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8 CapitalPress.com April 24,2015 California Subscribe to our weekly California email newsletter at CapitalPress.com/newsletters Farm Bureau chief assails ag water 'misinformation' ByTIMHEARDEN Capital Press SACRAMENTO The leader of California's larg- est farmers' organization assailed as "misinforma- tion" the oft-repeated no- tion that growers use 80 percent of the state's water and urged leaders to do a better job at planning for droughts. California Farm Bureau Federation president Paul Wenger said only about 40 percent of the state's over- all water supply is used for food production in a given year while about half is kept in-stream or sent to refuges to benefit the environment. He said the state's reser- voirs were full in 2012 but water was released to make room for storms that never came, and that too much wa- ter from subsequent storms has been left to flow into the ocean rather than being used to ease the drought's impacts. "This is real, and we're all to blame for it," Wenger said during a water forum at the Crest Theater in Sac- ramento, which was spon- 4 ^5 .-:**" ,.-. •^s3&... ^-^JfrtpW-s: i Tim Hearden/Capital Press Paul Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation, speaks at a dinner in Red Bluff, Calif., in late 2012. He said during a water forum April 9 in Sacramento that California should be better at using and storing rainwater. sored by the Association of California Water Agencies. "We are fallowing fields," said Wenger, a Modesto, Calif., almond and walnut grower. "We are tak- ing out 10 percent of our or- chards to have enough water for our other orchards. But I have the privilege of paying taxes on my whole proper- ty as if it was producing ... How would you like to live in only one room in your house but have to pay on the whole house?" Wenger was one of more than a dozen officials and water experts to speak at the forum, which was streamed online. State water agency leaders again defended Gov. Jerry Brown's April 1 exec- utive order, which required cities to reduce their water use by 25 percent but im- posed no new restrictions on farms. Felicia Marcus, chair- woman of the State Water Resources Control Board, said urban infrastructure and storage have become so effective that "people don't know where their water comes from. "They're hundreds of miles away from the pain that's felt" in the form of fallowed fields and people standing in line to shower at community centers in rural areas where wells have run dry, Marcus said. "I've lived in countries where you only have wa- ter for two hours a day a few days a week," she said. "That is inconvenience. Turning your sprinklers off is not." State climatologist Mi- chael Anderson said Cali- fornia has been in a 15-year warming trend that has led to the worst April 1 snow- pack on record. He said it will take big storms in the high-precipitation months of December, January and February for the state to emerge from the drought. "It's not going to be one storm that gets you out of this," Anderson said. "It's going to be a whole wa- ter year with consistently above average rainfall as well as snowpack." The amount of water used by agriculture has been a source of debate in recent months, as some media out- lets have repeated environ- mental groups' claim that farms use 80 percent of Cal- ifornia's water while gener- ating only 2 percent of its economic activity. According to the state water board, an annual av- erage of 8.9 million acre- feet, or 20 percent, of water diverted from streams from 1998 to 2010 went to urban uses while an average of 34 million acre-feet a year, or 77 percent, was used by agriculture. Another 1.5 million acre-feet, or 3.5 percent, went to managed wetlands, agency spokes- man Tim Moran told the Capital Press last summer. But farm groups such as California Citrus Mutual argue the totals don't take into account that a majority of the 200 million acre-feet of water supply from rain and snow in an average year remains undeveloped. A 25 percent reduction in envi- ronmental water use could save as much as 9.85 mil- lion acre-feet in one year, Citrus Mutual officials stat- ed recently. Wenger told the 300 gathered at the water fo- rum and an estimated 1,000 watching online that a De- partment of Water Resourc- es study done during the drought in the late 1980s and early '90s found that agriculture used 31 percent of the state's surface water. "It's interesting when misinformation gets out there ... and after it's re- peated six or so times, it be- comes fact," he said. Wenger recalled a state- ment by a British Parlia- ment member during a transportation strike that civilization "is nine meals away from anarchy," and said California farm exports that have become a target for environmental groups feed the world. "It's very interesting to have folks say we shouldn't be exporting food to other parts of the world," Wenger said. "Maybe we shouldn't be importing manufactured goods from other parts of the world ... We import far more water (used in produc- tion of goods) from other parts of the world than we export." Superior Farms' lamb sliders a hit at ballpark Grape acreage remains steady, survey finds ByTIMHEARDEN Capital Press DIXON, Calif. — The na- tion's largest processor of lamb is taking its message and its meat — out to the ballgame. The Dixon-based Superior Farms' meat will be offered a third season in sandwiches at AT&T Park, where the San Francisco Giants play their home games. And this year, lamb sliders from