| Daily News |
Ag Today
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Text version is available in attached Word document.
Legislators debate water bond that could include dam [Visalia Times-Delta]
Legislators debated, but didn't agree on, a water bond Tuesday that could build a
new dam at Temperance Flat on the San Joaquin River and help clean up
contaminated groundwater in Tulare County and elsewhere. The Special
Committee on Water focused primarily on a $9.8 billion bond co-authored by
Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, a proposal that represented a new
formal effort by Assembly Democrats. "It's a work in progress," Caballero said,
"but we've moved closer to a consensus product than has ever been achieved."
Republicans criticized the Democratic proposal and, more specifically, the
Democrats for refusing to include a $9.98 billion GOP water bond in the hearing.
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008808270323
Modesto-based Foster Farms clarifies its name [Modesto Bee]
Foster Farms Dairy products, made in Modesto for 67 years, are getting a new
name. The company announced Tuesday that the brand will change to Crystal as
of Monday. The new name comes from Crystal Cream and Butter Co., a
Sacramento producer that Foster Farms bought last year. The Foster Farms name
is well-known in and near Stanislaus County but not in other parts of Northern
California, said Dennis Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing for the
company. Crystal, on the other hand, has "tremendous name recognition" in
Sacramento and the Bay Area, he said. The new name will go on fluid milk, butter,
ice cream and other products that Foster Farms processes and makes at its
plants on Kansas Avenue in Modesto and in Fresno. "It's made at the same place
by the same people, but just a different label," said Carrie Cardoza Bordona,
whose Modesto public relations firm is working on the change-over. It does not
affect the Foster Farms poultry company, based in Livingston and owned by the
same family.
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/408363.html
County can't find new ag official [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
A four-month search has failed to attract a new agricultural commissioner for
Sonoma County, with at least one offer declined. Sonoma County Administrator
Bob Deis had hoped to announce this month that he had a replacement for
outgoing commissioner Lisa Correia, whose contract expired this month. Instead,
"we've asked the headhunter to recruit again," Deis said. At the start of the
statewide recruitment process in April, the county hiked the agricultural
commissioner's salary from $100,000 to a negotiable salary within the range of
$108,000 to $132,000. Deis said the salary won't be raised again, despite the
difficulty in attracting someone to the post.
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080825/NEWS/808250307
Costs of food-label law likely to reach consumers [Wall Street Journal]
Grocery bills, already surging because of higher commodities costs, will almost
certainly rise as costs are passed along for implementing a new country-of-origin
food-labeling law, the supermarket industry says. "We're an industry with a net
profit of just 1% to 2% of sales, so any increase is going to have an effect on cost
to consumers," said Bill Greer, director of communications for the Food Marketing
Institute, the supermarket industry's largest trade group.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121980900189375853.html
*Link may require paid subscription; text included in attached Word file.
Vigor among the vines [Napa Valley Register]
The price of a residential piece of real estate may be falling. But you’d never know
it out among the vines. The demand for Napa County vineyard land is strong, and
the future looks even brighter, according to industry observers. David Freed is
chairman of UCC Vineyards Group, a firm that specializes in vineyard property
sales and owns vineyards from the Sacramento Delta to Santa Barbara. He said
that he can look back at the past 10 to 15 years of transactions and count the
number of vineyard foreclosures on one hand.
http://www.napavalleyregister.
com/articles/2008/08/27/news/local/doc48b4e9519ad59368923913.txt
FDA labs roll into Salinas [Monterey County Herald]
It's usually plants, not trailers, that sprout from the soil at the USDA Agricultural
Research Station in Salinas. But last week, the Food and Drug Administration's
Division of Field Science, Office of Regulatory Affairs rolled into town with a
caravan of two modified 44-foot house trailers and a 34-foot motor home to set
up shop on a dusty patch of soil next to rows of raised lettuce beds and planter
boxes. The FDA's mobile lab and its team of inspectors, chemists and
microbiologists plan to spend the next month at the East Alisal Street site, testing
everything from lettuce and cilantro to green onions and basil.
http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_10314303
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Text version is available in attached Word document.
