By Elizabeth Tate Bennett, Agriculture Advisor to the Administrator, Associate Administrator for Public Engagement and Environmental Education

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Did you know that more food reaches landfills and combustion facilities than any other material in everyday trash? It totals over 75 billion pounds and constitutes 22% of discarded municipal solid waste, [i] and landfills are the third largest source of human-related methane emissions in the United States. [ii] Across the globe, food loss and waste have a combined carbon footprint of 4.4 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent according to the United Nations (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization. [iii] Further, the water footprint of global food loss and waste is three times the volume of Lake Geneva, and the production of uneaten food occupies close to 30% of the world’s agricultural land area. [iv] Food waste not only impacts landfill space and environment, it hurts our economy—the dollar value of food loss for retailers and consumers each year is estimated to be over $161 billion. [v] This tremendous amount of food waste also represents missed opportunities to address food insecurity—both domestically and globally. To summarize, global food waste and loss clearly represent missed opportunities for our environment, pocketbooks and food security. Readers might now be pondering the question: So,what is our federal government in the U.S. doing to address this?

 

A lesser-known fact (as it isn’t often covered by the media, unfortunately) is that the Trump Administration, with U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Purdue, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Acting Commissioner Frank Yiannas, launched the Winning on Reducing Food Waste Initiative in October 2018. The initiative streamlines and accelerates our nation’s efforts to meet the UN 12.3 goal to reduce food loss and waste by 50% by the year 2030. Then in April 2019, the three federal agencies held a summit at EPA which served as a networking opportunity to bring government (including state and local governments) together with the food industry and leading national organizations that specialize is food waste reduction. It was inspiring to see new prospective partners connect and discuss ways they can work together around their shared goals to reduce food waste nationally. To garner national attention on the need to address this issue, EPA and USDA worked with the to the White House in order to successfully designate the month of April 2019 as “ Winning on Reducing Food Waste Month.”

EPA itself offers multiple programs to combat food waste. We worked with USDA to launch the U.S. Food Loss and Waste 2030 Champions group, in which 25 companies have made a public commitment to reduce food loss and waste in their own operations in the U.S. by 50% by the year 2030. The Food Recovery Challenge is another voluntary program in which EPA works with businesses and organizations to set data-driven goals and implement strategies to reduce food waste in their operations. Organizations that help promote the prevention and diversion of food waste by others through education and recruiting challenge participants can also join as an “endorsers.” Examples of past endorsers include cities, state departments of environmental quality and nongovernmental organizations. EPA also has funding opportunities for making a difference in food waste through environmental education and technology innovation. To learn more about all of these efforts, you can visit https://www.epa.gov/sustainable-management-food/.

There are many opportunities at all levels of government to collaborate and work together, share technical expertise, increase coordination, and raise awareness. ReFED, a major U.S. food waste policy organization, as well as environmental organizations, recommend that grassroots outreach, messaging and educational efforts are major tools that federal, state and local governments should use to reduce food waste nationwide. EPA agrees with ReFED’s recommendations and further maintains that federal efforts can only succeed if state and local governments mirror federal initiatives to reduce food waste. To support this concept, EPA recently launched a new state and local government food waste reduction pledge where several entities of state government, including state departments of agriculture, have already pledged to work with EPA to tackle food waste and loss on the state and local level. State and local governments collectively have a greater ability to drive consumer behaviors and reach individual communities and households. Together, the actions of local, state and federal governments can drive food waste reduction in the U.S.

In conclusion, it is EPA’s hope that readers will walk away from this piece with a greater understanding of the need to address food waste and the various opportunities to work alongside EPA and the Trump Administration to address the issue.

Farmers: Use certified pest-free seeds and seedlings. Regularly monitor crops and report pest outbreaks. Strictly follow label guidance and permitting requirements when applying pest controls. Adopt environmentally friendly practices like biological controls including beneficial insects & organisms.

Transportation/Trade Sectors: Get it right before it ships. Implement phytosanitary practices that ensure shipments of plants and plant materials are free from pests and diseases before they enter domestic, or international commerce.

