Mother Nature has favored California walnut growers this season with improved growing conditions/tree health, and a larger crop is expected than last year with high quality product. An exceptionally low carry-in inventory could also yield higher prices for growers this year. Watch this brief interview with Robert Verloop, CEO of the California Walnut Board & Commission, as he met with Matthew Malcolm on California Ag Network to highlight expectations for this year’s walnut crop and recent activities to boost global market access. Verloop will be sharing the State of the Walnut Industry report at Malcolm Media’s Tree & Vine Expo on Nov. 11th at the Stanislaus County Fairgrounds and at the Grape, Nut & Tree Fruit Expo on Nov. 14th at the Fresno Fairgrounds, so be sure to attend.
Category: News
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SNAP-Ed-Supported Program Energizes Older Adults Through Gardening
“I not only live here, I garden here,” said Karen Smulevitz, a resident of Palo Vista Gardens, a public housing complex for older adults in East Oakland. She was wearing sunglasses and sporting a white bucket hat, a red leather jacket over a red t-shirt and white pants as she roamed the community garden.
“This is my plot behind the mesh,” Smulevitz said, gesturing to the tall plants growing behind a chicken-wire screen in a raised bed. “I grow tomatoes, Italian parsley, rosemary. My doctor told me to eat more leafy greens.”
She’s growing vegetables and herbs with help from a “garden club” organized by CalFresh Healthy Living, University of California Cooperative Extension in Alameda County. Growing her own leafy greens makes it easy for Smulevitz to add them to her daily meals.
“I can come out here every other day and pick some chard and some kale, throw it in some soup or stir-fry or whatever it is I’m cooking,” Smulevitz said. “I add kale to almost everything. I’m trying to get my leafy greens in.”
CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE provides free nutrition and wellness information to help people eligible for the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) develop healthier habits.
Palo Vista Gardens is one of a few Alameda County partners enlisted by Mary Blackburn, UC Cooperative Extension nutrition, family and consumer sciences advisor emeritus, to reach older Californians. “It was really her pioneering efforts that inspired UCCE to work with seniors,” Tuline Baykal, CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE supervisor for Alameda County, said of Blackburn, who recently retired from her 35-year UCCE career.
Growing greens and a sense of community
For the past 20 years, the CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE team has provided nutrition classes and gardening classes for Palo Vista Gardens residents, according to Araceli Tellez, resident services portfolio manager at Oakland Housing Authority.
“In my role for the past eight years, I’ve seen how the partnership we’ve had has provided our residents the knowledge to eat healthier, to save money, to socialize with their community while gardening, and it has allowed them to grow as individuals so they can be healthier and live a longer, healthy life,” said Tellez.
Max Fairbee, a CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE community nutrition educator for Alameda County, launched the garden club with Palo Vista Gardens residents. He specializes in serving older adults who live in public housing and adults living in transitional housing. In addition to providing them with nutrition advice, Fairbee shares tips to stretch their food dollars and meet goals for physical activity.
“I love working with these residents,” said Fairbee. “Over the past 8-9 years, I’ve connected with each of them through this garden.”
“When I first came to Palo Vista, it was as a nutrition educator and a few of the residents who garden came to my classes but not all,” he said. “You see, the residents speak at least six languages in the garden – English, Chinese, Spanish, Khmer, Vietnamese and Lao – and gardening is a way to communicate without words. Whenever I stop to see the garden, the residents take me to their plot to show me the produce they’ve grown or if there is a pest. Gardening is a common thread. They feel connected to each other even though they are from different cultures. I see how they light up and smile.”
SNAP-Ed funding to end Sept. 30
The federal reconciliation spending bill, signed into law on July 4, eliminates funding for SNAP-Ed beyond Sept. 30, 2025. CalFresh Healthy Living, University of California is one of the organizations implementing SNAP-Ed in California.
Over his eight years of connecting with Palo Vista Gardens residents, CalFresh Healthy Living UCCE community educator Fairbee has left a positive impression.