Legislators debate water bond that could include dam [Visalia Times-Delta]
Legislators debated, but didn't agree on, a water bond Tuesday that could build a
new dam at Temperance Flat on the San Joaquin River and help clean up
contaminated groundwater in Tulare County and elsewhere. The Special
Committee on Water focused primarily on a $9.8 billion bond co-authored by
Assemblywoman Anna Caballero, D-Salinas, a proposal that represented a new
formal effort by Assembly Democrats. "It's a work in progress," Caballero said,
"but we've moved closer to a consensus product than has ever been achieved."
Republicans criticized the Democratic proposal and, more specifically, the
Democrats for refusing to include a $9.98 billion GOP water bond in the hearing.
http://www.visaliatimesdelta.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2008808270323
Modesto-based Foster Farms clarifies its name [Modesto Bee]
Foster Farms Dairy products, made in Modesto for 67 years, are getting a new
name. The company announced Tuesday that the brand will change to Crystal as
of Monday. The new name comes from Crystal Cream and Butter Co., a
Sacramento producer that Foster Farms bought last year. The Foster Farms name
is well-known in and near Stanislaus County but not in other parts of Northern
California, said Dennis Roberts, vice president of sales and marketing for the
company. Crystal, on the other hand, has "tremendous name recognition" in
Sacramento and the Bay Area, he said. The new name will go on fluid milk, butter,
ice cream and other products that Foster Farms processes and makes at its
plants on Kansas Avenue in Modesto and in Fresno. "It's made at the same place
by the same people, but just a different label," said Carrie Cardoza Bordona,
whose Modesto public relations firm is working on the change-over. It does not
affect the Foster Farms poultry company, based in Livingston and owned by the
same family.
http://www.modbee.com/local/story/408363.html
County can't find new ag official [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
A four-month search has failed to attract a new agricultural commissioner for
Sonoma County, with at least one offer declined. Sonoma County Administrator
Bob Deis had hoped to announce this month that he had a replacement for
outgoing commissioner Lisa Correia, whose contract expired this month. Instead,
"we've asked the headhunter to recruit again," Deis said. At the start of the
statewide recruitment process in April, the county hiked the agricultural
commissioner's salary from $100,000 to a negotiable salary within the range of
$108,000 to $132,000. Deis said the salary won't be raised again, despite the
difficulty in attracting someone to the post.
http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080825/NEWS/808250307
Costs of food-label law likely to reach consumers [Wall Street Journal]
Grocery bills, already surging because of higher commodities costs, will almost
certainly rise as costs are passed along for implementing a new country-of-origin
food-labeling law, the supermarket industry says. "We're an industry with a net
profit of just 1% to 2% of sales, so any increase is going to have an effect on cost
to consumers," said Bill Greer, director of communications for the Food Marketing
Institute, the supermarket industry's largest trade group.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121980900189375853.html
*Link may require paid subscription; text included in attached Word file.
Vigor among the vines [Napa Valley Register]
The price of a residential piece of real estate may be falling. But you’d never know
it out among the vines. The demand for Napa County vineyard land is strong, and
the future looks even brighter, according to industry observers. David Freed is
chairman of UCC Vineyards Group, a firm that specializes in vineyard property
sales and owns vineyards from the Sacramento Delta to Santa Barbara. He said
that he can look back at the past 10 to 15 years of transactions and count the
number of vineyard foreclosures on one hand.
http://www.napavalleyregister.
com/articles/2008/08/27/news/local/doc48b4e9519ad59368923913.txt
FDA labs roll into Salinas [Monterey County Herald]
It's usually plants, not trailers, that sprout from the soil at the USDA Agricultural
Research Station in Salinas. But last week, the Food and Drug Administration's
Division of Field Science, Office of Regulatory Affairs rolled into town with a
caravan of two modified 44-foot house trailers and a 34-foot motor home to set
up shop on a dusty patch of soil next to rows of raised lettuce beds and planter
boxes. The FDA's mobile lab and its team of inspectors, chemists and
microbiologists plan to spend the next month at the East Alisal Street site, testing
everything from lettuce and cilantro to green onions and basil.
