch. Releasing sterile flies just outside of affected areas helps ensure flies traveling to new areas will only encounter sterile mates and will not be able to reproduce. In this instance, USDA will release sterile flies north of the current active NWS cases in Mexico in a proactive effort to create a sterile reproduction buffer zone if the fly moves north from Mexico.

    Because it is important to continue ongoing surveillance efforts while releasing sterile insects, it is possible that sterile NWS flies could be caught and/or reported within Texas. To ensure officials can tell the difference between sterile and wild NWS flies, USDA will dye the sterile pupae, and the dye will transfer to the sterile flies when they hatch. The fluorescent dye will glow under UV light and may also be visible to the naked eye. If a sterile fly is captured in a trap, this dye will allow animal health officials to quickly rule the fly out as a threat.

    USDA will continue to deploy its intensive NWS response efforts including implementing import protocols, ongoing surveillance and trapping efforts along the border, investing in NWS innovation, and supporting robust response activities in Mexico and Central America.

    Import Requirements and Protocols

    Sterile insects are an important tool, but USDA’s import requirements and protocols add another line of defense for NWS and other foreign animal diseases that threaten U.S. livestock. Earlier this week, the importance of those protocols was highlighted when a horse from Argentina was presented for routine importation at an equine import quarantine facility in Florida. Upon examination, APHIS identified an open wound with larvae on the animal and promptly collected and shipped samples to the National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Iowa. The horse was immediately treated with medication to kill any larvae in accordance with standard, long-standing import protocols. This morning, NVSL confirmed that the larvae were New World screwworm larvae. Accordingly, the animal will remain in quarantine until it has been reexamined and determined to be free of NWS.

    This is an example of these long-standing import protocols working as designed. While this situation does not appear to be associated with the NWS outbreak in Mexico that USDA is currently fighting, it underscores the need for vigilance in all of USDA’s coordinated efforts to fight NWS.

    Surveillance, Monitoring, and Reporting

    USDA continues to lead intensive surveillance and monitoring systems along the U.S. border. Teams continue to check 121 NWS-specific traps across high-risk areas of border states and leverage thousands of fruit fly/insect traps aligned all along the Southern border. To date, more than 42,000 flies from traps in all locations have been submitted to APHIS NVSL for identification, with no NWS detections to date. APHIS Wildlife Services is also leading a coordinated effort to inspect wildlife for signs of NWS infestation. To date, they’ve inspected more than 9,300 wild animals across 39 different species and 131 U.S. counties and found no signs of NWS infestations.

    Even though there has been no detection of NWS inside the U.S. and the northernmost active case of NWS is still about 200 miles away from the border, USDA is asking U.S. animal owners to continue to remain vigilant by checking their pets and livestock for signs of NWS and immediately reporting anything suspicious to their state animal health officials or USDA area veterinarian in charge. Signs of NWS infestation include draining or enlarging wounds and signs of discomfort. Also look for screwworm larvae (maggots) and eggs in or around body openings, such as the nose, ears, and genitalia or the navel of newborn animals.

    Adult screwworm flies are about the size of a common housefly or slightly larger, with a metallic green or blue body, orange eyes, and three dark stripes down its back. NWS maggots can infest livestock and other warm-blooded animals, including people. They most often enter an animal through an open wound and feed on the animal’s living flesh.

    While NWS is not common in people, if you notice a suspicious lesion on your body or suspect you may have contracted screwworm, seek immediate medical attention.

    For more information on NWS and USDA’s efforts, visit Screwworm.gov. — USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

  • February USDA Lending Rates for Ag Producers

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced loan interest rates for February 2026, which are effective Feb. 1, 2026. USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) loans provide important access to capital to help agricultural producers start or expand their farming operation, purchase equipment and storage structures or meet cash flow needs.

    Operating, Ownership and Emergency Loans      
    FSA offers farm operating, ownership and emergency loans with favorable interest rates and terms to help eligible agricultural producers obtain financing needed to start, expand or maintain a family agricultural operation.      

    Interest rates for Operating and Ownership loans for February 2026 are as follows:

    FSA also offers guaranteed loans through commercial lenders at rates set by those lenders. To access an interactive online, step-by-step guide through the farm loan process, visit the Loan Assistance Tool on farmers.gov.

