Growers
plan quarantines to battle citrus pest [Fresno Bee]
About
700 citrus growers, packers and nursery owners met with state and county
officials Wednesday in Tulare to voice their concerns over the recent discovery
of one of the citrus industry's most dreaded pests. Parts of Tulare County, the
state's leading orange grower, have been under careful watch by agriculture
officials after they found three Asian citrus psyllids, a tiny insect capable
of carrying a deadly plant disease….On Wednesday, anxious farmers, who crowded
into the International Agri-Center's Heritage Complex, peppered state and
county regulators with questions on what steps they will have to take to
protect their crop -- and at what cost.…Marilyn Kinoshita, Tulare County
agriculture commissioner, said that at the earliest, the boundary lines will be
revealed next week and the rules would remain in effect for a minimum of two
years.Who is in boundary lines matters to growers and packers. Those inside the
zone will likely have to pay for cleaning equipment to make sure bins of citrus
are free of leaves and stems, favorite hiding places of the psyllid.…Nursery
owners in the quarantine zone face tougher restrictions.
Salmon
release is step in Calif. river restoration [Associated Press]
California's
second-longest river once teemed with salmon that swam from San Francisco Bay
to spawn near Fresno. But that was before the Friant Dam diverted the San
Joaquin River to serve agriculture needs 62 years ago. On Wednesday, biologists
released two Chinook salmon 30 miles below the dam, a milestone in one of the
most complex river restoration projects in North America. The hope is the two
fish continue their journey and spawn in the same gravel beds where swarms of
their ancestors were so thick that locals said it seemed they could walk across
the shallow river on their backs.
“Cluck
you!” Foster Farms sues Zacky [Wall Street Journal]
Zacky
Farms has ruffled some feathers by starting to sell Zacky-branded chicken after
having complied for 11 years with a promise not to use its logo on chicken,
according to a bankruptcy court complaint filed against it. So Foster Farms,
another California poultry producer, which is known for its impostor chicken
commercials, is suing Zacky Farms in what’s shaping up to be a giant chicken
fight. In 2001, Foster Farms acquired Zacky Farms’ “chicken-related assets” in
a multimillion-dollar deal that forbade Zacky from using its name on chicken
products, according to court documents. Zacky’s poultry business is primarily
turkey sales now, but it does still raise chickens—it has 1.9 million turkeys
and 600,000 chickens, according to its bankruptcy filing.
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Strawberry
fields ... not forever [Orange County Register]
They
are sweet and delicious and for many of the old-timers in this city, the stuff
of memories. They are strawberries. They're the city's emblem. And now they're
gone. The last strawberry field in Garden Grove – home to an annual Strawberry
Festival that boasts the largest strawberry shortcake in the world – was
recently cleared. It went the way of much of the agricultural land that once
made up Orange County, with its former vast fields of walnuts, lima beans,
sugar beets and, of course, oranges. The strawberry field at Hazard Avenue and
Euclid Street will be turned into 56 new homes.
Commentary: Water management
strategies help state deal with dry times [Sacramento Bee]
Two
innovative water management tools – water marketing and groundwater banking –
can help California manage its scarce water resources more flexibly and
sustainably. California's experience with them shows both their promise and
what remains to be done to ensure their success….Despite its good showing,
groundwater banking still faces obstacles. More comprehensive local basin
management – a common practice in Southern California and Silicon Valley –
would prevent unsustainable pumping and long-term declines in groundwater levels.
Outside pressure – with a credible threat that the state would step in if local
agencies fail to do so – might be the best way to proceed, ideally accompanied
by positive financial incentives. To strengthen the water market, the state
needs to clarify and simplify the institutional review process, while
continuing to ensure that transfers do not harm the environment or water users.
Both marketing and banking depend on addressing infrastructure weaknesses in
the Delta, which have already limited the market's ability to furnish water
supplies in dry years and the availability of supplies to replenish groundwater
banks in wet years.
Editorial: Point Reyes oyster
farm's lease should be extended [Marin Independent Journal]
THE
TIME has come to decide the fate of the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. in the Point
Reyes National Seashore. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar would be wise to give
the Lunny family a new 10-year lease to operate in Drake's Estero. The oyster
farm's 40-year lease ends on Nov. 30….We support a new 10-year lease that is
nonrenewable. The oyster operation is not without impacts on the estero, but
they are minimal, according to scientific research that can be trusted, and
Lunny has been a good steward of the estero since he bought the operation from
the Johnson family. The National Park Service should not be rewarded for the
disgraceful tactics it used in its fight to get rid of the oyster farm.
Ag
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