Rail
board to present recommended routes at Fresno meeting Fresno Bee
Engineers'
recommendations for high-speed train routes around Chowchilla and Hanford will
be presented Thursday when the California High-Speed Rail Authority's board
meets in Fresno.…What was once a convoluted "spaghetti bowl" of 14
alternatives for the Chowchilla Wye -- a Y-shaped junction in Madera County
connecting the north-south Merced-to-Fresno section of the statewide rail
system with an east-west line from the Bay Area -- has now been reduced to only
four.…For the Fresno-Bakersfield section of the rail line, planners are
recommending a route that loosely follows the BNSF Railway freight line now
shared by Amtrak's San Joaquin passenger trains. The proposed route, however,
would diverge from the BNSF line with tracks built below ground level in the
Hanford area, bypassing the city on its western edge.…No formal vote is
expected on either presentation. The options being considered for the
Chowchilla Wye will be evaluated for their effects on farmland, residents,
businesses and wildlife habitat in a report that will augment the environmental
impact report approved in May 2012 for the Merced-Fresno section of the rail
project.
Yolo
Bypass floodplain experiment produces salmon 'fatties' [Sacramento Bee]
The
salmon swam out of the rice fields Wednesday, and they came out fatter than
ever. The experiment to raise juvenile salmon in flooded rice fields began in
February when scientists put 50,000 pinky-sized fish into flooded test fields
on 18 acres in the Yolo Bypass north of Woodland. The goal of the experiment,
now in its second year, is to verify whether flooded rice fields are better for
young salmon than life in the river, and to find the best floodplain conditions
to help the fish thrive. The idea is to mimic historical conditions, when
flooding gave salmon access to virtually the entire Sacramento Valley. On
Wednesday, when researchers retrieved and weighed their test subjects, they
found the fish packed on weight at an impressive rate: 0.17 grams per day on
average.
Merced
researcher: Cows' diet can hurt soil, groundwater [Merced Sun-Star]
When
it comes to a cow's diet, many dairy farmers err on the side of caution, often
feeding their cows more salts and other minerals than are necessary, according
to a report in the Journal of Dairy Science. While ingesting unnecessary
minerals may have little direct effect on cows, inadequate amounts of these
essential nutrients can cause a host of health problems and reduce
productivity. However, the practice of overfeeding salts and other minerals to
cows can negatively affect soil and groundwater quality, according to report
author Alejandro Castillo, a University of California Cooperative Extension
researcher in Merced.
Should
prisons and schools have to buy California ag products? [Los Angeles Times]
A
California legislator wants to require the state's prisons, schools and other
public institutions to buy local agriculture products to support California
farmers. Assemblyman Chris Holden (D-Pasadena) recently introduced the Choose
California Act, a bill that would require public institutions to buy California
agriculture products if the price is within 5% of the lowest out-of-state
competitor. Schools would be exempt from that rule and would be required to buy
California-grown products only if they are cheaper.…The measure cleared the
accountability and administrative review committee on a 12-1 vote
Wednesday.…The measure, which has the support of the California Farm Bureau
Federation, moves to the Assembly's agriculture committee next.
Meat
industry to reboot labels to help consumers [Associated Press]
…The
American meat industry is rolling out a refresh of the often confusing
40-year-old system used for naming the various cuts of beef, pork, lamb and
veal. That's because the system - the Uniform Retail Meat Identification
Standards, or URMIS - was designed more for the needs of retailers and butchers
than for the convenience of harried shoppers more familiar with Shake 'n Bake
than boneless shank cuts. The bottom line is that meat counter confusion isn't
good for sales. So after nearly two years of consumer research, the National
Pork Board, the Beef Checkoff Program and federal agriculture officials have
signed off on an updated labeling system that should hit stores just in time
for prime grilling season.
Walmart
strains to keep aisles stocked fresh [New York Times]
Michelle
Obama visited a Walmart in February to extol the fresh, healthy food in the
company’s grocery aisles. But Walmart, Ms. Obama’s corporate partner in a
campaign to make food healthier and more affordable, has been running into
problems with food that is not so fresh. Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer
and grocer, has cut so many employees that it no longer has enough workers to
stock its shelves properly, according to some employees and industry analysts.
Internal notes from a March meeting of top Walmart managers show the company
grappling with low customer confidence in its produce and poor quality.…Walmart
is addressing the grocery concerns with measures like a new inventory system
and signs that will help employees figure out what is fresh and what is not,
Jack L. Sinclair, Walmart United States executive vice president for food, said
in an interview.
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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