http://www.montereyherald.com/local/ci_10314303
| Ag Today Tuesday, August 26, 2008 Text version is available in attached Word document. Apple moth found in Napa — again [Napa Valley Register] Two Light Brown Apple moths have been discovered in the Carneros District, prompting state officials to call for a quarantine. The moths, pests that threaten a variety of crops grown in California, were found 1.5 miles apart. The moth in Napa County was found near Duhig and Ramal roads, south of Highway 121 and west of Domaine Carneros. The second was nearby in southeastern Sonoma County. The California Department of Food and Agriculture will set up separate quarantine areas for the two counties. The exact boundaries will be announced by the state sometime this week. Under a state quarantine, farmers can still harvest and sell their crops, but must inform buyers of the quarantine and ensure steps are taken to prevent the possible spread of the pest. http://www.napavalleyregister.com/articles/2008/08/26/news/local/doc48b381da7070f888060199.txt Slow Food Nation festival opens Friday in S.F. [San Francisco Chronicle] Try telling San Franciscans to avoid talking politics at the dinner table, and they'll laugh in your face. In the Bay Area, politics and food go together like heirloom tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. That's one of the reasons restaurateur Alice Waters and the organization Slow Food USA chose San Francisco for the first-ever Slow Food Nation, an ambitious four-day political food festival that begins Friday. Organizers of the event hope to change the country's food policy one stomach at a time by promoting foods that are produced using eco- friendly farming and fair labor practices. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2008/08/26/MNC912F1AD.DTL US questions China at WTO over pork, farm taxes [Associated Press] The United States has challenged China to justify the legality of its tax, subsidy and export rules for farm products such as pork and wheat in what could signify new tensions between the two trading giants. Most commercial disputes between Washington and Beijing have focused on manufacturing and services, but an American letter posted Tuesday on the World Trade Organization's Web site lists some new gripes over Chinese agricultural policies. The document is dated Aug. 13, two weeks after the U.S. clashed with emerging powers led by China and India over farm import rules, leading to the collapse of nine days of talks on a new global trade deal. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080826/ap_on_bi_ge/wto_us_china_2 Deadly pathogen harms Florida citrus groves [New York Times] On a recent sultry morning, Peter McClure, who manages 8,000 acres of citrus in the prime Indian River region here, surveyed an orange grove riddled with gaps. He pointed to a tangled brown pile of dead trees and said, “Scientists have 10 years at the most to find a solution, or there’s not going to be a citrus industry in Florida.” The world’s most destructive citrus disease is threatening the groves of Florida, the largest domestic producer of these fruits. The disease, which obstructs the flow of nutrients in citrus trees, originated more than a century ago in southern China, where it was named huanglongbing, or “yellow shoot disease,” after a typical symptom. It also goes under the common name of greening, because many fruits remain green and are lopsided and bitter. Infected trees die within several years. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/26/science/26citrus.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=pathogen%20harms%20florida% 20citrus%20groves&st=cse&oref=slogin AVMA issues statement on California Proposition 2 [CattleNetwork.com] The largest and most respected veterinary association in the United States is cautioning that the California ballot initiative, Proposition 2, while admirable in its attempt to address the behavioral needs of animals, contains livestock confinement standards that may hurt the animals they are intended to help. The American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) issued a statement today, which, in part, reads: “The AVMA believes Proposition 2, ‘Standards for Confining Farm Animals,’ is admirable in its goal to improve the welfare of production farm animals; however, it ignores critical aspects of animal welfare that ultimately would threaten the well-being of the very animals it strives to protect.” http://www.cattlenetwork.com/Content.asp?ContentID=247527 Cows have magnetic sense [Los Angeles Times] ...German scientists using satellite images posted online by the Google Earth software program have observed something that has escaped the notice of farmers, herders and hunters for thousands of years: Cattle grazing or at rest tend to orient their bodies in a north-south direction just like a compass needle. Studying photographs of 8,510 cattle in 308 herds from around the world, zoologists Sabine Begall and Hynek Burda of the University of Duisburg-Essen and their colleagues found that two out of every three animals in the pictures were oriented in a direction roughly pointing to magnetic north. The resolution of the images was not sufficient to tell which ends of the cows were pointing north, however....Experts acknowledged that the research almost certain- ly has no practical