“Max is a part of our community,” said Olympia Vizcaino, assistant property manager at Palo Vista Gardens. “He has a wealth of information not only for our residents, but our staff as well. He always conducts nutrition classes, gardening classes, cooking classes. He’s constantly bringing supplies to our site, like Sluggo to keep the bugs away so that our plants can thrive. He brings us soil, he brings us calendars and he brings us baby plants, too, to plant in there.”
The Harvest of the Month calendar contains images of colorful, seasonal fruits and vegetables highlighted each month with suggested recipes.
According to Vizcaino, older people may forget to spend time outdoors, but gardening with Fairbee can be a powerful motivator.
“He brings people out into the sun,” Vizcaino said. “Some people forget and don’t go outside. They’re elderly so when they have something to do, to come out into the garden to be with other people, to be in the sun, it makes them happy.”
‘I depend on Max’
Recently participants who have worked with Fairbee reflected on how they have benefited from the CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE program.
“I depend on Max and his knowledge of gardening and food,” said Geneva Moore, who has lived at Palo Vista Gardens for eight years. She said Fairbee is a tremendous resource for the community.
When she goes to the grocery story, Moore takes time to carefully read ingredient labels on food packages before buying a product – a skill she learned from Fairbee. Her awareness of nutritious fruits and vegetables has also expanded over the years.
“I got mustard greens, tomatoes and all kinds of things going on right now,” said Moore, pointing to the raised garden plot behind her while steadying herself with a walking stick.
Nutrition lessons learned in the garden follow participants into the kitchen. To encourage Moore to make use of her abundant, home-grown vegetables, Fairbee suggested a vegetable soup, a simple recipe that’s easy to digest. “One good way for seniors to eat their vegetables is to make a soup,” Moore said. “You’re always going to drink that soup. And, whoo, you got vegetables!”
Besides rewarding seniors with delicious meals, gardening pays off in terms of their physical health and mental health.
“I always loved to garden. I used to garden when I owned my own house. I missed it, then I come to Palo Vista and Max,” Moore said. “He brings all these good things for me. He helps me. He helps us all the time.”
Smulevitz listed many ways that the garden club enhances the quality of life for residents.
“I just love gardening; we get so much aid from UC and from Max,” she explained. “He supplies us with soil and compost and all kinds of things. Gardening lifts one’s spirits a lot. Our particular garden helps to enhance our sense of community because we often work together. We share our crops with each other, like I’ll give some kale away or somebody will give me something else that they grew and it just strengthens those bonds we have as neighbors here.”
“Max is the face of CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE to them,” said Baykal, CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE supervisor.
Fairbee said, “It’s obvious to me, by the way they light up, that being here in the garden is good for their well-being. And it’s good for me too! It feels really rewarding to help them grow their own food.”
Leaders at University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, which oversees CalFresh Healthy Living, UCCE in 34 counties in the state, are reimagining the future of nutrition education and how the work of Fairbee and his colleagues can continue helping older Californians.
“I can’t even put a price on what Max does,” Vizcaino said. “It’s so invaluable to our community. To watch our residents thrive in that manner makes us happy as well.”
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources brings UC information and practices to all 58 California counties. Through research and Cooperative Extension in agriculture, natural resources, economic growth, nutrition and youth development, our mission is to improve the lives of all Californians. Learn more at ucanr.edu and support our work at donate.ucanr.edu.
To read more UC ANR news, visit our newsroom at http://ucanr.edu/News.
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UC Releases Costs of Growing Cilantro, Parsley
For commercial growers considering planting cilantro or parsley, the costs and returns of producing in Ventura County are outlined in a new study by the University of California Cooperative Extension, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Institute, and UC Davis Department of Agriculture and Resource Economics.
“These studies provide growers with a baseline to estimate their own costs, which can help if they need to apply for production loans, project labor costs or market their crop” said Etaferahu Takele, UC Cooperative Extension farm management advisor and agricultural economist and study co-author.
The UC Cooperative Extension cost and return estimates are based on cilantro and parsley grown in Ventura County. Each study describes the cultural practices used for establishing, producing and harvesting the herbs, including land preparation, soil fertility and pest management, irrigation and labor needs.
