Tulare
County changes solar farm policy [Visalia Times Delta]
There
is less land in unincorporated Tulare County where solar farms can be built
after the Board of Supervisors voted to change the county’s policy….The board’s
request was triggered by members of the Tulare County Farm Bureau, who were
concerned that the solar policy the supervisors approved in 2010 didn’t do
enough to prohibit construction of solar energy operations on prime farmland.
That policy stated that the board would “not necessarily support” prohibiting
solar farm construction on prime farmland, and most of the more than 1,900
acres where the county has approved 17 utility-scale solar farms are on
non-prime land….“We are concerned that the non-prime ‘case by case’
[consideration] approach is not yet clearly defined for prime farm lands, and
we strongly discourage the county from permitting any solar development on
lands that can support viable agriculture production,” states a letter the Farm
Bureau sent to the county Planning Commission in September.
Divergent
views on illegal immigration emerge in state GOP [Los Angeles Times]
California's
elected Republicans have long had a simple approach to illegal immigration:
Those who broke the law coming here should leave. But the confluence of
politics and personal threat have now put many Republican legislators in
Washington and Sacramento in a very different place: eager to embrace an
overhaul of immigration laws and willing to consider legal status for some of
the country's nearly 12 million illegal immigrants, 3 million of whom live in
California. In Sacramento and Washington, party orthodoxy is being defied. At
least six GOP legislators in Sacramento have aligned themselves with Democrats
to support a path to citizenship for those in the country illegally. Several
congressional Republicans from California have said they would consider
granting legal status to some illegal immigrants as part of a comprehensive
immigration overhaul.
Spraying
for citrus pest begins today in SM [Santa Maria Times]
The
California Department of Food and Agriculture will begin spraying pesticide in
central Santa Maria today in an attempt to kill Asian citrus psyllid, a pest
that carries a disease devastating to citrus trees. The department discovered
the pest in Santa Maria and Santa Barbara in October and December last year.
The discovery was a first for Santa Barbara County, said Guy Tingos, the
assistant agricultural commissioner for the county. “This is the first record
of the pest in the county and the first eradication for this pest in the
county,” Tingos said.
Mendota
beet ethanol plant waits on $5M grant [Fresno Business Journal]
Developers
of a planned biorefinery in Mendota are hoping to get $5 million from the
California Energy Commission as part of a program to encourage the development
of alternative fuels. The pilot-scale biorefinery broke ground last October
following years of planning by former sugar beet farmers seeking an alternative
for their crop when the Spreckels Sugar plant closed its doors in 2008. Now,
the consortium is looking at technology able to convert 10,000 tons of sugar
beets into 285,000 gallons of biofuel ethanol.
California's
immigrant farmers squeezed by Silicon Valley success [Public Radio
International]
California's
Asian community is fed, often quite literally, by Chinese farmers on the
fringes of San Francisco. But as Silicon Valley expands, those farmers living
and working on small farms near growing cities are being squeezed out by
economic growth. Bob and Judy Kuang’s farm begins where a cul-de-sac ends in
the tiny town of San Martin, Calif. It’s about 30 miles south of San Jose and
home to some of the country’s most expensive real estate. At first glance, it
might not even be recognizable as a working farm. The vegetables grown there —
Chinese celery (gao choy or chives) gau gei (leaves of Chinese wolfberry) and
gai lan, which looks and tastes nothing like Western broccoli despite its
common nickname (“Chinese broccoli”) — are hidden from sight in a greenhouse.
The only thing that catches the eye is a cottage with corrugated tin panels.
Commentary: It’s the Sugar,
Folks [New York Times]
Sugar
is indeed toxic. It may not be the only problem with the Standard American
Diet, but it’s fast becoming clear that it’s the major one. A study published
in the Feb. 27 issue of the journal PLoS One links increased consumption of
sugar with increased rates of diabetes by examining the data on sugar
availability and the rate of diabetes in 175 countries over the past decade.
And after accounting for many other factors, the researchers found that
increased sugar in a population’s food supply was linked to higher diabetes
rates independent of rates of obesity. In other words, according to this study,
obesity doesn’t cause diabetes: sugar does.
Ag
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