    Commodity and Storage Facility Loans
    Additionally, FSA provides low-interest financing to producers to build or upgrade on-farm storage facilities and purchase handling equipment and loans that provide interim financing to help producers meet cash flow needs without having to sell their commodities when market prices are low.  Funds for these loans are provided through the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) and are administered by FSA.

    More Information
    To learn more about FSA programs, producers can contact their local USDA Service Center. Additionally, producers can use online tools, such as the Loan Assistance Tool and Debt Consolidation Tool to explore loan options.

  • Best Practices for Nighttime Applications

    Honey bee health remains a top priority for almond growers as bloom approaches. According to the Almond Board of California’s Honey Bee Best Management Practices (BMP), one of the most effective ways to reduce bee exposure to crop protection materials is to schedule applications during the evening or nighttime hours, when foraging bees have returned to their hives. The BMPs also emphasize strong communication among growers, beekeepers, PCAs, and applicators to ensure everyone involved knows when applications will occur and can coordinate accordingly.

    Working after dark though can be dangerous. While doing so helps to reduce pollinator exposure to applications, it also requires growers to operate within California’s specific nighttime safety regulations.

    Understanding Nighttime Safety Requirements

    California’s Outdoor Agricultural Operations During Hours of Darkness standards apply to all agricultural work occurring between sunset and sunrise. These regulations require growers to ensure adequate visibility throughout the work environment. Orchard areas, walkways, and paths to restrooms must meet minimum illumination levels measured directly where workers walk or perform tasks.

    Additionally, equipment such as trucks, tractors, and other self-propelled machinery must have headlights and rear lights capable of illuminating at least 50 feet ahead and behind, improving safety for both operators and ground crews. These lighting requirements help reduce the risks posed by diminished nighttime visibility, especially when work involves multiple people and moving equipment.

    Preparing Crews with Pre‑Shift Safety Meetings

    Before each night shift begins, California regulations require supervisors to hold a safety meeting to review important site information. Workers must be informed of the locations of restrooms, drinking water, designated break areas, nearby bodies of water, and high traffic zones. Because nighttime conditions can make familiar surroundings more difficult to navigate, these meetings ensure workers can safely move around the orchard and are aware of any specific hazards.

    Employers are also required to provide and ensure the use of Class 2 high‑visibility garments, helping equipment operators maintain awareness of workers on the ground. Review the Outdoor Agricultural Operations During Hours of Darkness fact sheet for more information and all of the requirements.

    A Unified Approach for Safer, More Effective Operations

    When growers pair honey bee protection guidelines with the required safety measures for nighttime work, the result is a more sustainable and efficient approach to orchard management. Bees remain safely inside their hives during nighttime applications, greatly reducing their exposure to crop protection materials. At the same time, crews can work confidently and safely under proper lighting, with clear preparation and the right equipment.

    As bloom approaches, these practices support the long‑standing commitment of the almond industry to safeguard both pollinators and people. This thoughtful balance ensures that orchards remain not only productive, but also safe and welcoming places for the bees that sustain them. To learn more about protecting pollinators, download the ABC Honey Bee Best Management Practices guide. — Article and image courtesy of Almond Board of California

  • APHIS Expands Mediterranean Fruit Fly Quarantine in California

    The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) expanded the Santa Clara Mediterranean fruit fly (Ceratitis capitata; Medfly) quarantine in Alameda and Santa Clara Counties, California. This action parallels the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) expansion of the Santa Clara Medfly quarantine published on January 2.

    APHIS and CDFA expanded the Santa Clara Medfly quarantine following the confirmed detection on December 17 of one wild male Medfly from a trap in on a residential property in an orange tree in Milpitas, Santa Clara County. This action expanded the quarantine by 17 square miles and does not include additional commercial agriculture. The amended quarantine encompasses 241 square miles with 58.76 acres of commercial agriculture, including grape, olive, orange, pepper, stone fruit, and tomato.