Ventura County produces a diverse mix of vegetables and herb crops. Lately, the acreage in cilantro production has been increasing. Between 2002 and 2022, the cilantro acreage almost quadrupled from 1,257 acres to 4,065 acres, reflecting increases in demand for the herb often used in Latin American and Asian recipes.
The total cost to produce cilantro in 2025, using a yield of 1,200 cartons per acre, is approximately $7,316 per acre. Sold for $9 per carton, profit for cilantro before paying management is estimated at $3,480 per acre.
The total cost to produce parsley in 2025, using a yield of 2,200 cartons per acre, is approximately $14,759 per acre. Using a price received of $8.60 per carton, profit for parsley before paying management, is estimated at $4,713 per acre.
The researchers based their studies on an 800-acre farm, which was the average farm size of the growers they interviewed. Double cropping is common in Ventura County so the total land farmed for this sample is about 1,600 acres per year. Because growers produce multiple crops each year, planting and harvesting vegetable crops are year-round activities.
“Cilantro Production Costs and Profitability Analysis” and “Parsley Production Costs and Profitability Analysis” can be downloaded for free from the UC Cooperative Extension Ventura County website: https://ucanr.edu/county/cooperative-extension-ventura-county/vegetable.
Government agencies such as the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the United States Department of Agriculture can use the information when developing and implementing agricultural policies and programs.
The cost estimate studies were coauthored by Oleg Daugovish, UC Cooperative Extension strawberry and vegetable crop advisor in Ventura County; and Karen Jetter, research economist and associate director; Donald Stewart, staff research associate; and Fiona Ogunkoya, survey researcher, all of the UC ANR Policy Institute.
For more information about cost studies, contact Takele at ettakele@ucanr.edu.
These studies were funded by the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources’ Thelma Hansen Trust. — By Pamela Kan-Rice, UCANR
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Questions about Growing Agave in California?
Agave may be a slow-growing plant, but the rush to farm the drought-tolerant crop in California has been rapid. Since 2023, agave acreage has quadrupled in the state, from 50 acres to over 200.
Photo Caption: Yessica Fernandez Galicia is a researcher who’s organizing a webinar series to meet the most pressing questions from California agave growers. Photo by Rob Padilla
With all those new agave farms popping up, more farmers are seeking advice to best care for this hardy succulent. To meet that need, agricultural experts from UC Agriculture and Natural Resources and UC Davis surveyed English-speaking and Spanish-speaking agave growers on their top concerns. So far, they’re received over 50 responses and counting.
“With this survey, we’ve identified 30 farmers that we didn’t have on our radar before,” said Yessica Fernandez Galicia, a UC ANR and UC Davis agave researcher.
Growers’ responses focused on many of the same themes: How much should you water an agave plant? Which pests and diseases affect agave? Can you get certified for growing agave sustainably?
Those survey results have been put to good use. Based on grower input, UC ANR has developed a series of free, virtual webinars about agave, offered every month from August to December. The sessions are open to all, but please register ahead of time:
Regenerative Agave and Certification — Aug 28, noon-1 p.m.
Rodrigo Mestas – Agave grower in Jalisco, Mexico. Mestas is the owner of the first Regenerative Tequila Certificate, which was awarded to his business, Tequila Torrente.
Cooperatives and Collective Action — Sept. 25, 12:30-1:30 p.m.
Deborah Yashar – Agriculture and food co-op specialist in the California Center for Cooperative Development.
Agave and Dry Farming Practices — Oct. 16, noon-1 p.m.
Steve Sanchez – California farmer and consultant who promotes agave and cactus cultivation through sustainable practices and dry farming. Sanchez hosts the podcast Agave & Cactus Talk.
Cultural Appropriation: The Significance of Maguey and Mezcal to Zapotec People — Nov. 13, noon-1 p.m.
Fabiola Santiago – Activist, researcher, and cultural entrepreneur, originally from Oaxaca, Mexico, and raised in California. Proudly Zapotec, she dedicates her work to defending and preserving Oaxacan culture.
Photo Caption: Agricultural experts from UC ANR and UC Davis surveyed new and long-time agave growers as the drought-tolerant crop gains popularity in California. Photo by Rob Padilla
The webinars cover multiple topics, including grower certification and irrigation practices. According to Fernandez Galicia, attendees will leave with economic and environmental takeaways.
