Silos
loom as death traps on American farms [New York Times]
…Even
as the rate of serious injury and fatalities on American farms has fallen, the
number of workers dying by entrapment in grain bins and silos has remained
stubbornly steady….That the deaths persist reveals continuing flaws in the
enforcement of worker safety laws and weaknesses in rules meant to protect the
youngest farmworkers. Nearly 20 percent of all serious grain bin accidents
involve workers under the age of 20. Last year, the Labor Department proposed
new regulations aimed at tightening protections for children doing farm work.
The proposed federal regulations would have prohibited children under 18 from
working in large commercial grain bins, silos or other enclosed spaces. But the
Obama administration, sensitive to Republican charges that it was choking the
economy with expensive regulations, pulled back the proposed rules this year in
the face of furious farm-state objections.
U.S.
food movement seeks election-year vault to political force [Reuters]
The
U.S. food movement, which groups a kaleidoscope of causes from inner-city
gardens to hunger prevention and no-biotech crops, plans to link the farmers
market to the ballot box as it challenges large-scale agriculture this year. It
is the first attempt to turn a largely unorganized social movement into a
political force. The most important initiative for the movement is a November 6
referendum in California to require labels on genetically engineered food sold
in grocery stores. Under a new umbrella group, Food Policy Action, the movement
issued its first voter scorecard for congressional races this week…."We do
welcome them (Food Policy Action) to the agriculture community," said Dale
Moore, an executive at the 6 million-member American Farm Bureau Federation.
Moore said he hoped the scorecard would take into account the economic welfare
of farmers, adding: "That's not always readily
apparent."…"Foodies" criticize large-scale mechanized farming, a
profitable model since the 1950s, for using biotech seeds and synthetic
fertilizers and pesticides, and for confinement feeding of livestock.
"Production agriculture" regards foodies as dilettantes in love with
outmoded, high-labor methods common when farmers were the perennial poor
cousins of city dwellers.
Commentary: Why this
health-conscious foodie won't vote for Prop. 37 [Los Angeles Times]
I
thought I’d be first in line to vote yes on Proposition 37, which would require
labels on (most) food that contains genetically modified ingredients. But the
closer we get to election day, the more conflicted I feel….But if we’re going
to start putting warning labels on food -- and let’s face it, GMO labels would
be warnings, not just advisories -- then let’s focus on drawing attention to
the poisons. Is it the corn and soy that have been genetically engineered to
withstand pesticides that are the problem, or is it the pesticides?...As it
stands, there are no known health risks associated with GMOs….So, when it comes
to food, it matters to me deeply that I can trust what I’m eating and that it
won’t make me sick. Proposition 37 won’t help me accomplish that. And, while I
understand the argument that you have to start somewhere (and that was
initially my position too), I worry that a vote for Proposition 37 would be a
vote for junk science -- and that passing it would thwart further (and valid) scientific
studies. I’d be no better than the climate deniers out there. And I don’t want
that; I want real answers, and real reform.
California
egg farmers frustrated by unclear mandate over chicken cage size [Sacramento
Bee]
California
voters sent a clear message four years ago when they overwhelmingly approved
Proposition 2, a ballot measure banning the "cruel confinement" of
certain types of farm animals. What's followed has been nothing but confusion,
complain commercial egg farmers. They're seeking certainty on what kind of
enclosures for the state's 20 million laying hens will be considered legal
under the law….The 2015 deadline to comply or face possible criminal
prosecution is in the wings. "The clock is ticking," said Sacramento
attorney Dale Stern, who represents the Association of California Egg Farmers.
"We're still back to the question, 'How much space do we need to provide
each hen?' No statute has defined that yet."
Growers
may get help from USDA [Visalia Times-Delta]
Valley
citrus growers could get welcome news next week: The federal government may
plan to continue to help pay for the fight against the spread of a potentially
devastating citrus disease. At least that’s what Joel Nelsen, president of
Exeter-based California Citrus Mutual, expects to hear Thursday evening during
the group’s annual meeting and dinner, during which the U.S. Department of
Agriculture’s Rebecca Bech is scheduled to give the keynote speech…. The USDA
had committed about $45 million a year to fighting the spread of HLB nationally,
with about $11.5 million going to California with the rest going to other large
citrus-producing states, including Florida, Arizona and Texas. The money the
USDA has earmarked for California has been combined with about $15 million that
the state’s citrus growers collect annually through self-assessment fees. That
combined money has paid for programs here that have included trapping insects
to see where the psyllids are migrating, educating the public, and testing
trees and captured insects for the disease.
In
dairy industry consolidation, lush paydays [New York Times]
THERE
was a time not long ago when Gregg L. Engles was considered a genius in the
dairy industry, a shrewd C.E.O. who had cobbled together a string of local
businesses to create the nation’s largest milk bottler, Dean Foods….A
long-running antitrust lawsuit in a federal courthouse in Greeneville, Tenn.,
offered one possible explanation for his early success, by contending he
engaged in a conspiracy more than a decade ago that helped expedite dairy
industry consolidation and make himself a bundle. Filed by a group of dairy
farmers in 2007, the lawsuit said Mr. Engles cut a deal with the head of the
nation’s largest dairy cooperative, the Dairy Farmers of America, to eliminate
competition in the Southeast. Another lawsuit was filed in Vermont in 2009,
involving allegations of a similar scheme in the Northeast. Dean Foods, whose
brands include Garelick Farms, Land O Lakes and Horizon Organic, has settled
both lawsuits, without admitting wrongdoing; the suits continue against the
D.F.A….Dairy farmers say they didn’t share in the riches. Instead, they say
that they were paid suppressed prices for raw milk, and that the fallout
continues. They are seeking more than $1 billion, including penalties, in the
Southeast; the damage estimate for Northeast farmers remains under seal.
Ag
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