CLFP Insider

A shift has taken place with the state's pistachio plantings: New acreage has been popping up in the Sacramento Valley counties of Yolo, Sacramento, Solano and Colusa—hundreds of miles north of the main growing area in the southern San Joaquin Valley.

The University of California, Davis, has been awarded $20 million as part of a multi-institutional collaboration to establish an institute focused on enabling the next-generation food system through the integration of artificial intelligence, or AI, technologies. The award is part of a larger investment announced by the National Science Foundation, or NSF, in partnership with several federal agencies — distributing a total of $140 million to fund seven complementary AI research institutes across the nation.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has announced that the counties of Kings, Riverside and Tulare will participate in Housing for the Harvest, a program announced by Governor Gavin Newsom in July to provide temporary hotel housing options for farm and food processing employees to self-isolate if they are COVID-19 positive and do not require hospitalization, or have been exposed and cannot properly self-isolate at home. Six counties are now participating in Housing for the Harvest: Kings, Riverside, Tulare, Santa Barbara, Fresno and San Joaquin.

The 2019-2020 California Legislative Session adjourned at midnight on August 31. CLFP was successful in helping to stop some of the bills it opposed from passing in the final days and hours, while others made it out of the Legislature and are on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk. Veto request letters have been sent on all CLFP opposed bills that moved out of the Legislature. Governor Gavin Newsom has until September 30 to sign or veto these bills.