California
Releases Part of Plan to Restore Delta [Associated Press]
California
water officials released on Thursday the first part of a $23 billion plan to
restore and protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem and guarantee a
stable water supply for millions of Californians….The plan's first four
chapters, released by the California Resources Agency, spell out the dismal
state of the delta and detail conservation strategies to restore its dwindling
fish species. The chapters include a description of the proposal unveiled by
Gov. Jerry Brown in July: the 35-mile twin underground tunnel project that
would replace the delta's current pumping system….Officials acknowledge the
plan does not guarantee specific water supply deliveries — those will be
dictated by the health of the species. That means if species don't recover or
don't recover quickly enough, less water would be pumped, said Richard Stapler,
spokesman for the California Natural Resources Agency. Officials also say it's
currently not known how much outflow is needed for the recovery of fish
species, or how habitat restoration will affect that balance. Scientific
studies would accompany construction over the next 10 to 15 years, officials
said. But without the plan, officials said, species will continue to decline
and regulations will further curtail water deliveries, which is unacceptable
for California's economy.
Chef
Alice Waters, Sonoma County Farm Bureau back Drakes Bay Oyster Co. [Santa Rosa
Press Democrat]
Famed
Berkeley chef Alice Waters and the Sonoma County Farm Bureau filed a federal
court brief Thursday supporting Drakes Bay Oyster Company's battle to stay in
business in Point Reyes National Seashore. Their 29-page “friend of the court”
brief opposed the National Park Service's order to shut the oyster farm on
Drakes Estero, asserting the move is “inconsistent with the best thinking of
the modern environmental movement.” The park service and “other traditional
conservationists” seeking the closure are “stuck in an archaic and discredited
preservationist paradigm,” the brief said. Eight other parties, including Hayes
Street Grill in San Francisco, Marin County Agriculture Commissioner Stacy
Carlsen, the California Farm Bureau Federation and Marin County Farm Bureau,
joined in the brief.
Panel
looks at Ag disaster planning [Salinas Californian]
Salinas
Valley growers on Thursday told a state seismic panel how they have prepared
themselves to prevent economic disaster to the valley’s $4 billion agriculture
industry following a major earthquake. The California Seismic Safety Commission
held the special meeting at California State University, Monterey Bay, to hear
from numerous experts, including two major growers/packers in the Salinas
Valley and a University of California, Davis, economist who is studying the
vulnerabilities of the agriculture industry statewide after a major temblor.
The threats to agriculture are varied and numerous, but as Anna Caballero, a
member of Gov. Jerry Brown’s cabinet and a former mayor of Salinas, said at the
beginning of the meeting, “no one is exempt from suffering the economic impacts
of a major seismic event.” At first blush many would wonder how devastating
could an earthquake be to a field of lettuce. The answer is: plenty.
Lumberyards
bustling again as housing market improves [Los Angeles Times]
Thanks
to a housing rebound in which new homes and apartments are being built,
California's timber industry is slowly on the mend after being devastated
during the economic downturn. Sawmills that cut timber into boards are
reopening and hiring again. Truck companies that haul that wood out of state
are revving up. Lumber prices have soared more than 40% over last year.
"The last few years have been a slow recovery from the recession for wood
products," said Phil Tedder, a forestry consultant at Resource Economics.
"The main consumer was new housing, and that obviously wasn't very good.
But now things are picking up." Sierra Pacific Industries, one of the
biggest timber companies in the country, has hired 140 lumberjacks, machinists
and electricians for its reopened sawmill in Sonora, Calif., after closing it
in 2009 when the housing market crashed.
Pacific
trade pact calls for tough Japan reforms [Associated Press]
Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe is set to announce Friday that Japan will join talks on a
Pacific trade pact that would oblige the country to undertake major reforms,
especially in farming. The expected announcement confirming plans to seek
participation in the U.S.-led Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, is raising
protests from farmers opposed to opening protected home markets to foreign
competition. Although rural voters are a traditional bastion of support for
Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, many in Japan see the pact as a way to overcome
stubborn resistance to reforms essential for reviving the stagnant economy….Abe
held back from committing to the trade pact until his recent visit to the U.S.
where after meeting with President Barack Obama the two leaders issued a
statement appearing to offer some wiggle room for Abe on thorny issues such as
heavy protections for Japan's rice farmers.
Editorial: Why Label
Genetically Engineered Food? [New York Times]
Any
private company has the right to require its suppliers to meet labeling
standards it chooses to set, and consumers have a right to know what’s in the
food they are buying. But there is no reliable evidence that genetically
modified foods now on the market pose any risk to consumers….For now, there
seems little reason to make labeling compulsory. Consumers can already find
products free of genetically engineered ingredients, with labels voluntarily
placed by the manufacturers.
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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