Secretary Karen Ross Transcript
Kerry Diamond:
Hi, everyone. You are listening to Radio Cherry Bombe and I'm your host, Kerry Diamond. I'm the founder and editor of Cherry Bombe Magazine and each week I talk to the most interesting women in and around the world of food. Today's guest is Karen Ross, Secretary of California's Department of Food and Agriculture. Secretary Ross has a major job to say the least. More than 50% of America's produce comes from California, including one-third of this country's vegetables, two-thirds of the country's fruits and nuts, even 80% of the country's wine. I spoke to Secretary Ross in her office at CFDA headquarters in Sacramento, the capital of California, earlier this spring. At the time of our interview, certain parts of the state were dealing with catastrophic weather, deadly flooding, record snowfall, and avian flu, situations that greatly impact the agricultural communities.
But at the same time, citrus season was booming. Flowers were in bloom all around us, and the farmer's markets were overflowing with beautiful produce. California is nothing if not resilient. Secretary Ross and I talked about her life and career, how female farmers and farm workers are faring climate change, of course, and more. I was in Sacramento for a special program with California Grown, the marketing organization that promotes the state's incredible produce and it connects folks in California and beyond with the people who grow their food.
On International Women's Day, I moderated a panel with incredible farmers, including Krissy Scommegna of Boonville Barn Collective, known for their amazing peppers and spices. And Amber Balakian, a fourth generation farmer and co-owner of Balakian Farms and they are known for their tomatoes. Every time I visit California, I make a point of going to a local farmer's market. I especially love the Santa Monica Farmer's Market in Los Angeles and even leave room in my suitcase to bring back citrus, dates, nuts, dried fruit, you name it. Yes, it makes for a heavy suitcase, but it's worth it. I'm actually in Los Angeles right now for our event with Square tonight. I hope to see some of you there. So you might see me in Santa Monica later this week.
California's bounty is truly incredible and I so appreciated getting to know more about the people behind the produce. I hope you enjoy my interview with Secretary Ross and the next time you enjoy something from California, be it a goat cheese, almond milk, the avocados we all love, or even a glass of sparkling wine, give some thought to the people and all the hard work and ingenuity behind it. Thank you to California Grown for their support. To learn more about California Grown and for the California Department of Food and Agriculture blog, check out the links in our show notes.
Now let's chat with Secretary Ross. We're thrilled to be out here in your beautiful state eating all your beautiful produce and getting to talk to you. All right, let's jump right in. So you were born in western Nebraska to a farming family. What kind of farm was it?
Secretary Karen Ross:
So it's a farm in the middle of nowhere. We can see Wyoming from our farm in western Nebraska and it is a dry land. Some people call it rain-fed agriculture, but you have to have rain to be, so it's dry land farming. It's not irrigated, so you really are dependent upon the weather patterns. We have wheat and feed grains. That farm has evolved over the years. My brother has been the fourth generation. We just celebrated 102 years of the Barrett family operating that farm. And then he's gotten into cover crop bang, no-till farming so that you're not disturbing the soils, and then rotational grazing for beef production.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, fascinating. What was your life like on the farm as a child? Were you expected to pitch in?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Oh yeah. So first of all, I'm bossy by nature. I'm the oldest and I'm the only girl. I have three younger brothers and when we were growing up...
Kerry Diamond:
Did you say bossy by nature?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Yeah, by nature. And growing up there was always work to do. We always had a hired man in the bunk house scene, helping to cook and do the dishes and then garden and chase cattle and all those kinds of things. My mom became ill and died when I was a freshman. And so then I took over all the cooking chores and still farming, doing summer fallow is what we call a production of farming and chasing cattle. And we all had four H projects. I had livestock as well as other kinds of four H projects.
Kerry Diamond:
You were so young to lose your mom and to have three younger siblings, how did that impact you?
Secretary Karen Ross:
It does have an impact and it was in many ways it made me closer to my dad and I realized how lucky I was to have the dad that I had because he was very strong. He was adamant that you can do anything. He was a positive thinker. He read all those books. We had little notes taped to the mirror. You can grow up to be anything you want. And I just had a very strong father.
