Feds
cut Valley water allocation to 20% [Fresno Bee]
Already
reeling from a paltry allocation of federal water from the Central Valley
Project, farmers on the west side of the Valley were stung Friday when their
anticipated supplies were cut even further. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
announced that the past couple of months of dry weather prompted a decrease in
water allocations to contractors south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin river
delta to 20% of the contracted supply. In February, the bureau had estimated
the allocation at 25%. The earlier allocation was based on pumping restrictions
in the delta to protect threatened fish species under the federal Endangered
Species Act. But dry weather from January through March prompted federal
officials to classify the Sacramento and San Joaquin river supplies as critical
based on reduced river flows into the delta.
http://www.fresnobee.com/2013/03/22/3226211/feds-cut-valley-water-allocation.html#storylink=misearch
California
voters, lawmakers have no say in OK of major river diversion plan [Sacramento
Bee]
…Despite
these high stakes, as the process now stands California voters will have no
formal say in approving the plan. Nor will the state Legislature.…As the plan
is finalized in the year ahead, the public will have opportunities to comment
and criticize, as residents would with a new housing subdivision or highway
widening or any other project subject to the Endangered Species Act and the California
Environmental Quality Act. But in the end, the transformation of the largest
estuary on the West Coast of the Americas is slated to be shaped and approved
by a handful of appointed government officials.
Fight
over immigrant wages stalls talks on bill [Wall Street Journal]
Negotiations
between business and labor appeared to reach a breaking point Friday evening,
jeopardizing the Senate's effort to finish its plan to overhaul the nation's
immigration system. A disagreement over how to set the minimum wages for future
low-skilled workers effectively stalled immigration negotiations Friday
evening. A bipartisan group of senators working on immigration legislation are
expected to continue discussing the issue over the two-week recess but it
appears they will fall short of their goal to reach a consensus on how to
rewrite immigration laws before they leave town….Negotiations also have soured
between farm worker unions and employers over how many farm workers should be
allowed in under a future visa program. Employers also are pushing to change the
way those workers are paid, likely yielding a lower wage, while a farm workers
union wants the current wage formulas to continue. Despite the disagreement,
the Senate group has been closing in on a deal to give farm workers here
illegally a faster path to permanent legal status than other illegal
immigrants.…The compromise would provide employers with a stable work force and
give workers an incentive to stay in often-difficult jobs.
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Valadao,
5 others seek to put California dairies into federal pricing program [Fresno
Bee]
California's
huge dairy industry, which has played by its own set of rules since the 1930s,
could partially end its unique way of doing business under new legislation
pushed this week by Rep. David Valadao and five other Central Valley lawmakers.
Valadao, R-Hanford, cited lost revenues and hard times while introducing a bill
late Thursday that would open the door for California dairy producers to
eventually enter a federal milk-marketing system….Valadao's bill would allow California
dairy producers to petition the Agriculture Department for entrance into the
federal milk-marketing order system. If the producers go ahead and file that
petition, the Agriculture Department would hold an industry vote. Approval by
two-thirds of the producers would be required for the move to succeed….The
bill, though, could also face "some pushback" from the dairy
processors who buy milk, Valadao acknowledged.
New
US-EU talks threatened by agriculture spats [Associated Press]
President
Barack Obama used Washington's grandest stage - the State of the Union speech -
to announce negotiations with Europe aimed at creating the world's largest free
trade agreement. Just weeks later, there are signs that old agriculture
disputes could be deal-killers. European Union leaders don't want the negotiations
to include discussions on their restrictions on genetically modified crops and
other regulations that keep U.S. farm products out of Europe. But Obama says
it's hard to imagine an agreement that doesn't address those issues. Powerful
U.S. agricultural lobbies will do their best to make sure Congress rejects any
pact that fails to address the restrictions.…Agricultural issues have long
bedeviled attempts to expand free trade across the Atlantic and have led each
side to file complaints against the other before the World Trade Organization,
an arbitrator in trade disputes. While the U.S. protests EU restrictions,
Europeans want the U.S. to reduce agricultural subsidies.
Record
crop insurance payout stirs subsidy debate [Associated Press]
Farmers
will be paid a record $16 billion in crop insurance claims for 2012 because of
the widespread drought, a staggering amount that has critics calling for
changes to what they say is an inefficient taxpayer subsidy the government
cannot afford. While farmers buy crop insurance from private companies, the federal
government subsidizes their premiums and picks up the tab for losses over a
certain amount. One analyst estimates the federal tab for 2012 will come to
about $11 billion. It is the second year in a row that U.S. farmers have
received record crop insurance payments as flooding and drought in 2011 was
followed by an even worse drought last year. The $16 billion in payments also
comes as lawmakers working on a new farm bill have been considering a shift
from disaster relief to crop insurance as a more predicable way of protecting
farmers from natural disasters.
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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