Farm
bill extension offers little help for Kern growers [Bakersfield Californian]
Kern
County dairies benefited some but local growers of specialty crops such as
grapes and nuts received little direct help from Congress' vote this week to
extend the 2008 Farm Bill until Sept. 30. The extension came Tuesday night as
part of a deal to avert the "fiscal cliff" array of tax increases and
spending cuts. While it provided limited support that should prevent a spike in
milk prices, the deal essentially gave Congress nine more months to come up
with reforms some say are still needed. Notably for Kern growers, the extension
offers no funding for the federal government's specialty crop block grant
program, which last year provided California $19 million for things like pest
control, crop research and overseas marketing assistance. "That money will
not be available until there's a new five-year farm bill," said Rayne
Pegg, manager of the California Farm Bureau Federation's federal policy
division.
Latest
immigration policy change to benefit Monterey County families [Monterey County
Herald]
In
the latest move to clear paths to legal residency for undocumented immigrants,
the Obama administration on Wednesday ruled thousands of foreign spouses and
children can stay with their U.S. citizen relatives while applying for green
cards. The policy "reduces long periods of separation between U.S.
citizens and their immediate relatives," Alejandro Mayorkas, director of
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, said Wednesday in a conference call.
Cesar Lara, executive director of the Citizenship Project in Salinas, said the
move would help hundreds of families in Monterey County.
1st
Sierra snowpack survey looks good [San Francisco Chronicle]
…The
first Sierra snow survey of the year Wednesday found a snowpack across the
Sierra with a water content that is now 134 percent of normal for this date.
It's a good sign because plenty of snow in the mountains means more water in
the state's reservoirs, which means no drought in the summer, healthy crops
and, presumably, tap water galore. But there is still plenty of time for things
to go wrong, according to California's water lords, who generally do not trust
Mother Nature even when she's slapping snowballs in their faces.
Fresno
County judge rules in favor of I-5 solar project [Fresno Bee]
A
Fresno County judge has ruled that a solar energy project along Interstate 5
can move forward despite arguments from the state farm bureau that it will eat
up valuable California farmland….Superior Court Judge Donald Black found last
month that Fresno County officials acted appropriately two years ago when they
canceled a farm-conservation contract that allowed a solar development to
proceed on ag land near Coalinga. The California Farm Bureau Federation sued
the county, alleging that the Board of Supervisors did not have the right to
cancel the contract put in place under the state's farm-friendly Williamson
Act…."We like the parts where he said he wasn't making a determination
that solar was any more important than ag land," Farm Bureau President
Paul Wenger said. Wenger said the Farm Bureau remains committed to making sure
Williamson Act contracts are kept in place as much as possible and that the
group would continue to scrutinize cancellations it may feel are inappropriate.
He said the lawsuit showed that the farm bureau is willing to stand up for
farmland protection.
All
fired up [Santa Barbara Independent]
Though
the deadline just passed for Santa Barbara County residents to pay a
controversial state fee for wildfire prevention services, the next round of
notices will arrive in April or May, a CalFire spokesperson said last week. The
bills for $150 with 30-day deadlines were sent mid-November to 14,000 of the
county’s “habitable structures” in what’s called the State Responsibility Area
(SRA) — privately owned
forest, watershed, and rangeland outside city and federal boundaries — and the revenue will
backfill CalFire’s coffers since, with the passing of the 2011-2012 budget, it
no longer receives money for fire prevention from the state’s General Fund….No
one has argued that the work isn’t needed, but many have been rankled and
confused by how the SRA fees were implemented, why certain zones are or aren’t
included in the SRA, what constitutes a “habitable structure,” and so on. And
the news that a fresh round of bills is on the way so soon after the last ones
were paid — information not yet
disseminated by CalFire or the Board of Equalization (BOE), which does the
actual collecting — will likely solidify
frustrations, some of which were voiced during a Santa Barbara County Board of
Supervisors meeting on December 11.
U.S.,
Mexico to open joint inspection stations [North County Times]
U.S.
and Mexican authorities are preparing for the opening of a customs inspections
station in Tijuana that will allow U.S. officers for the first time to screen
commercial shipments on Mexican soil before they reach the border. The
facility, built by the Mexican federal government, would have officers from
both countries operating out of the same compound near the Otay Mesa border
crossing. The aim of the pilot program is to speed up the processing of certain
produce items — and thus improve the bottom line for businesses….The planned
screening station would be launched as a 180-day, voluntary program limited to
inspections of northbound perishable goods that are especially time-sensitive.
These include strawberries, tomatoes, cucumbers and other produce approved
under Customs and Border Protection’s National Agriculture Release Program,
which seeks to expedite the inspection of high-volume, low-risk commodities.
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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