Kerry Diamond:
And you did grow up to be something major. It must have made it even harder to leave.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Well, this is what's up to say. I thought there's no way they could live without me. So my dad insisted I was going to go to college. My room was on the ninth floor and he hauled up everything. And once I met my roommate from college, he was from the island of Moloka'i of all places. He was pretty sure he was going to stay. And then of course once I left, they could survive without me. That it was leaving agriculture when I really discovered what agriculture really meant to me, what your lifestyle is, the values, the hard work, all of those things. And I'm lucky I got into ag policy and that was the right match for me.
Kerry Diamond:
I do have one more follow up question from when you were younger, you said chasing cattle, that was not something I did growing up in Staten Island. What does that mean exactly, chasing cattle?
Secretary Karen Ross:
It's like you're always having to move cattle and especially now the way my brother does our farm, it's rotational, so it's every 30 days so that those pepper crops and the grasses can come back. That would be like the whole family. Everybody would be out moving them from one pasture to the next. My dad did do horseback riding at that time, but mostly it was on a little Hondas and everybody out just making sure the cattle didn't go crazy or get spooked and get from one gate out, and this gate in.
Kerry Diamond:
Now, you go to college, you did not study ag. What did you study and why?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Well, originally drama.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, drama.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
I thought I read English.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Yeah, well I ended up in English. That's a long story. I did business, was in college for two years, went off and did some other things and then when I started working for the United States Senator in one of his field offices, I put myself through school at the University of Nebraska, seven and a half years of night school. Because I was working full time and that's where I went through journalism, philosophy, and ended on English.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, good. Well, I was an English major. Love an English major. Why were you searching so much? Did it just take you a long time to find what your real calling was?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Yeah, I was working full time. I was single, trying to figure out what could I do, and all this stuff about follow your passion and trying to figure that out and yet the more I worked for the Senator and did the policy and some of the politics of course, and just how can we move the needle and support this fabulous industry. Then I got into ag leadership and that kind of cemented where I was going to spend the rest of my career.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay, and ag leadership in Nebraska?
Secretary Karen Ross:
In Nebraska.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. How did you wind up in California?
Secretary Karen Ross:
My husband.
Kerry Diamond:
Your husband.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Yeah, he was from Nebraska, he moved there to Washington D.C. He had grown up in Tennessee. And he came in one day, I just taken a leave of absence to do a campaign for my friend Bob Carey, and he said, I got the job I always wanted in California and I went, "Great." He left and I turned to him and said, "Do they have agriculture in California?" And then honestly, foreign policy and Congress is really very centralized around the commodity title and those kinds of crops.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell folks what some of those are.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Yeah, well, we grow soybeans, tobacco at the time was in the title, cotton, rice. Really there has always been this lack of understanding of the west and western agriculture and the beauty and the bounty and the scale of what we do at California.
Kerry Diamond:
That is so shocking to me given how much California grows for the rest of the country, how could that be?
Secretary Karen Ross:
It's something that's easy to take for granted. We were rarely mentioned in the Farm Bill, we now are, but as people have become more accustomed to more availability of having fresh year round, however that gets sourced because not all of it's going to come from California. We've had those opportunities. We're also the nation's largest milk producer still.
Kerry Diamond:
You amazingly have been Secretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture since 2011. You're first appointed by Governor Brown then again in 2019 by Governor Newsom. So curious, what does your job entail?
Secretary Karen Ross:
A lot of meetings.
Kerry Diamond:
Might be easier to say what your job doesn't entail.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Yeah, meeting with a lot of different kinds of people, working on a lot of different kinds of issues, but really looking for ways we can be supportive and be as proactive as possible. So a lot of it is also engaging with my sister agencies because there are many rules, regulations, laws as they pass that are housed at another agency, but they have a direct impact on farming. And being able to bring the agronomic and scientific expertise of my department to help inform early in that process, here's the outcomes we're trying to achieve. Are there similar practical ways of getting there? So a lot of our time is on that.
Especially since Governor Brown with the focus on climate change, which really is the platform for all of our agencies to collaborate. Of course, I'm in my second drought, so that's another way of bringing people together. And then just my passion for shade access, in addition to environmental stewardship had given us new ways to work with sister agencies that we normally wouldn't when it comes to nutrition, food access or farm to school programs. Which the current first partner is passionate about. Just really new opportunities that are trying to stay really engaged with our stakeholders, all those different perspectives and where I can address problems before they become big fragments. That's what I kind of live for.