“We are trying to educate people that the agave doesn’t need a lot of water. If you give them a lot of water, they don’t generate the adequate quantities of sugar,” she said.
That means overwatering could make the agave unusable for commercial products like alcohol or biofuel. Cutting water use also can be a cost-saver and environmentally responsible in this drought-prone state.
“The principal goal is to encourage practices that care for the earth and make farming more sustainable,” said Fernandez Galicia. — By Caroline Champlin, UCANR
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Registration Opens for 2026 Farm Robotics Challenge
The Farm Robotics Challenge, the only collegiate agricultural robotics competition of its kind, is officially launching its 2026 season. Registration is now open for undergraduate and graduate student teams from two-year and four-year colleges and universities across the United States and worldwide.
The competition tasks students with designing, prototyping and field-testing robotics and AI-driven solutions to tackle real challenges facing modern agriculture. The Challenge is organized by UC ANR Innovate, the innovation arm of University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, in partnership with the AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems (AIFS).
“What makes the Farm Robotics Challenge unique is that students work directly with farmers to identify and solve real problems,” said Gabe Youtsey, chief innovation officer at UC ANR and founder of UC ANR Innovate. “Teams are developing practical solutions growers can put to work, and the hands-on experience prototyping and field-testing prepares students for careers in agricultural technology, while helping address some of the pressing challenges our growers face today.”
Lead sponsor the Reservoir to award Grand Prize investment
The Challenge is pleased to announce a partnership with the Reservoir, a leading early-stage venture capital investor and robotics incubator dedicated to accelerating real-world agricultural technology. The Reservoir joins this year as a lead sponsor, bringing with it a commitment to help student innovations leap from concept to commercialization.
As part of this partnership, the Reservoir will award a $50,000 Grand Prize investment to the winning team. This seed funding goes beyond a traditional competition prize, as it provides a powerful springboard for turning student-built prototypes into market-ready solutions with real agricultural impact.
“The future of agriculture will be shaped by deep tech innovators who can move quickly from lab to field,” said Danny Bernstein, CEO of the Reservoir. “The Farm Robotics Challenge brings together the kind of early-stage talent we’re eager to back – engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs with the vision to tackle real problems and the grit to commercialize their solutions. By pairing this year’s $50,000 Grand Prize investment with our on-farm incubation and venture support, we aim to help these prototypes evolve into scalable companies delivering breakthrough technologies for growers.”
Central to the competition is the expectation that student teams work directly with growers to identify prominent issues in agriculture that could be addressed using advanced robotics, AI and automation.
“With this challenge, teams can target a broad range of agricultural activities, such as planting, weeding, harvesting, pest management and crop monitoring, as well as focused projects in data collection, mapping and on-farm automation,” said Steve Brown, associate director of the AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems.
Teams are encouraged to design and prototype solutions, using robotic platforms equipped with autonomous navigation systems, intelligent algorithms and custom attachments to address real-world agricultural problems. These projects are field-tested, ensuring that they are not only theoretically sound but also practically viable in production agriculture environments.
Supported by leading technology partners such as Bonsai Robotics, the competition places strong emphasis on innovation, hands-on learning and collaboration with growers.
“For the past four years, we’ve partnered with UC ANR Innovate and AIFS on the Farm Robotics Challenge because we believe the future of farming depends on the next generation of innovators. There are big problems to solve in how we grow our food, and we want these inventive, engineering minds focused on them,” said Brendan Dowdle, chief business officer at Bonsai Robotics. “Our robotics platform makes it easier to design, test and deploy AI, computer vision and autonomous systems. Every year, we’re inspired by the creativity and technical skill these students bring to the field, and the ideas just keep getting bigger. We can’t wait to see what they build next.”
Prizes offered as part of multi-phase competition cycle
The competition unfolds across several stages, beginning with the registration period starting in August, followed by a team formation and proposal research phase through October. Project proposals must be submitted by October 30, 2025.
Teams then embark on a six-month development and testing phase, culminating in final project submissions due on May 3, 2026.
The competition concludes with an awards ceremony set for May 20, 2026.
