Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
would be much stronger with them as partners, even though it would
irritate Farm Advisors. Once the grant was approved, Heintz and Looker
convened a meeting of these Farm Advisors, assured them that they
would not allow CAFF to claim credit for the UCCE's work, and
explained to them the benefits this partnership would bring to the
almond industry. They arranged the following division of labor:
Heintz was the principal investigator and Looker would be the project
manager, running its daily operation.
Three Farm Advisors would recruit growers, set up the field demonstra-
tion sites, supervise the field scouts, and act as host for the field days.
University of California IPM director Zalom (along with IPM Farm
Advisors Bentley and Pickel) would serve as science experts to the
Almond Board and to the Farm Advisors.
The Almond Board and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers
would jointly conduct outreach and education. CAFF would organize
the field days and would create newsletters, which the ABC would pub-
lish and mail.
The Almond Hullers and Processors Association would assemble a mas-
ter mailing list of all almond growers in the state for the newsletter.
Looker worked with the trade and local press to publicize the results of
the field trials.
The ABC provided bookkeeping and cash flow (some smaller commodity
organizations struggled to provide this support for their partnerships).
Staffers from the Department of Pesticide Regulation would liaise with
the partnership management team.
Unlike BIOS, the almond PMA was oriented toward the UCCE and the
ABC. Heintz has described the almond PMA as “a network of the lead-
ers in the almond industry,” which she specified as consisting of the
Almond Hullers and Processors Association, the UC Cooperative
Extension, the UC IPM Program, and the Department of Pesticide
Regulation. She did not identify growers as partners. Once PMA fund-
ing ended, the Almond Board of California began using its own money
to fund additional outreach and to create its own guide,
A Seasonal
Guide to Environmentally Responsible Pest Management in Almonds
.
8
Heintz described the PMA as creating a structure for the ABC to demon-
strate 30 years of research, accompanied by economic analysis. The
PMA grant provided resources and gave the ABC the focus to do this.
The ABC has internalized the goals of the PMA grant more than any