Kerry Diamond:
I mean, I don't want to say you have a more important job than the other secretaries here in California, but you have an astounding amount of responsibility on your shoulders.
Secretary Karen Ross:
It's a big state. Big beautiful state. It is very bountiful. It is very complex. It's a highly urbanized state.
Kerry Diamond:
The rest of the country's so dependent on your state, whether they know it or not.
Secretary Karen Ross:
I hope they enjoy it.
Kerry Diamond:
What was the most pressing issue when you started?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Oh, my first two and a half years was we were in a very bad budget deficit situation. It had been an ongoing problem for several years and with Governor Brown, he was determined that we were going to get our house in order. And so when I came back from... I had been Chief of Staff at USDA, came back, we established a consortium, we had to make cuts of all kinds of programs and those... You don't want to make it a vaccuum. You want to make sure you're listened to all the perspectives. You make sure that you're focused on what are the core functions we have to do as opposed to all the things that are nice to do. Those are not easy decisions to make, but that's what we did. And in the meantime, we established a rainy day fund. Revenues rebounded and have been in a much different situation this year. Our revenues aren't... They were projected, but we've had one time funds to invest in some really new exciting programs on climate smart agriculture and farm is full.
Kerry Diamond:
Can you give us some statistics about California agriculture? How much of the nation's fruits, nuts, and vegetables come from California?
Secretary Karen Ross:
We are very fortunate that we've been blessed with the natural resources and the Mediterranean climate to grow the crops that we do. So I just want to... Not everybody gets to blast with those kinds of resources. So we produce about two-thirds of the tree nuts, half of the fruits, a third of the vegetables, 20% of the milk. And of California, we're a country, we would be the world's fourth largest wine producer. Well, we are the world's fourth largest wine producer. I used to be in wine, so I know that number at the top of my head.
Kerry Diamond:
We could do a whole second interview just about wine. Those statistics are astounding.
Secretary Karen Ross:
They are. I like to say it's not just what we grow, it's how we grow it. Our state has a very strong environmental ethic. We have had historically ahead of everybody else stronger labor standards. And I'm really proud of just the innovation that our farmers... All farmers have to be innovative. But to do it at the scale that we're doing it with, the resource challenges we have, we just very fortunate to have the university system, cooperative extension, the investments and research that have allowed us to just be as resilient as we are, despite all the disruptions the last couple of years have delivered.
Kerry Diamond:
And the last few weeks, I mean, it's just the weather over the past few weeks.
Secretary Karen Ross:
You've been here to live it, firsthand. You don't like the weather wait five minutes. The good news is it's getting a big portion of our state out of drought. It's not for all parts of the states.
Kerry Diamond:
We will talk about the drought because as someone from New York, I have a lot of questions about what it means exactly. Just to continue on the different agricultural products. Can you tell us the state's top agricultural products, so folks know?
Secretary Karen Ross:
This is from memory, but milk last year, grapes edged out almonds, and that's all grapes. So that includes wine grapes, table grapes, and raisin grapes. Almonds, nursery products. Yeah, but cattle and cows, we're still a big ranching state. Beautiful iconic landscapes when you see those pasture lands. Berries, lettuce, pistachios, rice, tomatoes, processing tomatoes, 95% of the country's processing tomatoes come from here.
Kerry Diamond:
Incredible. So why did grapes edge out almonds? Everyone's obsessed with almond milk these days.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Oh well, almond milk, but almond prices and the inability to ship. We've got windows of time after harvest that we need to ship out inventory and the disruptions in the quarts. We have the sales and people love our products, quality of the products. They like the fact that it's with those high environmental and food safety standards, we couldn't ship it out. And so people went to extraordinary efforts, but that really dropped price on almonds and they're big. So when they have a price drop across all sectors, regardless if you're selling at this point or to this country, that makes a big difference on the total value of that crop pasture.
Kerry Diamond:
I did not put this in here because I was worried you would roll your eyes, but since we're talking almonds. So many times when you bring up almonds, people will say, ugh, but it takes so much water just to grow one almond. And I feel like you've been trying to debunk that myth.
