The Almond Alliance of California today commended Rep. Josh Harder (C-10) for including funding to support ten nationwide pilot programs to convert tree nut by-products into biocarbon products in the Future of Agricultural Resiliency and Modernization (FARM) Act. Almond Alliance President Elaine Trevino explained that in California the funding will help accelerate efforts to develop new biofuels or other biocarbon …

Washington is under a state of emergency, with more than 600 wildfires reported already this year. That’s about double the normal rate, according to the state Department of Natural Resources. Where there’s fire, there’s smoke that can expose outdoor workers in construction, agriculture, and other jobs to health risks from breathing particulate matter in the air. To help these and other …

The third edition of a booklet to help identify noxious and invasive weeds in New Mexico is now available. “Noxious and Troublesome Weeds of New Mexico” provides information on about 67 plant species that are ranked in five categories – noxious weeds categories A, B and C, watch list, and troublesome weeds not included on the noxious weeds list. New …

On July 1, 1930, the Agricultural Research Service (ARS) formally began its pecan research and breeding program in Austin, TX. With this support from ARS scientists, the United States became the world’s leading producer of pecans, a crop estimated to be worth over $560 million. Nearly a century later at the ARS Fruit and Tree Nut Research Station in Byron, GA , …

American Pistachio Growers (APG), armed with voluminous data that pistachios are packed with a multitude of benefits for active bodies and minds, is inaugurating a new 2021-22 Facebook Live Series — Friday Fuel-Up with Dr. Mike Roussell — to engage some of the most energetic and interesting people in the world with the question, What fuels you? The monthly series, …

Today, American Farmland Trust, the organization that for 40 years has been saving the land that sustains us and advancing the principles of regenerative agriculture shares an updated AFT’s Retrospective Soil Health Economic Calculator (R-SHEC) Tool, providing farmers and the conservation community a means of evaluating the return on investment (ROI) of soil health conservation practices with 2020 price and …

Almond Board of California — The California Almond Objective Measurement Report, published Monday by the United States Department of Agriculture-National Agricultural Statistics Service (USDA-NASS), estimates that the 2021 crop will come in at 2.8 billion meat pounds, 10 percent below last year’s record of 3.1 billion pounds. (Editor’s Note: The steep decline in production this year comes as a big surprise with …

On June 29, Nisei Farmers League, along with other agricultural organizations, held an in-person demonstration pilot project at a vineyard in Madera County to display alternatives to agricultural burning. The project is looking for cost-effective solutions to orchard and vineyard removals due to most agricultural burning being phased out by December 31, 2024, as passed earlier this year by the …

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) have found that a component in almond nectar and pollen can reduce honey bee viruses and gut parasites, which are some of the leading threats to bee health and colonies. The study, published in the journal Insects, showed amygdalin – a naturally-occurring chemical compound found in the nectar …