Cabinet
picks could take on climate policy [New York Times]
President
Obama on Monday named two people to his cabinet who will be charged with making
good on his threat to use the powers of the executive branch to tackle climate
change and energy policy if Congress does not act quickly. Mr. Obama nominated
Gina McCarthy, a tough-talking native of Boston and an experienced clean air
regulator, to take charge at the Environmental Protection Agency, and Ernest J.
Moniz, a physicist and strong advocate of natural gas and nuclear power as
cleaner alternatives to coal, to run the Department of Energy. The
appointments, which require Senate confirmation, send an unmistakable signal
that the president intends to mount a multifaceted campaign in his second term
to tackle climate change by using all the executive branch tools at his
disposal…. Michael A. Levi, a climate and energy fellow at the Council on
Foreign Relations, said that the appointments of Ms. McCarthy, 58, and Mr.
Moniz, 68, represent a continuation of the president’s first-term policies
rather than a sharp break. The two are practical, practiced insiders who put a
premium on finding workable solutions and have more experience navigating the
federal bureaucracy and Congress than the officials they have been tapped to
succeed, Lisa P. Jackson at the E.P.A. and Steven Chu at Energy.
Sequester
could back up meat processing [Visalia Times-Delta]
The
federal sequester is only a few days old, and worries about whether the $85.4
billion in automatic budget cuts might take place have been replaced with
worries about where those cuts will occur. And that concern is being felt by
dairy farmers and ranchers in Tulare County and across the country amid word
that the cuts will involve furloughs of U.S. Department of Agriculture meat and
poultry inspectors….In a letter sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee a
month ago, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack stated that the sequester likely would
cost the agency $2 billion by the time the federal fiscal year ends on Sept.
30. The letter goes on to say slaughterhouses across the country likely will
lose 15 days of production while USDA inspectors are furloughed because of the
budget cuts, resulting in an estimated $10 billion in production losses and
$400 billion in lost wages for workers in the meat and poultry industries. “If
they get backed up at a packing plant, that’s going to be a problem,” said Tom
Barcellos, a Tipton–area dairy owner who worries a backup of cows and steers
being sent for slaughter may reduce the prices he and other dairies get for
their livestock for slaughter…. Tulare County has no commercial
slaughterhouses, so dairies, ranches and herd auctioneers here send their
livestock to be slaughtered to other areas, including the Harris Ranch Beef Co.
slaughterhouse in Selma. “Any impact is not going to start anytime soon,” as it
may take a month to notify the inspectors and other FSIS staff about the
furloughs, said Mike Smith, Harris Ranch’s partnership for quality marketing
manager. Based on his discussions with federal and industry representatives,
FSIS is expected to work with meat plants to minimize the adverse effects of
the furloughs, and plants will try to adjust their operating schedules
accordingly, he said. “Sometimes plants will not work on given days and adjust
production schedules,” Smith said, adding that he didn’t expect the sequester
to cause substantial problems for the meat-packing industry. “They’re going to
find solutions.”
Valley
almond growers count on remaining bees to get busy [Modesto Bee]
When
people call in sick, co-workers might try to pick up the slack. Almond growers
hope the same is true for the worker bees in their orchards. The 2013
pollination seems to have gone well despite a shortage of bee colonies for rent
to growers. Credit the mostly mild weather over the past week and a half, ideal
for getting bees up into the branches….The bee supply is down perhaps 15
percent from last year, said Darren Cox, a Utah-based beekeeper who services
almond orchards. One key factor was the drought last year in the Great Plains
and Midwest, which shriveled many of the flowers that nourish bees in
summer….The shortage has raised the cost of renting bees. Gil Silbernagel, who
grows almonds northeast of Waterford, said he paid about $170 per colony this
year. Some growers have seen rents top $200 — about five times the going rate a
decade ago.
Op-Ed: Environmentalists
try to squash a bug killer [Wall Street Journal]
In
January, the European Commission advised the EU not to use neonicotinoids, a
relatively new class of agricultural insecticides. Now the member countries are
considering whether to ban the chemical. The Commission's warning came after
heavy pressure from environmentalists who cited concern about honeybees and
other insects that pollinate important crops. This is bad advice. The evidence
against the insecticide is weak. Banning it would be at best premature and
likely to do far more harm than good….Environmental groups such as Greenpeace,
Friends of the Earth and the Center for Food Safety principally blame
neonicitinoids, which have been used widely around the world for at least a
decade. But bee die-offs are not new. Bee colonies were also reported disappearing
in the early part of the 20th century, long before modern insecticides. If
neonicotinoids were causing die-offs, there should be more of them with the
higher use of these insecticides—yet there aren't….There are healthy bee
populations in countries that use neonicotinoids, and there are reports of
die-offs in countries such as Switzerland, where neonicotinoids are not used.
The reality is that bee die-offs may be caused by numerous factors, such as the
varroa mite, other parasites and viruses.
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Humboldt
County Farm Bureau: 100 years and moving forward [Eureka Times-Standard]
Walking
through a series of farm gates on a sunny but chilly winter morning, past
barking dogs and the hoof trimmer clipping a dairy cow's hooves, Ferndale
dairyman John Vevoda approached the covered area he called the maternity pen.…Clearly devoted to his organic dairy farm,
Vevoda, a dairyman for 40 years, also dedicates countless hours and energy to
the values of agriculture through his involvement with the Humboldt County Farm
Bureau. He's a past president and current board member, he represents Humboldt
and Del Norte counties to the state Farm Bureau in Sacramento and he's lobbied
in Washington, D.C. on issues of importance to local agriculture. And he's
hardly alone in his commitment. Celebrating its 100th anniversary this year,
the Farm Bureau is the county's largest general agricultural organization. The
private, nonprofit, membership-based group represents the dairy, timber,
cattle, produce, oyster, winery and floral industries; and those involved
devote their efforts to promoting and preserving agriculture in Humboldt
County. As the first Farm Bureau in California and only the second in the
nation, it's sharing centennial celebrations this year with two other North
Coast agricultural organizations, the University of California Cooperative
Extension and the 4-H Program -- also firsts in the state. Though the last 100
years have brought dramatic change, the Farm Bureau has adapted and evolved. It
begins its second century as a dynamic organization that represents and
advocates for the county's agricultural producers as well as Humboldt County
residents who value a rural lifestyle.
Editorial: Ag expenses add to
cost of food [Chico Enterprise-Record]
California
business owners love to complain — often with good reason — about the state's
meddlesome business regulations. But luckily for those business owners, if the
red tape gets unbearable, they can move to another state. Many have. It's a
little tougher to move your business if you're a farmer. You can't just take
the rice field or almond orchard and move it to Nevada or Texas, as other
businesses can. You're pretty well stuck. And sometimes it seems the state
treats farmers as if it knows they aren't going anywhere….The latest annoyance
is a new law monitoring how much water is used for agricultural purposes. It's
based in part on a lack of knowledge by politicians in Sacramento, who
apparently suspect that water is being wasted and therefore the problem needs
an expensive solution. The idea of figuring out how much water is used for
agriculture sounds like a good idea, and it is. That's why water districts
already do it. Water is expensive and limited, so monitoring usage is more
scientific and precise than people realize. But the state wants it done the
same way everywhere, and the switch to that new method of metering will cost
money….Farmers already operate on fairly thin margins, especially if they don't
receive government subsidies. If more meters mean more expense, farmers will
pass along the cost of the mandates to consumers.
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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