Secretary Karen Ross:
First I want to say it takes water to grow everything and water for life. And so I just have to say that. But I will say that almonds are an efficient water user.
Kerry Diamond:
Efficient.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Efficient. And this was part of the evolution of agriculture. When I moved to the state 30 plus years ago, we were in a drought and people said, you've got to get out of alfalfa and cotton, that uses too much water. You need to grow higher value crops. And that's what we do. So 30 plus years ago we had about one and a half million acres of cotton and maybe 200,000 acres of almonds. And now we have about one and a half million acres of almonds and about 250,000 acres of cotton. And so it's really that shift and what that has done is hardened the water demand.
We can't fallow an almond orchard the way we can seed not to plant alfalfa field or a cotton field. But I will also give great kudos to the almond sector. They're very efficient, they're very strong leaders in micro irrigation technology, subsurface strip sensor technology. They've lowered the amount of water to produce a pound of almond by 33%. And they have set one of their sustainability goals is to reduce the amount of water used for that pound of production by another 25% by the year 2025. A very forward-leaning set of growers that are in almond industry.
Kerry Diamond:
So all the numbers you gave us earlier, the two-thirds of all tree nuts for the country and all the fruits and vegetables and all the top crops you just talked about, what does that represent economically to California?
Secretary Karen Ross:
So our entire farm fake value, meaning that's the cash receipts for just the sale from the farm, no added value. In 2021 was 51.1 billion dollars. That's a big number. Of course that doesn't take into account a lot of costs raised during that time for everything on input. So it doesn't measure profitability, but it just shows the magnitude of what we do and all of that activity that's happening in those rural communities.
Kerry Diamond:
How does that number compare with the previous years? I mean they were pandemic years.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Yeah, the year before that was down. It was right at 49 billion dollars. So it actually increased slightly in 2021. 2022, there's a year's lag of collecting all those numbers.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. Do you know what else I did not include? But we have so many bakers in our audience. Eggs. I just saw the chickens, the eggs. It's a bit of a mess right now.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Well, it's a very sad situation because this disease that has struck so many of the laying hen populations.
Kerry Diamond:
Is it avian flu?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Avian, but avian influenza, highly pathogenic avian influenza. And this one is pretty extensive because it's infected the wild bird population, which makes it very hard to eradicate the disease. And so a lot of birds have been lost and it really affected a lot of the laying hens. Particularly in the Midwest, we are a net importer. At one point we were much larger egg producer than we are, but a lot of that has relocated closer to where the feed sources are.
Kerry Diamond:
So where would that be?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Iowa, Indiana, Illinois. The upper states amongst others. There's been the combination of demand continues to be very strong because that's a low cost protein source for many families. Then you have to have the losses, so many birds. And then of course there's also, it came at the same time that our prep 12, which was a proposition passed by the voters five years ago, that dictated the housing standards for laying hens. And those all have to be certified coming in. That on the natural because of that initial capital investment, also nudges up the price but is also a scarcity and not having enough supply to meet the full demand.
Kerry Diamond:
And that's an evolving story?
Secretary Karen Ross:
It is an evolving story. And those prices will settle down, but it's going to take a while to bring back the populations.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. I would love to know more about women farmers and farm workers in California. The last USDA census of agriculture showed that nearly 30% of American farms are principally operated by women. I was curious, what is the percentage for farms in California?
Secretary Karen Ross:
We have total women reported in farming, 46%, so only about 9% that are vessel, operator, owner, full time. Our workers, 43% are women. And oftentimes in the farm worker community, which will include like at the food processors, those are seasonal jobs and oftentimes there's a lot of farm worker families who the women will do that work that's on the floor of that processing plant or whatever it is. So we have a lot of women and the profile of women has raised in farm.
There was a time where the census that is sent by USDA didn't count women, so that's actually a new data set that we're finally doing. Even though women have always been part of the farming operation, they live the stress just like the farmer does. They cosign the notes of the bank just like the farmer does. But to finally be able to count women and show the career opportunities for women. And as more families have daughters that they have the interest and maybe their brother didn't. For a family of all girls, honestly, there was a time where the culture didn't say that women should do this or be the sole operator and there's still parts of the country, frankly that is still a newer phenomena, but women are walking in and doing the work and showing that we are more than qualified.