Private Sector & Academia: Invest in research and development to improve phytosanitary practices.

Local, State & Federal Government: Focus on preventing pest outbreaks and facilitating safe trade. Promote environmentally friendly pest management practices. Provide adequate human capital and financial resources for research and development, trade facilitation including phytosanitary inspections and education and promotion of practices ensuring safe trade.

USDA-APHIS’ Plant Protection and Quarantine (PPQ) has invited their many partners, cooperators, and stakeholders to come together and create a common vision about how we will collaborate in the coming years to better safeguard agriculture and facilitate safe agricultural trade. Also, PPQ, with assistance from the North American Plant Protection Organization, has decided to convene a large-scale conference on plant health safeguarding and safe trade in the summer of 2020. Santa Barbara Agricultural Commissioner & Sealer of Weights and Measures, Cathy Fisher and Tim Cansler, Federal Advocate will represent the California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association in this initiative.

To learn more and how you can get involved, go to:  https://www.ippc.int/en/iyph/

Congressional Appropriations Process Maintains Funding for Important Pest and Disease Programs

The House and Senate have passed a continuing resolution (CR) that would fund federal government departments and agencies through November 21 at the FY 2019 level. Even amidst the heightened political climate in Washington, the appropriations process is continuing to make progress. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed ten of the total 12 annual appropriations bills, with funding for the Department of Homeland Security and Legislative Branch remaining. The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee has adopted all but one of the annual appropriations bills, Military Construction. 

Despite the progress Congress appears to be heading toward a year-long CR for FY 2020. If this occurs the impact on funding for important pest and disease programs for specialty crops should be limited. The funding level for FY 2020 Specialty Crops in USDA-APHIS budget will remain at a total $186 million. 

Also of note, the general provisions in the FY 2019 and 2020 Agriculture Appropriations bills provided an additional $8.5 million for citrus greening that should continue into FY 2020. $16.5 million for USDA-AMS to implement the 2018 Farm Bill provisions for industrial hemp was included in the CR sent to The President on September 26. Wildlife Services Damage Management account will remain at $108 million.  

US House Committee on Natural Resources Holds Hearing on Legislation to Eradicate and Control Nutria

(The former) "Nellie" Nutria (picture on right) made her appearance on Capitol Hill on September 24 ^th before the US House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources thanks to Congressman Josh Harder (D-CA) who is a lead sponsor of legislation, H.R. 3399, that would help mitigate the environmental impacts in California of this invasive species. Other members of the California congressional delegation supporting the legislation include; Congresswoman Barbara Lee, a member of the House Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee. Congressman John Garamendi, Chairman of the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Jim Costa and Congressman TJ Cox.

According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, since implementing the Nutria Eradication Incident Command System (ICS) in California in March 2018, full and/or rapid assessments have been conducted on over 545,000 acres in California. Nutria have been confirmed within 177 sites and 720 have been taken or accounted for.

During the hearing Congressman Harder emphasized how prolific nutria are and the necessity for Congress to quickly act. Harder said, "The California Department of Fish and wildlife has warned that if we don’t take action immediately there will be 250,000 nutria in California within five years."

H.R. 3399 reauthorizes & amends the Nutria Eradication and Control Act and provides California with $7 million annually through FY 2025 to mitigate the proliferation of nutria and damages caused by nutria. Like the successful nutria eradication and control program in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, federal funding will be provided to the Department of Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service who enters into inter-agency cooperative agreements with USDA’s Wildlife Services program.

The California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association (CACASA) supports H.R. 3399. On July 29, CACASA forwarded a letter of support to the US House delegations from impacted states including California, Maryland and Louisiana.

To watch Congressman Harder's testimony before the Committee go to: https://naturalresources.house.gov/hearings/wow-legislative-hearing- Congressman Harder begins testimony on the video at 20:09.

