Grape
harvesters rush to beat the rain [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
Overnight
rain dampening the North Coast and its unpicked grapes won't dampen the spirits
of grape growers, winemakers and winery owners buoyed by what they're calling
the best harvest in years….But with the rain forecast bumped up from Tuesday to
sometime after midnight Sunday, vineyard managers late last week hustled to add
night and Sunday crews to the schedule….By midnight Sunday, Sonoma County grape
experts predicted about 80 percent of the year's overall crop would be picked.
What's left mostly will be cabernet sauvignon, a tougher grape that can handle
a little rain, said Nick Frey, president of the Sonoma County Winegrape Commission.
Dairy
farm safety net dies with farm bill [Associated Press]
Small
dairy farmers in the Northeast and Wisconsin say a tough year has been made
worse by Congress' failure to pass a new farm bill before the old one expired.
While many farm programs have continued through the harvest season even though
the farm bill expired Sept. 30, a program that pays dairy farmers when milk
prices plummet has ended. Many dairy farms were already struggling with low
milk prices and high fuel and feed costs as the worst drought in decades dried
up grazing land and pushed up the price of hay and feed. Dozens in states like
California, the nation's leading milk producer, have filed for bankruptcy.
A
look at the pros and cons of Proposition 37 [Oroville Mercury-Register]
Voters
will decide whether to require labeling in California for food made with
genetic engineering….Proponents of the ballot initiative say the measure,
called Proposition 37, is straightforward and would allow consumers to know
what they are buying….Colleen Cecil, executive director of the Butte County
Farm Bureau, said the initiative is not simply about labeling, as proponents
claim. The proposed rules open up "the ability for a new category of
lawsuits," Cecil said, and were written by an attorney who wrote
Proposition 65, approved in the 1980s. That proposition required disclosure of
hazardous chemicals, and has resulted in thousands of lawsuits, she said….Also,
research has shown genetically modified foods do not harm human health, Cecil
said. Overall, the initiative "has the potential to cause great harm to
California, and to anybody who has a food product on the shelf," and
"puts California at a competitive disadvantage."
Editorial: Voters agenda:
Leadership vacuum on immigration
This
country's immigration system is obsolete – with a rigid system of caps dating
back to the 1950s that hamper legal immigration. It needs a major overhaul.
This issue is especially important in California, traditionally a magnet for
immigration – from Central Valley farmworkers to forest workers to food
processors to housekeepers to high-tech engineers to innovative
researchers….But our presidential candidates, instead of wholeheartedly embracing
the challenge, raise immigration as a sort of no-win obligatory issue to
appease certain groups of voters….Obama and Romney need to step up in providing
the inspiration to get past the current polarized climate to get immigration
reform done.
Commentary: Battle against
invasive pest heats up in California [Ventura County Star]
…Martial
metaphors are disturbingly appropriate when discussing the Asian citrus psyllid
(ACP) and Huanglongbing (HLB), the untreatable, incurable and always fatal
plant disease the insect carries….Because the insect and disease are primarily
being moved around the world by humans transporting infested and/or infected
plants and fruit, eliminating such movement is a crucial first line of
defense….So far, cooperation has been good. Each detection in Ventura County
has been followed by appropriate treatment. So far, we have seen no evidence of
a breeding ACP population in our county. But we cannot allow this to lull us
into complacency. Complacency doomed Florida's citrus industry, as growers
allowed the ACP population to spread unchecked until the disease arrived and it
was too late to stop the plague from spreading….This makes it even more
imperative that Ventura County's citrus growers and urban residents continue to
cooperate in maintaining a bulwark against the invading force to the south of
us.
Commentary: The Conversation:
How 'extra-virgin' is your olive oil? [Sacramento Bee]
California
produces some of the world's finest olive oil, yet one of its biggest obstacles
in the struggle for market share isn't competition from Italy or Spain, it's
from the United States government….Take subsidies. California olive growers get
no federal subsidies from Washington, and to be clear, they absolutely don't
want them. Europe, however, is different….Europe subsidizing its olive growers
is Europe's business, yet the United States also engages in subsidizing growers
overseas. Since 2007, Washington has spent nearly $700 million of your tax
dollars to stimulate olive growing in Morocco, rehabilitating its more than 1
million acres of existing olive trees and planting 150,000 acres more….Large
chains that once bought California black olives in bulk to serve on pizzas,
tacos and sandwiches now use Moroccan and Spanish olives.
Ag
Today is distributed to county Farm Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for
information purposes, by the CFBF Communications/News Division, 916-561-5550; news@cfbf.com.
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