Kerry Diamond:
When you say 46%, does that include everyone from farm workers to researchers?
Secretary Karen Ross:
No, that 46% is just about farm operations.
Kerry Diamond:
Got it.
Secretary Karen Ross:
As opposed 43% is the whole workforce, which is much more inclusive, farm worker all the way to those careers we say are ag related.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. What are some of the obstacles facing women in terms of farm ownership?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Well, just like it is for any new and beginning farmer, it's capital intensive to get into farming. If you were foreign into it, land is very hard to secure. It's expensive if you can buy it. And leasing it is great if you have a long-term lease. But especially in a state like California where the land values continue to go up, a landlord can change their mind and you've got it for one or two seasons and then you're out looking for another piece of land to lease. So land access is a big issue and the capital investment that it requires for that equipment, the seed, the fertilizer, establishing yourself if it's going to be farmer market or CSA or whatever your business model's going to be.
Kerry Diamond:
Let's take a quick break and we'll be right back. Speaking of California, Cherry Bomb is participating in Taste of Santa Barbara, the week long culinary celebration taking place May 15th through 21st. We'll be at Mattei’s Tavern in Los Olivos on Saturday, May 20th for a special networking event and wine tasting. Tickets are $100 and include all food and drink, a copy of the new issue of Cherry Bombe Magazine and a copy of the delicious new mystery novel, Mastering the Art of French Murder by Colleen Cambridge. Head to cherrybombe.com or SBC.events for tickets and more information. I'll put those links in our show notes. We would love to see you at Taste of Santa Barbara. Now back to our guest.
What is the state doing to attract more women to farming?
Secretary Karen Ross:
We don't have any specific programs, but part of our Farm Equity Act, California was the first state to pass a Farm Equity Act 1383, and we've really identified what the barriers are, which had to highlight and build up women. They certainly qualify for many of our climate smart ag programs, which are there to support our smallest farmers, our historically underserved farmers that normally would not have access to these programs or know that they're for them, being able to support them with technical assistance, to walk them through how to apply for these programs and do that. We have not yet found the magic way of making land available or the capital part of that. We really rely on programs in the Farm Bill and 2023 is the year for all the fun and games in Washington DC around free authorization of the Farm Bill.
Kerry Diamond:
Has that already begun?
Secretary Karen Ross:
It has a little bit. Yes.
Kerry Diamond:
Will you be spending a lot of time in D.C.?
Secretary Karen Ross:
I don't spend a lot of time in D.C. We did as a state of California, we just issued our Farm Bill set of recommendations last week. We did these in conjunction with our sister agencies, the hundred stakeholder input sessions and public listening sessions. So we had a lot of input to put that letter together.
Kerry Diamond:
I want to talk about farm workers a bit, especially female farm workers. I mean, you know how difficult their lives can be. They're vulnerable to sexual abuse and assault. A large percentage lack access to health insurance and mental healthcare and many are food insecure. Curious what you and the state have done during your tenure to help improve the lives of female farm workers?
Secretary Karen Ross:
One of the troubling aspects about our farm worker population is that there's not one place in the code of food and agriculture where farm workers even mentioned. It's mentioned mostly in the Labor Code and obviously a lot of our social service programs are designed to help meet the needs of farm workers. But I have to say that job number one for all of us is to work on immigration reform and make sure that they have the legal status they've earned and that they deserve. That would improve access to so many more programs including education and other things.
So where we have really tried to be supportive, embarrassing as it is that in the communities that have all this bounty, they're still huge need because they're not usually full time year round jobs. And so making sure that there's food access, food banks, programs like that. Our farm to school program has a real emphasis on title one schools where a lot of the children of farm workers are going to school. We have, as this state, we've really expanded our access to healthcare and to food nutrition services through DSF, Department of Social Services. So we are trying to address it such that we can, but there are many who are hesitant to seek out those kinds of government programs because of legal status and fear of government.
Kerry Diamond:
Have you seen change in your years?