    APHIS is applying safeguarding measures and restrictions on the interstate movement of regulated articles to prevent the spread of Medfly to non-infested areas of the United States, as well as to prevent the entry of these fruit flies into foreign trade. APHIS is working with CDFA and the Agricultural Commissioners of Alameda and Santa Clara Counties to eradicate this transient fruit fly population following program guidelines for survey, treatment, and regulatory actions

    The APHIS Exotic Fruit Flies website contains descriptions and maps of all current Federal fruit fly quarantine areas. APHIS will publish a notice of this change in the Federal Register. —USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

  • Ag Council Announces Duane Simpson as an Annual Meeting Speaker

    Ag Council is pleased to announce that the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives (NCFC) President and CEO Duane Simpson will speak during the 107th Annual Meeting taking place March 11–12, 2026, at Meritage Resort & Spa in Napa, California.

    Duane was named president and CEO of NCFC in 2025 and leads the organization’s efforts to advance the interests of America’s farmer cooperatives by promoting sound agricultural policy, rural economic development, and market access. He brings a distinguished career in agricultural policy, public affairs, and executive leadership, including prior service as vice president and head of agricultural affairs and license to operate at Bayer Crop Science. Throughout his career, Duane has led bipartisan coalitions, navigated complex legislative and regulatory environments, and worked to protect and expand market access for agricultural producers and cooperatives. — Agricultural Council of California

  • Ag, Natural Resources Support California’s Rank as World’s Fourth-Largest Economy

    Last year, California surpassed Japan to become the world’s fourth-largest economy. Contributing to that achievement are over a million farm laborers, winemakers, park rangers, agricultural truckers, renewable energy technicians and many other workers who generate value from the state’s natural landscapes.

    Academics from University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources have done the math on the economic scope of these working lands, compiling their findings in the publication “California’s Working Landscape: Evolving Contributions to National, State, and Regional Economies.” This new report includes the latest data on state employment, earnings, sales and businesses, providing an update to the first edition of this report, released in 2019.

    Working landscapes encompass land areas actively managed for economic purposes, primarily agricultural lands, forests and rangelands, as well as the land and water areas that create economic value, like those used for fishing, renewable energy production, mining and outdoor recreation. In total, those working landscapes support nearly 1.5 million jobs and 75,500 businesses while generating $404 billion in sales and providing $103 billion in worker earnings.

    When it comes to the farming sector, the report demonstrates a simple fact: the Golden State is an agricultural behemoth. Business establishments across the state’s four agricultural sectors – agricultural production, support, processing and distribution – generated $310.8 billion in sales and contributed more than 1.2 million jobs in 2024.

    Those numbers affirm California’s rank as the nation’s most agriculturally productive state.

    “This report once again shows how our working landscapes are critical as a foundation of the California economy,” said Glenda Humiston, UC vice president for agriculture and natural resources. “It also underscores the importance of continuing to invest in agriculture, natural resources and related industries to maintain California’s position as one of the world’s economic powerhouses.”

    According to the report, the most common jobs affiliated with California’s working lands help produce our food supply, including positions in agricultural support, production, processing and distribution. The agricultural supply chain is linked across California’s geography, with hubs of activity in the Central Coast, San Joaquin Valley, Bay Area and Los Angeles regions.

    The report proves the benefit of keeping a close eye on the economy over time, according to co-author Alexandra Hill, an agricultural economist and UC Berkeley professor of Cooperative Extension.

    “It’s pretty crucial to analyze data over multiple years,” Hill said.

    For instance, this report picked up on a recent surge of agricultural support jobs, positions that provide specialty support to farmers, like fertilizer retailers or business consultants. In Hill’s interpretation, this uptick in agricultural support roles could be related to anecdotal evidence of more farmers securing labor through contracting businesses, rather than directly recruiting farmworkers themselves.

    Hill hopes the report will reach stakeholders – including the diverse cross-section of experts employed by UC ANR – who can lend their own experience to tease out new research questions based on the data.

    “There are just many different ways that you can divide this report. There are many possible avenues we can take this work in,” Hill said.

    Besides demonstrating the impact of California agriculture, the report encompasses other natural resource sectors, including mining, outdoor recreation, fishing and renewable energy. The report provides national context by ranking the valuation of these sectors in multiple states. The results place California in the top five of every category included, and in most cases, first place. The state leads in the four agricultural sectors, outdoor recreation and renewable energy.

    “That was useful to see California emerge as one of the top contributors across most sectors,” Hill said.

    Notably, the report highlights California’s huge growth in the renewable energy sector, which includes solar, wind and geothermal. The state’s latest accolades: ranking first nationwide in renewable energy business, sales and earnings. The renewable energy sector is the fastest-growing working landscape included in the report.