Superior will be featured at Raley Field, the home of the minor-league Sacramento River Cats. The company's lamb got in the lineup in San Francisco after the business received a tip from the California Sheep Commission about tastings the Major League Baseball team was hosting with vari- ous locally produced foods, said Angela Gentry, Superior Farms' marketing director. "As they knew our goals were to get lamb into more casual concepts, it seemed like a good fit, and we did a year of tasting at the park," Gentry said in an email. "We were pulled in as a vendor af- ter positive feedback from the tastings." Superior also has adver- tisements at the ballpark to help build awareness of its lamb in the greater San Fran- cisco Bay area, and is highly active on social media, Gentry said. The popularity of the meat in San Francisco has led to it being offered this year by the Giants' Class AAA affiliate, the River Cats. Andrew Guer- ere, an executive chef for the ByTIMHEARDEN Capital Press v* s Courtesy of Superior Farms Lamb from Dixon, Calif.-based Superior Farms is served in a sandwich at AT&T Park during a San Francisco Giants game. The farm's meat is also served in sliders at minor-league Raley Field in Sacramento. River Cats' food concession- aire, Ovations, uses the meat in "Euro" slider sandwich- es featuring crumbled goat cheese, cucumber and carrot slaw finished with tzatziki sauce. The slider is currently served in the suite level at the team's ballpark in West Sacra- mento. "The River Cats brought it to us because Superior Farms was interested in be- ing a sponsor at Raley Field," said Sierra Beshears, general manager of Ovations at Raley Field. "We tried it and thought it was delicious. It was some- thing we thought we could add to the menu, so we did." The lamb meat is among several local food items fea- tured at Raley Field, which also has scones from a lo- cal bakery and wines from a couple of local wineries, Beshears said. "We really try to do a lot of farm-to-fork stuff, but it's hard for local farms to pro- vide what we need because we have so much volume," she said. The 51-year-old Superior Farms employs more than 400 people in California and Colo- rado and its plant supports lo- cal ranchers and 4-H and FFA students, spokeswoman Ginny Hair has said. Last year, Su- perior broke ground on a new m • - • • WEblERN 50,000-square-foot processing plant to replace an existing one that was built in the 1920s and acquired when the company opened its California plant in 1981. The ballpark push is part of Superior's effort to pres- ent American lamb as a casu- al weekday meal instead of a food that's only served at hol- idays, company officials said. The lamb meat was a hit with fans at tastings, Beshears said. "People loved them," she said. "They thought it was leaner than beef." Over the course of the baseball season, which runs until September, Superior Farms will promote local lamb through a variety of events at Raley Field, Gentry said. "We know that people care about where their food comes from and we're excited to introduce ourselves to River Cats fans," she said. SACRAMENTO Vine- yard acreage remained steady in California in 2014 despite drought conditions that affected yields, according to a govern- ment survey. In all, 928,000 acres of grapes were in the ground statewide last year, a less-than 1 percent drop from the 933,000 acres that were planted in 2013, ac- cording to the National Agri- cultural Statistics Service. However, at least 27,000 acres of vineyards have been taken out in the past year, much of which was harvested before it was pulled, accord- ing to a survey of about 8,000 growers. Wine grapes amounted for about two-thirds of planted grapes in the state, totaling 615,000 acres to 121,000 acres of table grapes and 192,000 acres of raisin-type grapes, ac- cording to the NASS survey. Wine producers saw a 12 percent drop in tonnage in 2014 as lack of water affected yields, but vintners said lower yields per acre made for higher quality grapes with more flavor. It's too soon to know what will happen with this year's crop, said Gladys Horiuchi, spokeswoman for the San Francisco-based Wine Insti- tute. "I think this year will be pretty telling as to what may happen if the drought contin- ues," Horiuchi said recently. "We just can't crystal ball. I've known to see the rains come later in the season in past years. It's not over until it's over." Growers are preparing for the coming season by irrigating, fertilizing, applying downy mil- dew controls and adding sulfur H..'.~- Tim Hearden/Capital Press Grapes are displayed in a bin at a farmers' market in Davis, Ca- lif. Grape acreage in California declined only slightly in 2014, according to a report from the National Agricultural Statistics Service. treatments to their grapevines where rain recently occurred, NASS reported. According to the acreage survey, the leading wine-type varieties continued to be Char- donnay and Cabernet Sauvi- gnon, with Flame Seedless the leading raisin-type variety. The data were compiled af- ter NASS sent questionnaires to growers and followed up with phone interviews. Field repre- sentatives visited some large growers that did not respond by mail, and officials also consult- ed pesticide application data to arrive at the estimated acreage. For the acreage summary as well as detailed data by variety, visit http://www.nass.usda.gov/ Statistics_by_State/Califor- nia/Publications/Fruits_and_ Nuts/2O15O3grpac.pdf. \ ' ; V/#( '. 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