Secretary Karen Ross:
I have, and I will say there are many things about the pandemic I would like to leave in the rear view mirror, but there are things that we learned that are very important that we don't let go of. One was in the determination of what is open came down to what is essential and under homeland security, food production, food access, are essential services. Farm workers are essential to making all of that work. So we worked from day one of making sure that they could safely get to their jobs, that they weren't being stopped unnecessarily because they were going to a nighttime job in a food processing plant. So it was that kind of identification, making sure that they understood, yes, you are allowed to be able to do this if you are comfortable going there. Then it was all about protective equipment. And so every incident command call we had was all of government was like, we need that for farm workers too.
I felt that was my job to make sure that people knew that we needed to get this equipment to first responders of course, but also to our farm worker. And then as testing became available, vaccines became available, our farmers sponsored the days for their farm employees and their neighbors and they wanted them to bring their families and they hosted those kinds of vaccination days. Those are the kinds of things that helped move us closer to a lot of the community-based organizations that were trusted messengers, that we all learned that these are important partners for us on an ongoing basis, not just in times of crisis like that was. So there was a lot of learning lessons around that.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you feel that momentum is continuing?
Secretary Karen Ross:
It's up to us to make sure that it does and it's certainly part of Governor Newsom's agenda is equity and California for all and making sure that we all understand what equity really does mean and all of the work that we do. And we're very intentional about understanding that planning, preparing and investing into a trust to meet those equity goals.
Kerry Diamond:
What can consumers of California agricultural products do to help farm workers?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Well, one is just being aware of policies and programs. Some that are well intended but not always successful. There's several ways to come up. One is just buy local. Look for California grown because that means more hours for farm workers and more opportunities to move up into different jobs within an ag chain. And so that's one thing I would always hear. Support your local food banks, which I know many Californians are very generous in that regard. But food banks are amazing and investments during the pandemic have really improved their infrastructure so they can offer more fresh, more dairy, more meat products, and so they could become part of our local community hubs perhaps. I mean, I had big visions for these types of things, but beyond that, I think it's very important for our citizens as neighbors to understand the importance of farm worker housing as part of low income, affordable housing for this workforce. And oftentimes, whether saying proposed on a farmer's property itself or in our small communities, there's often resistance to that. This is one way that we can make a huge difference in the life.
Kerry Diamond:
Obviously we have to talk about climate change. I know you touched on it already. We've all seen the reports. Back east where I'm based about the weather in California recently and some of our listeners and the state are experiencing that weather themselves. Since there's been so much rain and snow, how has that helped with the drought?
Secretary Karen Ross:
It's helped immensely, and we know that with as much snow as we have in the mountains, hopefully it will melt slowly to fill our reservoirs to be transported through the canals to all the places that we need water. However, we released a report in August of this year of our hotter dryer future. We are already seeing that when you do get snow, we have warmer temperatures, it's melting faster. A couple of years ago, the runoff that we had anticipated would fill reservoirs, did not materialize because of warmer temperatures. The soil profiles were so dry, they absorbed all that water.
So hotter dryer future, we anticipate 20% less available water to plants and human use. So we just have to conserve more. We have to recycle more. We have to finish the projects that have been approved faster. That's Governor Newsom's line, faster, faster. Why can't we make government work faster? So we're in a better position than we were. There's still parts of the state that are not out of drought. The Colorado River Basin states, which were one of seven and Mexico, there's still a scarcity of water there. The Klamath River Basin, which we share with the state of Oregon, still has some challenges there. And our Southern San Joaquin Valley, which is a very productive ag production center.
Kerry Diamond:
How long has the state been in a state of drought?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Some people would say we've been in drought with a few years of moisture in between. When I became secretary in 2011, we were just coming out of a drought and went back into another one. And we weren't in drought for five years. We had a couple of wet years. And then we've been in a drought 2020, 2021. 2022 was especially the harsh year, we fallowed about 750,000 acres including rice acreage.
Kerry Diamond:
Tell me what that means, that you fallowed the acres?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Nothing was planted in those fields. No economic productivity, no food production. And what was disheartening about the Sacramento Valley, that's home to our sushi rice, half of that acreage was not planted that year and normally they get the most precipitation and they become the forage water that's transferred to the rest of the state. So these are the kinds of wake up calls, something's changing, extreme weather's here. How do we adapt and how do we invest for resiliency?