    In addition to Hill, the report was co-authored by Alec Dompka and Aaron Wilcher, UC Cooperative Extension advisors on the Community Economic Development team.

    The full report can be found at https://ucanr.edu/working-landscapes-2025.

    UC Agriculture and Natural Resources brings UC information and practices to all 58 California counties. Through research and Cooperative Extension in agriculture, natural resources, nutrition, economic and youth development, our mission is to improve the lives of all Californians. Learn more at ucanr.edu.

    To read more UC ANR news, visit our newsroom at ucanr.edu/News.

  • Scientists Offer Breakage Insights with Potential Benefits for Crops

    When pistachio hulls split before the nuts are harvested, insects and fungi can get inside, damaging the nut, costing farmers money and contaminating the nuts. About 4% of the overall crop experiences hull split, but some cultivars can split as much as 40% under certain conditions.

    For the first time, scientists at the University of California, Davis, are seeking solutions for California’s $2-billion-a-year pistachio industry. New research reveals how the hull is built and how cell walls in certain layers break down, along with the genes and corresponding mechanisms that spark and control those changes.

    Pectin, a component of cell walls, makes fruit skin strong in part by keeping cells hitched to each other. In pistachio hulls, the composition of pectin changes as the hull ripens, causing the cells to come unhitched. This leads to cracks and tears in the hull.

    In the Journal of Experimental Botany, recent Ph.D. graduate Shuxiao “Susan” Zhang, a student in the lab of Department of Plant Sciences Professor Georgia Drakakaki, identified genes that control how cell walls change as the fruit ripens, leading to the hull breaking down. The research will help breeders select for traits that will make the hulls less vulnerable to tearing and cracking.

    “This is the first time anyone has studied the pistachio hull at the anatomical and cellular level while also looking at gene expression and physiological data,” Drakakaki said. “Susan really got into the details of how the hull is built with different layers and how the cells in those layers are of different sizes. The layers respond differently to changes in pectin, and that causes the hull to split in different ways.”

    Zhang built on the work of two more scientists in the department and their teams. Grey Monroe, an assistant professor, and Barbara Blanco-Ulate, an associate professor, assembled a reference genome of Pistacia vera ‘Kerman,’ the leading female pistachio cultivar in California. They also defined the stages of the nut’s growth and the characteristics at each stage. Their work was published last year.

    A Model for Fruit Split in a Variety of Crops

    Over three years, the team took samples of pistachio hulls from trees in a commercial orchard near Fresno and at the Wolfskill Experimental Orchard, operated by UC Davis near Winters, Calif. They worked with the most common varieties grown in the state, including Kerman, Golden Hills and Lost Hills. They took samples from trees at different points late in the hulls’ development, stretching over several months.

    Using special imaging tools and techniques, Zhang and her team measured hull thickness and cell size, and they counted hulls that were intact, tattered, cracked or both. They also measured how well cells in the hull were sticking to each other, and in each sample counted the cells that had come unhitched.

    Then, the team pulled out RNA from the samples to learn which genes were being expressed at different stages as the hull develops and breaks down. They found that key genes express differently as that process unfolds.

    Since all hulls were intact at 91 days after flowering, Zhang and team reasoned that fruit ripening may be linked with hull split. So, the team also examined the genes — including those involved in pectin modification — that change the cell wall as the fruit ripens. Researchers discovered that cells in the interior layer of the hull expand, while cells in the exterior layer tend to stay the same size. This, in combination with changes in the cell wall, led to different types of hull breakdown.

    “This is one of the major novelty factors for our paper,” Zhang said. “Loads of people have looked at pectin in all kinds of fruits, but not many people have observed that, depending on which cell layer you’re in, the pectin, cell size and so on will change differently during ripening.”

    The physics of forces operating within the cell layers and humidity also influence degradation of the hull, Zhang found.

    Because pistachio hulls are the fruit of the tree, even though we eat the seed, the research has applications for many non-berry fruit crops, Zhang concluded.

    The California Pistachio Board funded most of this research, with additional support from the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the James Monroe McDonald Endowment and the University of California Agricultural and Natural Resources. — By Trina Kleist, UC Davis Department of Plant Sciences

  • Friant Water Authority Announces Johnny Amaral as CEO

    Friant Water Authority (FWA) announced the appointment of Johnny Amaral as its new Chief Executive Officer, following years of service and leadership within the organization.

