The American Farm Bureau Federation’s 34th annual survey of classic items found on the Thanksgiving Day dinner table indicates the average cost of this year’s feast for 10 is $48.91, or less than $5.00 per person. This is a 1-cent increase from last year’s average of $48.90. The centerpiece on most Thanksgiving tables – the turkey – costs slightly less …

A quarantine has been declared following the detection of the citrus disease Huanglongbing (HLB), or citrus greening, in a single citrus tree in an unincorporated area of San Bernardino County, near Montclair. This is the first time the plant disease has been detected in San Bernardino County. CDFA is working with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the …

Western Growers is pleased to announce that Ryan Talley, co-owner and farm manager of Talley Farms, will assume the role of Chairman of the Board of Directors. Talley, who has been committed to agriculture for more than three decades, will serve as chairman for a one-year term, taking over the responsibilities of outgoing chairman, Ron Ratto, president of Ratto Bros., …

The world comes to California for prunes, and so does energy bar innovator, Fourpoints®. Denver-based Fourpoints is the first-and-only energy bar to feature California Prunes as the star ingredient. “The energy bar category is crowded and full of the same old date based and syrup-based bars,” said Kevin Webber, co-founder of Fourpoints. “You have to have a one-of-a-kind product to …

If you’re eating fruits, nuts, grains, or vegetables in a few years, you’ll likely owe a debt of gratitude to UC Riverside. The university has created a program to transition today’s undergraduates into professional scientists solving tomorrow’s farming challenges. The program, called Plants-3D, will train students to discover, design, and deploy biology and engineering solutions to the projected problem of …

A new research project which will investigate the occurrence and distribution of olive anthracnose in California has been added to the list of approved projects for the Olive Oil Council of California’s 2019/2020 fiscal year. This project will be led by Florent Trouillas, Assistant Cooperative Extension Specialist, Department of Plant Pathology, UC Davis, Kearney Agriculture Research and Extension Center. The …

Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists, in cooperation with Pacific Biosciences and Penn State University, have published the first genome of the invasive Spotted Lanternfly (SLF) in the journal Gigascience and they did it from a single caught-in-the-wild specimen. Not only is it the first published genome for this pest, but no closely related species has had its genome sequenced, making the data even more important, …

The Western Growers Board of Directors has unanimously selected Dave Puglia as the organization’s next President and Chief Executive Officer. Puglia will succeed current President and CEO Tom Nassif, who is retiring after 18 years as a forceful and effective leader in the nation’s agriculture industry, on February 1, 2020. “Fifteen years ago, Dave came to Western Growers with an …

I have worked in agriculture for over thirty years. At the age of fifteen, I worked loading produce during the harvest season at the Pompano farmers market in South Florida. I went on to veterinary school and after graduation, I worked as a large animal vet in North Central Florida for 30 years. For the last six and a half …

AgSafe (agsafe.org), a leading provider of health and safety education to the agricultural community, has announced that President & CEO Amy Wolfe will be leaving the organization and that a search for her replacement is underway. Wolfe, who has led the organization for more than a decade, will vacate her position in June 2020. “Amy has been a remarkable leader, …