Kerry Diamond:
Secretary Ross, I want to go back one step because we hear the term drought all the time, but I'm wondering if our listeners and myself even, do we really know what drought means? Can you tell us?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Actually, California is just naturally a drought state, if you look at just dry times of the year. And drought means prolonged hydrologic and dry spells without precipitation leading to water shortages. That's the shorthand term for what is drought. Because we have these wonderful warm summers that used to have cool nights that made it perfect for growing all the things that we do. We have dried periods of the year, which is why we built reservoirs and canals, and now we're really focused on storing even more water underground in our aquifers as both our recent strategies.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. You have a number of other initiatives in place to combat climate change. I was reading about them on your blog, which I love and there are so many, but I was hoping you could narrow down to maybe two that you would like our listeners to know about.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Oh, I have to choose my children. Well, of course I love the Healthy Starts program. That is really key to what is exciting about the work that we're doing on climate smart agriculture is, it's not only helping farmers reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from farming activities or the methane reduction that our dairy families are doing on livestock methane and enteric fermentation. We can do that, but we and forestry have the ability with our plants to take farming from the atmosphere and sequester it in our soils and be part of the solution and become carbon sinks. And in doing that, we're building soil organic matter, which will make us more productive for generations to come. We increase water holding capacity, we improve nitrogen cycling. Hopefully we get healthier plants. I mean, it's such an exciting space to be in and there's still so much we don't know about all of that biodiversity that's a... Little thin layer of topsoil and so unlimited possibilities for new science and better understanding of all of that. So that has to be one of my favorites.
Kerry Diamond:
And is that regenerative farming? Because we hear that term a lot now.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Regenerative gets used by many people because sustainability is something that I've been passionate about and worked on a lot when I was with wine grapes. The people that talk about regenerative and my brother's the one that helped point this to me. He said, sustainability is like you're doing enough to stay the same and not doing any harm. I'm about healing the earth and that sense of if we will reinvest in our soil, we feed our soil, it will continue to feed us. And so there is this connection to... This is going even a step further. We are healing from past practices or past environmental circumstances and I think that's why people are so excited about it. Interesting to see the dialogue between organic and regenerative. We shouldn't try to be one upping one another. We should be very holistic about the continuum practices that we make.
Kerry Diamond:
Right. I've read about a few different terms. You've got renegade, you've got all these different terms now being applied. Exactly. To how people are farming today. Do you want to mention one more program?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Well, I've already mentioned methane, so I do have to talk about, because we talked about water is such a precious resource. Here and globally for food production and food security. Our on-farm water use program is called Sweep Statewide Water Efficiency Enhancement Program because we have to have acronyms. But it is about making that nexus of ag water use energy use. How do we improve the efficiency of our irrigation, of our pumps? We're using sensor technologies to improve and reduce energy use. Use less water more efficiently, improve the fertilizer applications more efficiently. So we're not impacting groundwater quality. That to me is just an awesome program. It was the first one we established during the drought in 2014. It's still the most popular one. And people go, well, we've already invested 137 million dollars, we don't need this anymore. It's like the technology's still changing and that's a good thing. And if we can figure out how to use water so efficiently here that can help solve the problems of being able to grow food on other continents.
Kerry Diamond:
And how about the non-farming community in California? What can they do to help?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Well, for climate change, it is thinking about how we use energy ourselves and making those choices when they become available to us of really carbon neutral and if at all possible, or at least renewable energy. So energy use, how we purchase food as we know food waste that can accumulate and it goes into landfills, which creates methane emissions, which is a huge issue because it's a short-lived climate pollutant. So really buying for what we're really going to use, not just for what my eyes see. And it's beautiful and I bought it at the farmer's market two weeks ago and I thought I was going to cook at home more often than I did. We know what it looks like in that vegetable bin. And then transportation. Walking more, using bicycles and alternative transportation, our transportation grid. And in a state like California, you know how much we love our cars. Being able to reduce emissions from transportation is a huge positive way of addressing climate change.