Legislation Supporting Staffing in the Office of Field Operations of US Custom and Border Protection Introduced in U.S. House

On September 24, Congressman Filemon Vela (D-TX) was joined by the Chairman of the US House Committee on Agriculture Collin Peterson (D-MN), Chairman of the Agriculture Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture Jim Costa (D-CA), Congresswoman Cynthia Axne (IA), Congressman Salud Carbajal (D-CA) and Congressman Vincente Gonzalez (D-TX) in introducing H.R. 4482 that would increase the number of CBP Agriculture Specialists and support staff in the Office of Field Operations of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

The legislation has been referred to the US House Committees on Agriculture and Homeland Security. HR 4482 will be the companion legislation to S. 2107, the Protecting America’s Food & Agriculture Act of 2019. S 2107 is awaiting a vote on the floor of the US Senate. The California Agricultural Commissioners and Sealers Association support passage pf S. 2107. 

S 2107 and HR 4482 would help CBP continue building upon its successes in maintaining adequate levels of pest detection and surveillance activities at U.S. ports of entry. It authorizes the annual hiring of 240 Agricultural Specialists a year until the workforce shortage is filled, and 200 Agricultural Technicians a year to carry out administrative and support functions. The bill also authorizes the training and assignment of 20 new canine teams a year. For many years canine teams have proven their effectiveness in detecting agriculture materials, fruits, vegetables and animal products in countless inspections.

By Lisa Selner, Wildlife Biologist, USDA APHIS Wildlife Services

Nutria ( Myocaster copyus) continue to persist throughout California’s Central Valley along wetlands and freshwater habitats. Native to South America, nutria are invasive mammals that have flourished over many parts of the country. Originally introduced to the United States in the 1800s for the fur trade, thousands of nutria were released by ranchers when the fur trade collapsed in the 1940s.

Nutria were originally discovered in California’s Central Valley and South Coast in the 1940s but were eradicated from the state by the 1970s. They weren’t seen in California since then until 2017, when a reproducing population was discovered in the San Joaquin Valley. Now two years into an eradication effort led by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), nutria are being stopped in their tracks. State and federal agencies, as well as county officials and private property owners, have been working closely with CDFW to aid with these efforts. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services (WS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and California Department of Food and Agriculture are a few of those collaborating entities. This combined effort has led to the removal of over 700 nutria from Merced, San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Mariposa, Fresno and Tuolumne Counties.

In abundance, nutria are capable of causing harm to wetland ecosystems, sensitive flora and fauna, and the native wildlife, including muskrats and waterfowl. Nutria, using their beaver-sized incisors, feed on wetland vegetation that extends above the waterline and use their powerful forefeet to dig under the surface and feed directly on the root mat. This leaves the habitat pitted with holes and deep swim canals, which can eventually lead to erosion. The burrowing habits can cause problems for manmade structures as well, with common issues such as the breeching of water-retention and flood control levees and weakening of structural foundations. While nutria favor bulrush and cattail grasses, they will also consume crops, lawn grasses, and ornamentals adjacent to aquatic habitats. This puts agricultural irrigation systems at risk from nutria burrowing and provides a pathway for the contamination of drinking water with parasites and diseases transmissible to humans, livestock and pets. Signs of their presence typically include cut, emergent vegetation with only the base portions eaten and the stems left floating.

Often confused with native beavers and muskrats, nutria can be distinguished by their round, sparsely haired tails and white whiskers. Designed for aquatic life, nutria have partially webbed hind feet and eyes, nostrils, and ears located high on their heads. Their large front teeth are visible and yellow to orange in color. An adult nutria is about a third of the size of an adult beaver, and over five times the size of a muskrat. With a high reproductive capability, once introduced, populations can increase rapidly. Females are reproductive by six months of age and can breed year-round, producing up to three litters a year in warmer climates. CDFW has a Nutria Identification Handout available for use by the public that can be found online at https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHandler.ashx?DocumentID=154118&inline.

Assistance from local landowners and the public throughout the Central Valley continues to be critical to successfully determining all population locations. Reports can be made online to https://www.wildlife.ca.gov/Conservation/Invasives/Report, by email to Invasives@wildlife.ca.gov, or by calling (866) 440-9530. Observations on State or Federal lands can be reported to agency staff. Photographs and detailed locations are requested to help verify sightings. If nutria are captured, do not release! Contact your local CDFW office or WS staff.