Participation in the Farm Robotics Challenge offers numerous benefits. The competition will award over $100,000 in prizes across multiple categories, and select teams will be offered travel stipends to showcase their projects at FIRA USA, North America’s leading ag tech conference. Beyond the prizes, all participants gain access to a network of academic and industry professionals dedicated to building the future of farming.
Throughout the competition, educational webinars will be available to help students stay informed about industry trends, develop entrepreneurial skills and gain valuable insights on topics such as intellectual property, company formation and venture capital financing, presented by experts from Morrison Foerster.
“We are excited to partner with UC ANR Innovate and AIFS on the Farm Robotics Challenge,” said Michael Ward, co-head of the Morrison Foerster Food and Ag Practice. “To ensure that teams get their industry-changing ideas off the ground, it is critical that they have a solid understanding of the legal issues that arise when launching and growing a startup company in this field.”
The webinars will feature interactive sessions designed to introduce teams to the legal knowledge needed to start and grow a business, protect their innovations and navigate the challenging regulatory landscape.
“We will offer free confidential office hours to all competition participants to answer legal questions and provide guidance on moving their ideas into a company and taking steps to commercialization,” said Mitchell Presser, co-head of the Morrison Foerster Food and Ag Practice.
Throughout the competition, student teams develop practical skills at the intersection of technology and agriculture, expand their professional networks and engage with a distinguished panel of evaluators and innovators.
Past competitions have featured over 40 teams from across the U.S. and abroad, with previous winners including UC Davis, University of Georgia, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa and Olin College of Engineering (click to view past results).
For those interested in participating, prospective teams are advised to assemble members with a range of technical expertise and secure a faculty or staff advisor. The next step is to partner with a grower to identify a meaningful agricultural problem and then design and rigorously test a solution using advanced robotics and AI.
Comprehensive information, official rules and regular updates can be found on the Farm Robotics Challenge website. You can also register to participate in the Farm Robotics Challenge Info Session Webinar on September 10 at 4 p.m. (PDT).
New for the 2025-26 academic year is the Farm Robotics Academy, intended for secondary school students. The Academy aims to equip both educators and students with knowledge and skills in leading-edge technologies that are reshaping the agricultural landscape. Learn more at https://www.farmroboticsacademy.ai/.
Farm Robotics Challenge
The Farm Robotics Challenge is organized by UC ANR Innovate and the AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems, with lead support from the Reservoir, technology partner Bonsai Robotics, as well as Western Growers, Morrison Foerster, F3 Innovate, Taylor Farms, Beck’s Hybrids, Google.org, the California Tomato Research Institute, Linak U.S., and Plug and Play. The competition challenges college-level teams to identify and solve real-world agricultural problems using advanced robotics technology.
For more information about the Farm Robotics Challenge, including details on how to participate or sponsor, visit https://farmroboticschallenge.ai.
UC ANR Innovate
UC ANR Innovate brings together people, resources and ideas to accelerate agricultural, food and biotech innovation in California. UC ANR Innovate develops practical technologies, generates research and policy insights, prepares a future-ready workforce and builds the ecosystems and partnerships that make innovation possible: locally, regionally and globally.
The AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems
The AI Institute for Next Generation Food Systems (AIFS) is a USDA-National Institute of Food and Agriculture-funded research institute leveraging artificial intelligence to solve the world’s biggest challenges to crop and food production: ensuring a sustainable, nutritious, efficient and safe food supply while mitigating the impacts of changing conditions. For more information, visit https://aifs.ucdavis.edu.
The Reservoir
The Reservoir is a startup incubator and venture capital fund focused on helping ag tech startups succeed where agriculture happens – in the field. Reservoir Farms is the world’s first on-farm robotics incubator, starting in the Salinas Valley and expanding to other key regions like the Central Valley. Reservoir Ventures backs startups solving real problems in high-value crops. By combining R&D space, hands-on grower input and early-stage capital, the Reservoir helps turn promising ideas into tools for the growers who feed the world. Learn more at https://reservoir.co.