applications. http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-sci-cows26-2008aug26,0,7611516.story Ag Today Monday, August 25, 2008 Text version is available in attached Word document. Farmworkers union chief wants change in voting [Sacramento Bee] United Farm Workers President Arturo Rodriguez has worked for more than three decades in the labor union co-founded by Cesar Chavez in the 1960s. Rodriguez was at the Capitol last week to lobby for Assembly Bill 2386, which would make it easier for the union to organize by allowing farmworkers to sign cards in lieu of secret-ballot voting. Why alter the system of ballot-booth voting for union representation? We know that when farmworkers have representation, they feel security. … (Under the current system) there's just too much intimidation and coercion that takes place – abuse of the system (by growers seeking to discourage participation). http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1182567.html Editorial: Piecework pay needs reforms [Sacramento Bee] ...many workers opt to be paid on a "piece rate" basis, which creates a financial incentive for them to work as hard and fast as they can....As is now clear, these well- intentioned regulations will not overcome the tendency of piece-rate laborers to work through their rightful breaks, even on the hottest days. Employers, farm-labor groups and health organizations need to revisit these rules....What's needed is a clear line of responsibility, from the contractor to the farmer, to provide reasonable precautions for people who labor on the hottest of days. http://www.sacbee.com/110/story/1178985.html Delta deadlock [Fresno Bee] California voters rose up by a 3-to-2 margin in 1982 and torpedoed the most contentious water project in state history -- the Peripheral Canal. The 42-mile ditch would have linked the Sacramento River to pumps near Stockton that send water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to thirsty Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley. But rejection of Proposition 9 didn't settle anything. Instead, it locked state water politics, which revolve around the delta, into a chronic stalemate. More than a quarter-century later, advocates for cities, farms and wildlife routinely duke it out in courtrooms and legislative halls. Crops on the San Joaquin Valley's west side die for lack of water. Fishing boats wait out a ban on salmon. No one is winning. http://www.fresnobee.com/263/story/817658.html Humboldt County tree sitters, timber firm call a truce [Los Angeles Times] Beneath the gnarled green-needled boughs of the North Coast redwoods, a remarkable encounter one recent day shook the roots of the forest's fiercest struggle. A top timber company executive hiked into the woods with a message for the latest generation of tree sitters perched on platforms high in the massive limbs of the ancient trees they've campaigned to protect. Come down out of the sky, he told them. The war is over. With that, a cautious transformation has begun: For the first time in the memory of even the grayest of locals, the vast lands of Humboldt County's most storied timber firm could soon be devoid of protest. Ever since Texas millionaire Charles Hurwitz and his Maxxam Inc. used junk bonds to finance the hostile takeover of Pacific Lumber Co. in 1986, the logging concern has been the focus of a stubborn series of demonstrations -- from the "Redwood Summer" civil-disobedience arrests in 1990 and Julia "Butterfly" Hill's celebrated two-year tree-sit in Luna to the latest encampments aloft in the Nanning Creek and Fern Gully groves. http://www.latimes.com/news/la-me-timber24-2008aug24,0,5146105.story Keepers of the Crops [Fresno Bee] Bob Gudgel, 77, is grounded now, his crop-dusting days behind him. Gudgel flew his final flights over cropland this spring, forced to give up the controls after 54 years because of macular degeneration in his left eye. But even as the industry shrinks around him -- and the romanticized notion of pilots as barnstormers goes the way of canvas-covered biplanes -- Gudgel has no plans to shut down his operation, Gudgel's Aero-Ag in Chowchilla. Tucked into a corner of the tiny Chowchilla Municipal Airport, Aero-Ag has younger pilots in training and Gudgel says he believes aerial applications for agriculture will continue. http://www.fresnobee.com/business/story/817580.html US grain exports snagged by infrastructure delays [Associated Press] Across the country, from grain elevator to grain elevator, golden wheat and corn are piled in towering mounds, waiting for a rail car to haul them to market. Some grain can sit for a month or more on the ground, exposed to wind, rain and rats. It's the dark side of the booming global demand for U.S. corn, wheat and soybeans. The surge in exports is revealing inefficiencies in the country's railways, highways and rivers that carry the grain that helps feed the world. And those bottlenecks are costing farmers, shippers and ultimately consumers millions of dollars a year. Mark Hodges, the executive director of the Oklahoma Wheat Commission, has seen it firsthand. Earlier this summer, when consumers around the world hungered more than ever for American wheat and corn, he hopped into his pickup truck and toured local grain elevators. http://www.sacbee.com/840/story/1181922.html Ag Today Monday, August 18, 2008 Text version is