CDQAP Ends Successful Year with More Participants, Recognition

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (December 3, 2001) - Scores of dairies certified, EPA recognition, and a new producer short course dealing with food safety and emergency response are just a few of this year's accomplishments for the California Dairy Quality Assurance Program (CDQAP). Formed in 1997, the program provides education in the three areas most likely to affect dairy product sales: environmental stewardship, food safety and animal welfare.

• ENVIRONMENTAL STEWARDSHIP
  More than 1,050 producers have completed all six hours of the environmental short-course, while an additional 515 producers have completed at least one of the three sessions. Various dairy organizations have been heavily promoting the short-course. Land O' Lakes for example, offers a $300 rebate to producers completing the course. The fall round of short course sessions began in mid-October. Producers interested in attending a future short course should contact their UC dairy or livestock advisor.

After completing the course, producers have the option to participate in a non-regulatory evaluation of their facilities. With the correction of any potential environmental risks, the producer is certified as meeting all federal, state and local environmental regulations. To date, 62 producers from 42 dairies attained full certification, with an additional 63 producers scheduled for evaluations. In a remarkable show of leadership, the board members for Western United Dairymen, Hilmar Cheese and the California Milk Advisory Board have committed to participating in the dairy evaluation. With an eye towards the future, program managers are examining a variety of potential funding sources that will ensure the long-term stability of the program.

In August CDQAP managers had a rare opportunity to brief the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Christie Todd-Whitman, on the program. The CDQAP was only one of a handful of programs selected for presentation to Ms. Whitman during her brief visit to California. Meeting at Region 9 headquarters in San Francisco, CDQAP chairman Chuck Ahlem outlined the advantages of a voluntary industry-regulatory program. Ahlem also expressed gratitude for the EPA's financial, technical and logistic participation in our partnership. The EPA's Region 9 has collaborated on development of both the evaluation tool (checklist) and training for the non-regulatory third-party on-site evaluations. In addition, Region 9 has facilitated a $443,000 grant to the program. Administrator Whitman was impressed with the comprehensive nature of the program, and asked if the CDQA would be willing to participate in a technology transfer making the California experience available for other states wrestling with animal nutrient issues. Also at the meeting were Celeste Cantu, newly appointed executive officer for the State Water Resources Control Board, and Helen Flach, assistant state conservationist. Both expressed strong support for the program.

Progress has been made with a variety of other projects related to the environmental module. State and industry partners are close to finalizing regulatory language that will clarify the situations under which unsuitable milk is disposed of into dairy lagoons. Formalizing the legitimacy of this practice will be especially important if future power shortages result in large quantities of milk that cannot be processed due to processor shut down or refrigeration failure. Program partners have coordinated a response to proposed changes in federal (CAFO) regulation.

Program partners also have been working with CAL-EPA's office of Environmental Technology to develop protocols by which new dairy technologies can be tested at the company's expense prior to CDQAP recommending its use on dairies. The goal of the program is to ensure those companies selling (for instance) manure separators, bio-gas recovery systems, lagoon additives have data to support their claims. Curriculum development is continuing for the next short course, which will deal heavily with land-application and protection of the ground water. Lastly, a poster with full-color photos illustrating the “Dos and Don'ts of Dairy Manure Management” has been completed. The poster is a unique teaching aid, graphically demonstrating with full color pictures both good and bad practices involving manure management. The poster was developed as a teaching tool and is currently being used in the short course.

• FOOD SAFETY AND EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

The California dairy industry has had to deal with several large-scale contaminations in recent years, such as pesticide and botulism toxin exposures. Additional threats to the state's dairy herds include foreign animal diseases such as foot & mouth disease and mad cow disease. In the case of a potential outbreak, it is essential that producers know whom to contact on a moment's notice. This is one of the primary goals of the CDQAP's newest module in Food Safety and Emergency Preparedness.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture is developing a framework for emergency response that will bring the University of California at Davis, the state's diagnostic laboratory system and dairy veterinarians together in a team effort to assist affected producers and prevent the spread of disease or contaminated product. What the producer's role is in such an emergency event and how to prevent introduction of exotic disease (bio-security) is the goal of the first of two sessions that make up the short course. This session is followed by a second, dealing with the less urgent but no-less important day to day issues of food safety such as prevention of drug residues in meat and milk, microbial pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli, drug resistance, and the sale of “bootleg” milk.

Slide sets and videos for both sessions are nearing completion and the curriculum is expected to be beta-tested with an initial group of producers at the beginning of the New Year. Another CDQAP module dealing with Johne's Disease has already been producer tested and will be rolled out to producers in the near future.