Bonsai Robotics
Bonsai Robotics is reimagining the agricultural industry with its AI-first platform that makes autonomous farming affordable, easy to use, and deployable across all farm equipment – whether retrofitted onto existing machines or built into next generation solutions. Its acquisition of farm-ng in 2025 combines its leading, vision-based autonomy software with modular, electric robotics to deliver next-generation machines adaptable for a wide range of crops, tasks and environments. Bonsai empowers growers to monitor and manage all farm equipment – new or legacy, autonomous or not – through a single, intuitive app. Learn more at www.bonsairobotics.ai.
Morrison Foerster
Morrison Foerster is a leading global law firm, with clients including some of the most innovative companies – from trailblazing startups to Fortune 100 enterprises. Morrison Foerster is the firm for Food + Agriculture, representing stakeholders across the value chain, from scientists in labs optimizing plant genetics, to farmers nurturing crops, to ag tech pioneers revolutionizing farm technology, to CPG companies and global brands selling your favorite foods. With unmatched scientific depth and deep sector knowledge, Morrison Foerster has helped shape the sector for over two decades. For more information, visit www.mofo.com.
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.
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Jill Sperling Named State Supervisor of Ag Education and California State FFA Advisor
The California Association, FFA, is pleased to announce the appointment of Jill Sperling as the new State Supervisor of Agricultural Education and California State FFA Advisor. Her selection was made by the California Department of Education, taking effect on May 1, 2025, following the retirement of Charles Parker. She becomes the first woman to serve in this role in the organization’s nearly 100-year history.
A respected agricultural educator and mentor, Sperling brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, and leadership to the position, having earned multiple local and state awards for her excellence in teaching and service. Prior to this position, she served as the Central Region FFA Advisor for 10 years, supporting 86 agricultural education programs spanning from Sacramento to Merced counties. Before joining the state leadership team, Sperling spent 14 years as an agriscience educator and FFA advisor at Kingsburg High School.
“I am immensely proud to be the first female State Supervisor of Agriculture Education and State FFA Advisor in California,” Sperling shared. “I have deep roots in agriculture education and grew up seeing the meaningful impacts that agriculture teachers make on the lives of their students through the three-circle model of agriculture education. I have been honored to serve the teachers and FFA members of the Central Region for the past ten years and am looking forward to working with my colleagues to provide leadership to the 108,000+ FFA members and over 1,100 agriculture teachers throughout our great state in the years to come.”
As State FFA Advisor, Sperling will help lead the strategic vision of the California Association, FFA, supporting more than 108,000 members across 366 chapters. She will work in close partnership with California’s regional advisors to ensure local programs meet the diverse needs of students, while also collaborating with the California FFA Foundation, California Agricultural Teachers’ Association, and the California Department of Education to support the organization’s growing and evolving programs.
Stepping into this distinguished role marks both a personal and professional achievement for Sperling. A native of Sacramento County and a proud American FFA Degree recipient, she follows in the footsteps of her father, Bob Heuvel, who served in this same position for nearly 30 years. Her husband, Dustin, is also a former FFA member, and their children, Auston and Avery, are former and current members of their local FFA program.
About California Association, FFA: The California Association, FFA, serves more than 108,000 students and strives to make a difference in their lives by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural education. To learn more about the California FFA, visit calaged.org.
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Golden State Farm Credit Supports Local Students with Back-to-School Backpack Donation
Golden State Farm Credit (GSFC) recently donated 25 backpacks filled with school supplies to support students and families through The Salvation Army of Chico’s Back-to-School program, an annual effort to ensure local students are prepared for a successful start to the school year.
Recipients of the program will receive a backpack filled with various school supplies such as notebooks and paper, writing utensils, a calculator, and a lunchbox. Each donation will support a child in need living in Chico, Paradise, Magalia, or Forest Ranch, helping relieve the financial burden from local families, parents, and guardians.
GSFC has previously partnered with The Salvation Army of Chico, particularly through its annual participation in the Angel Tree program, which provides Christmas gifts to hundreds of children in the region. This back-to-school effort represents a meaningful extension of that partnership and a shared commitment to serving the community year-round.
