TULARE, CA -- Educational seminars at the World AG Expo, the world's largest annual agricultural equipment show, are not always well attended, presumably because the show's 100,000 attendees are too busy looking at the 1,600 exhibits and buying equipment they need for their operations. But when A.G. Kawamura, secretary of the California Department Food & Agriculture, stepped to the podium on the opening day Feb. 10 for a seminar, he found himself facing a packed house of farmers who were clearly concerned about the many issues threatening the future of California agriculture. Mr. Kawamura

FRESNO, CA -- Growers in western Fresno and Kings counties in California's San Joaquin Valley who have been relying on water from the federal Central Valley Project have been warned to expect a zero water allocation this year. As a result, more than 330,000 acres of land that would normally be in production will not be planted this year. While a few growers on the famous and fertile West Side of the valley have access to well water, the Westlands Water District, which gets all of its water from the Central Valley Project and which has historically provided water for some 660,000 acres of West

VENTURA, CA -- "2008 was another billion-dollar year for Sunkist, the 11th in the past two decades -- which includes four freeze years," Sunkist President and Chief Executive Officer Russ Hanlin was quoted in a Feb. 18 company press release as saying to the more than 500 growers attending Sunkist Growers' 115th annual meeting at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. "In 2008 our total revenues were up 8 percent over 2007, and at $839 million, payments were up 5 percent." Because 2007 was a freeze year, Mr. Hanlin noted that these figures topped the pre-freeze three-year average by 4 percent. The

Gordon Hunt had been in South Vietnam for eight months. Troops were to receive a rest-and-relaxation break every six months. But war being what war is, Mr. Hunt's chance to break had not yet arrived. It was 1968, and Mr. Hunt, who today is director of marketing for the National Watermelon Promotion Board in Orlando, FL, finally received word that a handful of slots had opened up. "You usually got to choose [a site for R&R]," he said, but based in Quang Tri, "we'd been in the mountains in a monsoon for a month. It was nasty." Finally, there was a break in the clouds and a helicopter arrived to

SALINAS, CA -- Colorful Harvest LLC has gained visibility in recent years with items such as multi-colored carrots, red corn, multi-colored cauliflower, seasonal green beans, melons and strawberries. The company, based here, increasingly is becoming a major player on the bushberry scene with its strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries as well as year-round offerings of both conventional and organic berries, according to Chief Operating Officer Doug Ranno. As such, Colorful Harvest has taken a step toward increased visibility by becoming the lead sponsor of the opening ceremony

The San Francisco Wholesale Produce Market has kicked off a new phase of its comprehensive waste management program, according to Michael Janis, general manager of the market. "The goal is to decrease what goes to the landfill," he said. "We're aligning our merchants with the city's waste management." The program separates waste targeted for composting, recycling and trash. San Francisco-based Sunset Scavenger Co. picks up green waste such as food scraps and other compostable material and delivers it to Jepson Prairie Organics' compost facility near Vacaville, CA. Jepson's composting program