High-speed rail facing legal challenges [Merced Sun-Star]
…As the high-speed rail authority moves towards construction of sections of track, local government officials and regional groups have threatened to file legal challenges based on impacts to local business, private property and the environment. Madera and Merced county farm bureaus said they plan to file a lawsuit today in what is likely the most significant challenge to the project yet. "We feel the High-Speed Rail Authority has not listened to our requests along the way," said Anja Raudabaugh, executive director of the Madera County Farm Bureau. "If they're going to shove this project down our throats, then we're going to shove this lawsuit down theirs."…The farm bureaus, which plan to file the lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court, contend that the rail authority's environmental impact report for the Merced to Fresno section of the project doesn't satisfy the California Environmental Quality Act.
Assembly approves farm worker protection bill [Associated Press]
The state Assembly approved legislation Thursday that would expose agricultural employers to civil lawsuits for failing to abide by heat safety requirements. AB2346 would let farm workers sue if employers fail to supply water within 10 feet or shade within 200 feet of workers. Assemblywoman Betsy Butler, D-Marina del Ray, said she wrote the bill because the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health is not doing enough to protect field workers from heat-related illness and death….Several Republican lawmakers spoke against the bill. Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, of Gerber, said the requirement that workers have water close at hand is too onerous, and the potential penalties for employers are too high.…The bill passed 41-27 Thursday after failing three times earlier in the day.
Large farms' crop insurance subsidies criticized [San Francisco Chronicle]
An unidentified farm in Kern and Kings counties received $1.64 million in government subsidies to buy crop insurance last year, according to data released Thursday by the Environmental Working Group, an organization that opposes such payments to large farms. In 2000, Congress prohibited public disclosure of the names of farmers who receive subsidized crop insurance, a program that has quadrupled in size since 2002, to $9 billion last year….This month, the Senate is set to debate a farm bill covering the next five years that would make crop insurance the chief form of support for agriculture instead of traditional subsidies for specific crops. The measure would expand the insurance subsidies significantly and add a new entitlement program to guarantee the revenue of certain farms.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/06/01/MNT91OQ7LC.DTL
Commentary: California has big stake in a healthy farm bill [Sacramento Bee]
Here are the numbers: From 2008 to 2010, the U.S. Department of Agriculture spent $39.6 billion on commodity crops under the current farm bill, more than eight times the $4.7 billion that went to the so-called "specialty crops" – the fruits, nuts and vegetables. That huge imbalance was way out of proportion to the difference in market values: $320 billion for commodity crops (primarily corn, wheat, soybeans, rice and cotton), not even twice the $170 billion for specialty produce….It won't be easy for California's representatives in Congress to make farm bill spending more equitable and healthful. They will need the support of their colleagues from other diverse agricultural states as well as strong encouragement from Californians who understand that the state deserves a bigger piece of the farm bill, a piece that reflects the central role that agriculture plays in California's economy and the state's essential role in providing healthy food for the entire country.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/06/01/4530001/california-has-big-stake-in-a.html
Government to Increase E. Coli Tests in Raw Beef [New York Times]
In a ruling that appeared to side with consumers, the Agriculture Department announced that it would expand testing for E. coli in raw beef trimmings beginning next week. The announcement came on the heels of a decision on Wednesday by the Food and Drug Administration to deny a petition by the Corn Refiners Association to change the name of the sweetener high-fructose corn syrup to corn sugar on nutrition labels….The department first proposed testing for the additional strains late last year, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of confirmed cases of illness caused by these strains had exceeded the number caused by E. coli O157:H7. The testing was to start in March but was delayed after members of the industry protested. The new tests will be done on raw beef trimmings, which are used in ground beef.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/01/business/government-to-increase-e-coli-tests-in-raw-beef.html?_r=1
Feds asked to delay logging near rare Tahoe birds [Associated Press]
Rare woodpecker chicks in burned forest stands at Lake Tahoe won't survive if the U.S. Forest Service proceeds with a contentious post-fire logging project, according to conservationists pressing the agency to postpone cutting around the trees until after the nesting season in August. The John Muir Project is asking for the delay while awaiting a ruling on an appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit aimed at blocking what's left of the salvage logging operation where the Angora Fire five years ago burned more than 3,000 acres and 250 homes on the edge of South Lake Tahoe, Calif. Chad Hanson, the group's executive director, documented black-backed woodpecker chicks this week in at least one nest in the cavity of a standing dead tree at the project site and suspects there are more.
http://www.sacbee.com/2012/05/31/4529141/feds-asked-to-delay-logging-near.html#storylink=misearch
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