“We’re proud to support programs that provide local youth with the tools they need to succeed,” said Kris Costa, director of marketing and communications at GSFC. “Supporting the Angel Tree Program has always been a meaningful experience for our team, so when The Salvation Army invited us to be part of their back-to-school effort, we were excited to jump in and help.”
This donation is part of GSFC’s ongoing commitment to serve and strengthen rural communities. The association’s community outreach pillar extends beyond supporting local agriculture organizations, activities, and events; they believe in supporting families in the community when the need arises. Looking ahead in 2026, GSFC plans to connect with other Salvation Army locations near its branch offices to expand the backpack donation effort.
About GSFC:
Golden State Farm Credit (GSFC) is a lending institution of the Farm Credit System with offices in Northern and Central California that service the counties of Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Shasta, Trinity, Fresno, Kings and Tulare. The GSFC administrative office is located at 3013 Ceres Avenue, Chico, CA 95973. The Farm Credit System (System) is a nationwide network of borrower-owned lending institutions that provides loans, leases, and related services to farmers, ranchers, rural homeowners, agribusiness, agricultural and rural utility cooperatives, and Young, Beginning and Small Farmers nationwide. Congress established the System in 1916 to provide a reliable source of credit for the nation’s farmers and ranchers. Today, the System provides more than one-third of the credit needed by those who live and work in rural America.
For more information about Golden State Farm Credit, call (530) 895-8698 or visit us online at www.goldenstatefarmcredit.com.
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Innovative Ag Education Program Reaches Over 1 Million California Students
Educating today’s students about the importance of California agriculture is critically important to protecting the future of farming and ranching in the Golden State. For nearly 40 years, the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom has been a leader in that effort and is continuing to innovate to meet the needs of California classrooms.
“We’ve been around since 1986, and our whole mission is to support teachers and students in incorporating agriculture into their classroom because agriculture affects our daily lives. It’s the food we eat; it’s the clothes we wear – it affects everything that we do,” said Amanda Fletcher, the Foundation’s executive director.
During 2024, Fletcher said the Foundation’s programs reached over 1 million pre-K to high school students by engaging more than 34,000 teachers across California. Among the Foundation’s most-used resources was the 22ndannual issue of What’s Growin’ On, a 16-page interactive student newspaper funded in part by Farm Credit. More than 100,000 copies were distributed.
Kevin Ralph, California President for AgWest Farm Credit, said California’s Farm Credit organizations have supported the Foundation’s work for many years.
“Farm Credit has been proud to support What’s Growin’ On for more than 15 years – and in fact increased our support this year – because it’s proven to be an innovative and effective way of educating third through eighth graders about all the aspects of California agriculture,” Ralph said.
Jacob DeBoer, Regional Marketing Manager with American AgCredit, agreed that the Foundation continues to do great work.
“What makes the Foundation’s efforts so successful is that it comes up with ways to really reach students,” DeBoer said. “This year, the theme is ‘Imagine Your Future in Agriculture,’ which is especially important given the need to attract students to consider careers in ag-related fields. Besides information about farming, the newspaper and other programs discuss careers in fields including tech, marketing, soil science and ag mechanics. There’s nothing like drones to capture a young student’s imagination.”
All seven Farm Credit organizations serving California – AgWest Farm Credit, American AgCredit, CoBank, Colusa-Glenn Farm Credit, Fresno Madera Farm Credit, Golden State Farm Credit and Yosemite Farm Credit – are financially supporting the Foundation’s work. They are all part of the nationwide Farm Credit System – the largest provider of credit to U.S. agriculture.
Fletcher said the Foundation got its start in 1981 as a program launched by the California Farm Bureau Federation. It was spun off five years later as an affiliated 501c3 nonprofit. Today, seven – soon to be eight – employees develop age-appropriate curricula using a wide range of distribution methods.
For example, a popular part of the program is the virtual California Farm Day. This year, 31,000 students watched one of two age-appropriate, hour-long programs including video and live Q&A sessions with ag experts. One segment showed a pest advisor walking through a broccoli field examining plants for insects. He explained that some insects were beneficial, and others weren’t and talked about the steps he took to become a pest advisor.