Kerry Diamond:
I have a few lighter questions for you if you're game to answer them, since we talked about some serious things. What is your nearest farmer's market?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Well, my nearest one during the work week in season is one on Capitol Mall, which is about six blocks from here, it's during the lunchtime on Wednesdays. Before COVID, it used to be over at Cesar Chavez Park, which is really great. The one that I go to on weekends is the oldest certified farmer's market here in Sacramento under the freeway. But because of the construction, it's now at the Arden Fair Mall. I mean just the diversity and all the farmers, and you see friends. And I love all of our farmer's markets, but I have a very soft spot in my heart for that farmer's market.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have a garden or any fruit trees at home?
Secretary Karen Ross:
We have a very small backyard.
Kerry Diamond:
No fruit trees?
Secretary Karen Ross:
No fruit trees.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you cook?
Secretary Karen Ross:
I do love to cook. My husband recently died unexpectedly, but the things that we loved doing more than anything was entertaining friends. We felt of our family away from family and we loved to cook and we love to cook together. And I still like to cook and I cook for friends birthdays and those kinds of things. Barry did a lot of our cooking.
Kerry Diamond:
Oh, I'm so sorry. How are you doing?
Secretary Karen Ross:
I'm doing fine, thanks. I have a lot of friends and a great support network.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. I'm happy to hear that.
Secretary Karen Ross:
It's normal. Like everything else in life, right?
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have any favorite women in food? I'm thinking like the Ina Garten and the Alice Waters and the Edna Lewis's of the world.
Secretary Karen Ross:
I adore Alice. I still remember when she came to USDA, it was right after I became Chief of Staff and she wanted to talk to Secretary Vilsack about all these wonderful things of farm to school, and she's so engaging and so charming and so passionate. And I was watching Secretary Vilsack who I didn't know well at the time, and he was just listening and taking this all in and she's terrific. The way I cook and entertain Ina is hard to beat. I mean, she makes it seem effortless and it's not, but that's just... It's so relatable for me.
Kerry Diamond:
Do you have a go-to recipe?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Wintertime short ribs with polenta. And this is a Barry recipe he brought to the... It was part of his true self. It's a chicken breast and you slice it really thin and saute it and then you just do this simple, but it seems very elegant and basal cream sauce. I just love that.
Kerry Diamond:
Yum.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Little asparagus and some new potato. What's not to love?
Kerry Diamond:
Did Barry work in ag?
Secretary Karen Ross:
No.
Kerry Diamond:
No. Okay.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Loved to eat and drink wine though.
Kerry Diamond:
Okay. What snack food do you keep in your office?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Almonds.
Kerry Diamond:
Almonds, okay.
Secretary Karen Ross:
And pistachios.
Kerry Diamond:
And pistachios. Okay. I wanted to ask you about your favorite produce, but I was like, is she even allowed to pick a favorite among all these...
Secretary Karen Ross:
It's all California grown. That's what I used to say about wine too, is the safest answer. As long as it has California on the label. I love it.
Kerry Diamond:
All right. We'll make that the last question. Since you worked in California wine, what do you like to pour for friends?
Secretary Karen Ross:
Pinots. Sauvignon blanc. And not heavily oaky Chardonnays and bubbles.
Kerry Diamond:
And bubbles. Secretary Ross, you're incredible. All the reading I did on you, I was just like, I don't know how she does her job. She has such a hugely important job and I just want to thank you for everything you do.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
Not just on behalf of women and food, but for so many humans in this country.
Secretary Karen Ross:
It's been so fun to meet you and I hope you can tell I'm so lucky to get to do what I do every day, who grew up in western Nebraska and gets to do this? And if I can be helpful in any way, I always want to be there for people.
Kerry Diamond:
As we like to say to our guests, you're the Bombe, Secretary Ross.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Love it.
Kerry Diamond:
Thank you.
Secretary Karen Ross:
Thank you.
Kerry Diamond:
That's it for today's show. Be sure to sign up for the Cherry Bombe newsletter over at cherrybombe.com so you can stay on top of all Cherry Bombe happenings, pods, and events, like our free event with Square tonight. And our upcoming event at Taste of Santa Barbara. Radio Cherry Bombe is a production of The Cherry Bombe Podcast Network. Our theme song is by the band Tralala. Our producer is Catherine Baker, and our associate producer is Jenna Sadhu. Thanks to you for listening. You're the Bombe.