Prop.
37 worries Tulare County farmers [Visalia Times-Delta]
Jolene
Edwards of Visalia doesn’t see why some people are opposing Proposition
37….“And as the consumers, we should have the right to know what we are
buying,” she said, adding that “all it is is product labeling.” But many in
Tulare County’s agricultural community say the potential effects of Prop. 37
could be far less benign….“Pretty much, I think to supply the world with the
food we need, we need this technology,” Steve Godlin said of plants with
genetic modifications usually intended to increase crop yields or improve
resistance to destructive diseases, insects, bad weather and herbicides. And
while some may see“genetically-modified” food labels as inconsequential,
Godlin, a beekeeper and president of the Tulare County Farm Bureau, said they
“makes it appear to be a dangerous thing. It’s a negative connotation.”
Commentary: Is Proposition 37
back to the future for unfair competition suits? [Los Angeles Times]
Proposition
37, the ballot measure to require labeling of genetically modified foods sold
in California, includes a provision that allows anyone to sue over a product
that allegedly should have been so labeled but wasn't. In that sense it is an
indirect descendant of a 2004 ballot measure that changed California's unfair
competition law. If it passes, it would ever so slightly roll back that
measure….Eight years ago Californians adopted Proposition 64, which among other
things limited standing to sue under Sec. 17200 to only those plaintiffs who
could allege they were in some way injured. So at the very least you have to
buy the product in question and usually have to show you suffered some loss
because of it….The enforcement provision of Proposition 37 would reopen a door,
or perhaps a window, to universal standing to sue. You would not have to prove
that you were injured by a product that allegedly should have been labeled but
was not. You would not even have to show that you bought the product based on
your belief in the label or lack thereof, or that you bought the product at
all.
San
Francisco faces environmental identity crisis [Los Angeles Times]
Next
week, voters in San Francisco, one of the nation's most progressive and
environmentally aware cities, will be asked to decide just how green they want
to be….A measure on San Francisco's November ballot asks voters if the city
should develop an $8-million blueprint to drain the valley and devise ways to
make up for the resulting loss of hydropower and water storage. If city voters
say yes, they would decide in 2016 whether to actually carry out the plan and
empty Hetch Hetchy Reservoir. Proponents have an uphill battle. Virtually the
entire San Francisco political and business establishment is adamantly against
the proposal. Former Mayor Dianne Feinstein, California's senior U.S. senator,
says tearing down O'Shaughnessy "makes no sense." Mayor Edwin Lee has
called the idea "stupid" and "insane."
Organic
farm gnat controls approved by county [North County Times]
An
ordinance that gives the county power to order organic farmers to take extreme,
possibly costly measures, to control eye gnats that are drawn to their farms
was approved Wednesday by the county’s board of supervisors. Although the
ordinance doesn’t include the worst-case scenario option of spraying pesticides
to control the tiny flies, it does give authorities the ability to order
certain farming methods — methods that the lone farmer who will be affected by
the rules says could force him out of business if they are fully implemented.
The ordinance is countywide, but really addresses only one of the almost 350
organic farms in the county.
'Farm-to-Fork'
campaign markets Sacramento as food capital [Sacramento Bee]
Flanked
by more than three dozen of the region's most notable chefs and restaurateurs,
Mayor Kevin Johnson proclaimed Sacramento "America's Farm-to-Fork
Capital" on Wednesday….Plans are being made for a food festival in the
region next fall, culminating with a large culinary event on Capitol Mall. The
festival also will include events at farms in the region, wine-tasting
excursions and visits from renowned chefs from around the country and
region….According to the mayor's office, the Sacramento region contains between
7,000 and 8,000 acres of "boutique farms" and is home to more than 50
farmers markets. Local restaurants are increasingly taking advantage of that
access by serving food harvested from local farms and ranches.
ABC
News asks judge to toss 'pink slime' lawsuit [Associated Press]
Lawyers
for ABC News asked a judge Wednesday to toss out a $1 billion defamation
lawsuit filed by a South Dakota-based meat processor over a meat product that
critics dub "pink slime," saying the news organization did not
knowingly disparage the company or its product. Beef Products Inc. sued ABC
News Inc. in September, claiming the network damaged the company by misleading
consumers into believing the product is unhealthy and unsafe. The lawsuit seeks
damages under South Dakota's defamation law, as well as a 1994 state law that
allows businesses to sue anyone who knowingly spreads false information that a
food product is unsafe. The Dakota Dunes, S.D.-based meat processor is seeking
$1.2 billion in damages for roughly 200 "false and misleading and defamatory"
statements about the product - officially known as lean, finely textured beef.
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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