“We had over 800 questions asked of the live hosts. A lot of the kids who were on that broadcast were from urban and more disadvantaged schools who don’t always have the ability to go on field trips, so this offered a little window into agriculture and how it affects their lives,” she said.
“We probably work with 60% urban classes and 40% from the agricultural areas. Our target demographic is those urban and disadvantaged schools because we want to get into schools in L.A. and the Bay Area to make sure they’re getting the same education about agriculture that students in counties that have that rich agriculture history have access to.”
This year, a grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture allowed the Foundation to develop an interactive website called KnowinWhatsGrowin.com. Fletcher said it matches the state’s fourth-grade curriculum and focuses on specialty crops grown in different parts of the state.
Santa Clara County students can learn about mushrooms, for example – how they’re grown and harvested, nutritional information, products that use mushrooms and even recipes.
Because the Foundation strives “to keep growing, because if you stay stagnant that doesn’t work when the goal is to get the information out to the populace,” the staff is currently beginning a four-year project to develop a monthly curriculum for high school students that outlines ag-related careers. The lesson plans will tie into math, science and ag mechanics.
“Then we are going to be working on developing an internship program that will go along with that. It’ll be exciting in the next couple of years once that gets off the ground,” she said.
“We want to create materials that are easy and quick for teachers to implement so they have good programming for their students and to make sure that the next generation is informed about where their food and fiber comes from.”
About Farm Credit:
AgWest Farm Credit, American AgCredit, Colusa-Glenn Farm Credit, CoBank, Fresno Madera Farm Credit, Golden State Farm Credit and Yosemite Farm Credit are cooperatively owned lending institutions providing agriculture and rural communities with a dependable source of credit. For more than 100 years, the Farm Credit System has specialized in financing farmers, ranchers, farmer-owned cooperatives, rural utilities and agribusinesses. Farm Credit offers a broad range of loan products and financial services, including long-term real estate loans, operating lines of credit, equipment and facility loans, cash management and appraisal and leasing services…everything a “growing” business needs. For more information, visit www.farmcreditalliance.com
About the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom:
California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom (AITC) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to increasing agricultural awareness and understanding among California’s educators and students. AITC develops accurate, teacher-tested educational materials, provides training and programs for educators, and collaborates with organizations to highlight the importance of agriculture in daily life. Through initiatives such as comprehensive lesson plans, the What’s Growin’ On? student newspaper, the Imagine this… writing contest, Virtual Farm Day, the annual teacher conference, and many more programs, AITC fosters agricultural literacy and supports the future of agriculture – impacting over 1 million students annually. For more information, visit www.learnaboutag.org.
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Not a Peep — Bird Flu Silences Poultry Competitions at Fairs
Summertime at California county fairs usually brings a barnyard chorus of oinks, neighs and bleats from livestock. But in California, cock-a-doodle-doos are missing from that chorus. A statewide ban on bird exhibitions, due to highly pathogenic avian influenza, has left empty cages and disappointed young 4-H members who spent months raising chickens for competition.
“Fowl News: Bird Flu Ruffles Feathers at the Fair,” is the latest episode of Unfold, a UC Davis podcast. In this episode, guest host Caroline Champlin, with University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, explores how 4-H programs are keeping poultry education alive amid the ban. At the Orange County Fair, kids compete in the “avian bowl,” a quiz game designed to test knowledge of poultry science. You also can read an in-depth article on the topic at UC ANR’s Green Blog.
UC Davis veterinary epidemiologist Maurice Pitesky, also with UC ANR, explains why the ongoing bird flu outbreak may be here to stay. He discusses how the virus spreads, the risks of bringing animals together, and innovative approaches to teaching about the bird flu, including a cooperative board game about stopping disease spread.
In this episode:
Maurice Pitesky, associate professor, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine and University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Cooperative Extension specialistYou can listen to episodes of the Signal Award-winning podcast Unfold, on Apple, Spotify, YouTube, your smart speaker or wherever you get your podcasts. Original music for Unfold comes from UC Davis alumnus Damien Verrett and Curtis Jerome Haynes. Follow us on X at @unfoldpodcast or Bluesky at @unfoldpodcast.bsky.social. — By Amy Quinton, UC Davis