    Amaral joined Friant Water Authority in March 2019 as Chief of External Affairs and was appointed Chief Operating Officer in early 2022. In these roles, he has overseen FWA personnel and day-to-day operations, while leading FWA’s engagement on water supply reliability, water policy, legislative advocacy, and communications. As Chief Executive Officer, Amaral will focus on protecting the Friant water supply, safeguarding critical infrastructure such as the Friant-Kern Canal, strengthening trusted partnerships across the region, and leading FWA’s experienced and dedicated team.

    “We welcome Johnny in his new role as he brings a strong understanding of Friant operations, water policy, and the needs of Valley farmers and communities,” said Rick Borges, Chairman of the Friant Water Authority Board of Directors.

    During his time at FWA, Amaral has played a central role in advancing initiatives critical to the region’s water future. His work has included expanding opportunities for groundwater recharge for San Joaquin Valley farmers and leading the Friant-Kern Canal Capacity Correction Project as FWA’s staff lead on construction activities. In this role, Amaral has worked to secure funding and develop partnerships to support long-term repairs to this vital facility, helping protect both water deliveries and the communities that rely on them.

    Amaral has also led FWA’s efforts to build and maintain strong working relationships with Groundwater Sustainability Agencies, community representatives, farm bureaus, commodity groups, advocacy organizations, and other water agencies, recognizing collaboration as essential to achieving long-term water sustainability in the San Joaquin Valley.

    Prior to joining Friant Water Authority, Amaral served as Deputy General Manager for External Affairs at Westlands Water District for more than four years. He began his career in public service as Chief of Staff to Congressman Devin Nunes, where he worked on water and public policy matters for over 13 years.

    A native of Tulare, Amaral lives in Exeter, California with his wife, Stephanie. They have two children: Taylor, a senior at Baylor University, and John Tomas, a sophomore at San Diego State University.

  • Developing a New Phone App that Detects Bee Diseases

    RS researchers are looking to help U.S. beekeepers better detect and treat their honey bee populations. Honey bees are important pollinators in agriculture. With an estimated 50–80% of crops pollinated by honey bees, they generate approximately $20 billion annually in market value in the United States alone. However, pathogens and the Varroa destructor parasitic mite threaten their health, costing the industry over $500 million each year.

    Commercial beekeepers face challenges in protecting their hives from bacterial, viral, and fungal diseases. Accurate diagnosis of brood disease, especially distinguishing European Foulbrood (EFB), a bacterial disease, from viral infections with symptoms similar to EFB, remains challenging and time consuming. Misdiagnosis often results in inappropriate antibiotic use, leading to increased antimicrobial resistant bacteria and significant disruption of the honey bees’ gut microbiome.

    In a published study, researchers at the ARS Carl Hayden Bee Research Center in Tucson, AZ, developed an image-based artificial intelligence (AI) diagnostic tool to rapidly identify and differentiate between bacterial and viral infections in honey bee brood. Over many years, the researchers collaborated with apiary inspectors and university extension agents to generate a dataset of 2,759 honey bee larvae images gathered from multiple apiaries. Each image was paired with definitive molecular evidence of viral or bacterial infection.

    Using image analysis, the proof-of-concept models achieved 73–88% accuracy in identifying the diseases.

    “This study represents a significant step toward addressing the challenge of brood disease diagnosis, which has traditionally relied on visual inspection by experienced apiarists with variable accuracy,” said ARS Research Microbiologist Duan Copeland.

    “AI models can provide rapid, objective disease diagnostics which can reduce the unnecessary use of antibiotics and preserve the integrity of the gut microbiome, a significant contributor to colony health in commercial beekeeping operations.”

    According to Copeland, the goal is to develop a phone-app diagnostic tool whereby beekeepers can upload photos and receive accurate diagnoses in seconds. The findings show promise, but more research and development are required to produce field-ready diagnostic tools. Future research will focus on including all major bee pathogens and extending landscape representation throughout the U.S.

    The research was funded by the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA)’s Agriculture and Food Research Initiative grant and conducted in collaboration with Apiary Inspectors of America, Michigan State University, and the ARS Bee Research Laboratory. – by Jessica Ryan, ARS Office of Communications