00:00Please recognize my good friend from California, Mr. Carver Hall, for five minutes.
00:05Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to you and Ranking Member Craig for having this important hearing.
00:13Mr. Cameron, you're from Paradise, also known as California, and I'm really glad that you're imparting your wisdom on the rest of our country today.
00:21I represent the Central Coast, which is an even focused paradise within Paradise in California, and Ranking Member Craig was just in my district this past weekend, and I was talking to the chairman about him visiting as well, and so I hope you enlighten him as to why he should come and have a good time and see the great agriculture in our state.
00:49Specialty crops are both unique and delicate and come with many challenges when it comes to protecting them against pests, invasive pests, and disease.
01:00You mentioned in your testimony that farmers have been investing in innovation to improve methods to manage pests while reducing risks to people, property, and the environment.
01:10What are some of the most effective ways this committee can support those efforts, and how can research at our local universities help specialty crop growers adopt safer and more effective pest management strategies?
01:29So, you know, we're looking at—I apologize.
01:33The first part of your question was related to—
01:35What are some of the most effective ways this committee can support those efforts?
01:38Yep, we believe that additional money for research within California for specialty crops is imperative, either through the IR4 program, the FAR program, specialty crop block grants, working directly with universities to fund research for specialty crops.
02:00As you know, in California, I hate to say this, but we grow over 400 specialty crops, and we have a lot of minor crops that need attention that usually don't get the funding and the light shown on them to get results done in the field.
02:20We know that the universities are involved in many aspects of crop production and doing research.
02:28We know that the Strawberry Commission does work at Cal Poly within your district.
02:32They have a great gram there.
02:34The university is very well engaged with agriculture, as is UC Davis, Fresno State, and some of the other minor colleges, UC Merced, as well.
02:43So, we know that funding is what we need.
02:47We need to be able to do the research, engage with the farmers, show them what's going on, and new avenues, new ways of doing things.
02:58It's really the only way we're going to get the technology down to the grower level.
03:03We also know that University of California Extension is great for moving that information through their ag advisors.
03:13I always like to remind people that California is the largest agriculture state in the country.
03:18Just, you know, just saying.
03:21Mr. Cameron, you noted in your testimony that dual pesticide registration process with the state and the EPA can slow down the adoption of biologicals.
03:30From your perspective, how can federal and state agencies better coordinate to ensure that these tools are both safe and more readily available to growers?
03:40As you stated, there's a delay when we move from federal to state registration for products.
03:48I believe that parallel registration, working with the maybe get an MOU between California Partum Pesticide Regulation and the federal EPA office,
03:58so that when products do come, and if they're going to have a fit in California, that we start the registration process at the same time, so that we get registration concurrent.
04:10As you know, we increased the mill tax for pesticides last year with the idea that we are going to get products moving through the system at a more rapid pace.
04:20California farmers, especially crop growers, are innovative, they want new tools, they want new technology, and they're always willing to adopt.
04:34Thank you, Mr. Cameron.
04:35Finally, Mr. Cameron, as this committee continues to work on a farm bill, I'd like to revisit a point you raised in your testimony regarding integrated pests management, or IPM, which is already being used by many growers.
04:47What more can Congress do to help support methods like the use of integrated pest management, so growers can protect their crops, keep their operations strong, and increase crop resiliency?
04:59You know, I think pest management starts with your soil.
05:02We need to have healthy soils.
05:04We need to have funding for practices that will improve soil quality, because I think you start out with a healthy plant, an insect is less likely to cause the damage.
05:14I think there's programs through NRCS for funding into California that we could expand on, but, you know, getting new products out quicker at the federal level would be great.
05:29Great.
05:29Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:30I'm out of time.
05:32Thank you, Mr. Cameron.
05:33Thank you, Mr. Cameron.
05:34Gentlemen.
05:35Thank you, Mr. Cameron.
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