available in attached Word document. Issues swirl around proposed dams [San Diego Union-Tribune] ...Which course is set for San Joaquin River mile 274, better known as Temperance Flat, depends on whether Californians are ready to accept new dams to keep taps flowing even as growth and drought strain water supplies. Voters may be offered the opportunity to decide the issue in November, but only if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers can settle on the terms of a $9.3 billion water bond package in the coming days. The bond proposal is packed with spending for popular clean-water, conservation and Sacramento delta restoration programs. But there also is a handful of unresolved issues, any one of which could draw away enough support to keep the measure from securing the necessary two-thirds vote of lawmakers and the governor's signature before it can be placed on the ballot. http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/state/20080818-9999-1n18dam.html Feinstein's right on water [Fresno Bee] Sen. Dianne Feinstein got a little grumpy the other day with the slow pace of work on a state water bond she and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have proposed. She singled out members of her own Democratic party for their intransigence when it comes to new surface water storage projects. Good for her. Ideological conflicts threaten to throttle any action on California's water crisis. We run the risk in California of remaining philosophically pure and politically correct while we dry up and blow away. We must increase our water supply. Demand grows with our growing population, and simultaneously our existing supplies are threatened by the pace of global climate change. When winter snowfall diminishes in the Sierra Nevada, as it has for two years now, the slowly melting supplies we once counted on are no longer available. More precipitation falls as rain, and we haven't sufficient capacity to collect it for use in cities, industries and agriculture. http://www.fresnobee.com/opinion/story/801588.html Delta residents fight to be heard on peripheral canal [Stockton Record] They packed the sweltering church social hall, where a rotating fan in the corner made little difference. Someone joked that if all of the state legislators were locked in this room, there'd be a budget in no time. But these folks weren't here for the budget. They were here on behalf of their home: the Delta. As state officials forge ahead with studies of a peripheral canal, some Delta farmers and residents feel excluded from the decision-making process, which even the highest-ranking officials admit is complex and hard to understand. http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080818/A_NEWS/808180317 Giving farm animals room [Santa Rosa Press Democrat] Standing in a huge Petaluma warehouse with 135,000 chickens, Arnie Riebli pointed to the white leghorns standing in columns of nearby cages and asked, "Are these birds uncomfortable? I say, 'No.'" That is the central question of Proposition 2 on the Nov. 4 ballot. The measure sharply divides farmers like Riebli, who say the proposed constitutional amendment would decimate the California egg industry, and animal supporters, who believe chicken cages are inhumane devices. In suburban Sonoma County with its deep agricultural roots, the state initiative represents an election day battle between the producers of inexpensive food and mostly city-bred activists who believe that animal rights are being violated. http://www1.pressdemocrat.com/article/20080817/NEWS/808170378 Six months later, did the Chino beef recall produce benefits? [Riverside Press-Enterprise] The cows were caked in manure and mud. Sick or hurt, they couldn't stand long enough to be slaughtered. So they were beaten, kicked, jabbed in their eyes and shocked. They were dragged with chains, rammed with a forklift and blasted with a powerful hose in a manner later described in congressional hearings as akin to water-boarding. The mistreatment and illegal slaughter of "downer" cows at the Westland/Hallmark Meat Co. in Chino, captured on video by an undercover investigator posing as a plant employee, sparked the largest U. S. beef recall in history. Six months later, the recall is over, but its impact is clear and far-reaching. http://www.pe.com/rss/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_beef17.34c1d40.html County beekeepers fighting to save hives [Ventura County Star] At a time when their service is in high demand, some beekeepers have accepted the fact that no one knows why bees are dying. But it doesn't mean they aren't doing anything to overcome the mysterious killer known as colony collapse disorder. At 41, Larry Pender is a relatively young beekeeper who can't sit idly waiting for answers. "Just like any industry you have to work with the environment you're given," he said. "I can jump up and down and complain, but you just have to adapt to it." Pender is tweaking his operation in a few areas, such as nutrition. To boost his bees' diet, he is feeding them pollen substitutes. Bees are getting a limited menu because more farmers are growing single crops, plus there are fewer wildflowers available. http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2008/aug/17/a-honey-of-a-mystery-county-beekeepers-fighting/ |
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