This is a continuously updated post to follow up on our previous post, Unusually High Exotic Fruit Fly Season in California Jump to Resources Jump to Impacted Crops If you encounter an Exotic Fruit Fly: Call the CDFA Exotic Pest Hotline at 1 (800) 491-1899. Do not collect the specimen yourself. Rather, contact your local ag commissioners office, they will collect the sample and…
By now, you have probably heard about the Sustainable Pest Management (SPM) Roadmap, but in case you’ve been busy, here is a recap: The SPM roadmap was released in January 2023 and lays out a framework to eliminate and/or significantly reduce the use of pesticides in California by 2050 and extends ongoing efforts to decrease pesticide use throughout the state. The roadmap leverages a…
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) will host regular exotic fruit fly updates to keep industry stakeholders informed on the dynamic Exotic Fruit Fly season. Virtual meetings will continue weekly for the remainder of the year, taking place on Fridays from 3 p.m. – 4 p.m. PDT. These are not media briefings but opportunities to answer questions from industry and impacted…
California is experiencing an unusually high population of exotic fruit flies this season. Due to these unique circumstances, Western Growers has created a centralized web page to provide growers with updates on this continuously evolving situation for all exotic fruit flies with active quarantines in California. This web page was developed in collaboration with CDFA, and it describes ongoing…
This is a developing issue. Please check back regularly for more updates or follow here. If you have questions about a fruit fly quarantine/eradication, or if you think you have fruits and vegetables infested with fruit fly larvae, call the CDFA Exotic Pest Hotline at 1 (800) 491-1899. November 6, 2023, Update: The Oriental Fruit Fly Quarantine Boundary has been expanded in San…
California is experiencing an unusually high population of exotic fruit flies this season. The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has issued local quarantine and eradication measures to prevent statewide spread of the Tau Fly and the Oriental Fruit Fly. From the CDFA website, “Exotic fruit flies are of concern to the agriculture industry in California. The larval…
For anyone who desires such an impossible task, irrigated agriculture will readily bestow the challenge of farming in an increasingly hotter, drier landscape, with the stipulation of decreasing water and crop inputs for the foreseeable future. Despite this impossibility, our growers continue to build healthy soils and pioneer innovative solutions, while providing safe, affordable and nutritious…
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently proposed its Vulnerable Species Pilot Project (VSPP) and Western Growers, through its association with the Minor Crop Farmer Alliance (MCFA) and the Pesticide Policy Coalition, has made comments to the EPA to address issues related to the Pilot Project. The Pilot Project identifies 27 species throughout the U.S. that the EPA has identified as…
This past week, Western Growers hosted a webinar highlighting two USDA Climate Smart Farming Grant awardees and invited CDFA to talk about California Climate-Smart Framing initiatives and other grower resources. USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, or Climate Smart Farming Grants, provide funding for partners to implement large-scale pilot projects that create market…