Senate
panel considers ag jobs provisions in immigration plan [Gannett News Service]
A
proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein to legalize up to 1.1 million undocumented
farmworkers got its first hearing on Capitol Hill on Monday as a Senate
committee spent the day examining various aspects of a sweeping
immigration-reform bill. Feinstein, a California Democrat, wrote the farmworker
provision in the bill along with Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo., and Republican
Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida….Feinstein said the
farmworker language aims to help U.S. farmers, who are struggling under a
persistent worker shortage, and to create a professional class of skilled
agricultural laborers.
U.S.
agriculture is close to a “national crisis with respect to retaining this
country’s agricultural prowess,” Feinstein said, adding: “Farms cannot farm because
they do not have a consistent supply of workers.”
Tulare
County farmers' water cut even more [Visalia Times-Delta]
The
tough water year Gamdur Gill was expecting is getting worse. Gill, who grows
almonds and grapes on his farms south of Earlimart, heard the news last week
that spring and summer water allotments for him and other farmers who get their
water from the Friant-Kern Canal were being cut — again. Back in February, the
U.S Bureau of Reclamation announced that Friant-Kern customers would get water
equal to to just 40 percent of their normal allotments for the year because of
the Valley’s unusually dry winter and a spring that also is starting out dry.
Earlier this month, the bureau cut that allotment to 35 percent, and last week
— after reviewing hand measurements showing critically low snowpack levels in
the Sierra — the water allotment was cut again to about 33 percent of normal.
Agency,
groups back Yuba River fish study [Marysville Appeal Democrat]
A
proposed $100,000 federal study to set the groundwork for a more detailed look
at fish passage on the Yuba River has been endorsed by the local water agency
and two environmental groups. The Yuba County Water Agency, along with the
South Yuba River Citizens League and American Rivers environmental groups
signed the letter urging approval of funding for the study. It asks for support
from US Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer and US Congressman John
Garamendi. The study would be the latest development in the long-standing issue
of how to best protect Chinook salmon, steelhead and green sturgeon — all
listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act — on the Yuba
River. Suggestions on ways to do that have ranged from removing both the Englebright
and Daguerre Point dams to trucking fish from one side of the dams to the
other.
Tool
identifies Calif.'s most polluted cities [Associated Press]
Seven
of California's 10 ZIP codes most burdened by pollution are in the San Joaquin
Valley and three are in Los Angeles, according to a new tool developed by state
environmental officials to target communities for cleanup…. The study of 1,769
ZIP code areas by the Cal EPA looked at everything from pesticide use to
traffic density to groundwater threats. It scored the environmental hazards in
each community then added in human health factors such as the number of
children and elderly in the area, the birth weights of infants, asthma rates
and poverty levels. The resulting CalEnviroScreen released Tuesday on the Cal
EPA's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment website is a tool that
can be used by planners to identify communities most burdened by pollution and
to direct cleanup funding to them….Also agriculture interests complained that
the presence of pesticides in a community does not correlate to exposure
levels, a point Cal EPA concedes. The agency said the assessments of pesticides
in communities will be updated as more data becomes available in the coming
years.
Activists
protest biotech business linked to genetically modified seeds [Monterey County
Herald]
Eight
people protested the use of genetically modified seeds outside a Salinas
business with ties to biotech giant Monsanto on Monday. Seminis, a vegetable
seed company based in Oxnard, became a wholly owned subsidiary of Monsanto in
2005, according to its website. The "Occupy Monsanto" protestors said
they objected to Monsanto's use of genetically modified organisms, or GMOs, in
agriculture.
NM
slaughterhouse ground zero in horse debate [Associated Press]
About
five miles from this southeastern New Mexico town's famed UFO museum, tucked
between dairy farms, is a nondescript metal building that could be home to any
number of small agricultural businesses. But Valley Meat Co. is no longer just
another agricultural business. It's a former cattle slaughterhouse whose kill
floor has been redesigned for horses to be led in one at a time, secured in a
huge metal chute, shot in the head, then processed into meat for shipment
overseas. It's also ground zero for an emotional, national debate over a return
to domestic horse slaughter that has divided horse rescue and animal humane
groups, ranchers, politicians and Indian tribes.
Ag
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