Judge
orders FDA to proceed on food-safety rules [Wall Street Journal]
A
federal judge ordered the Food and Drug Administration to move forward with
enacting an overhaul of U.S. food-safety regulations that were signed into law
two years ago. The Center for Food Safety, a group concerned with human health
issues, sued in August to prevent the agency from delaying enactment of the
2011 Food Safety Modernization Act. The FDA has missed most of the deadlines
set by Congress to implement new food-safety rules for domestic producers and
imports. In a decision Monday, Judge Phyllis J. Hamilton of U.S. District Court
for the Northern District of California said the agency shouldn't be able to
endlessly delay the process.…Judge Hamilton acknowledged the FDA's argument
that implementing the food-safety law is a "complex and difficult
task" and that the agency doesn't have enough specialists to move quicker,
but she said fixed deadlines are still necessary. She ordered the Center for
Food Safety to work with the FDA and agree on new timelines for the rules. The
judge asked them to present the rules to the court by May 20. An FDA official
declined to comment on the decision.
State
committed to fighting food fraud [Stockton]
Food
fraud takes many forms - horse meat labeled as beef in a frozen lasagna, toxic
melamine plastic added to infant formula to fool testers or cheap canola oil
dyed emerald green passing as virgin olive oil. But they're all intended to
cheat consumers out of their money and sometimes, unintentionally, their lives.
Battling such fraud was the focus of a conference Tuesday at University of
California, Davis, that drew dozens of people, including food producers,
researchers, legal experts and government leaders. It is an important fight,
said Karen Ross, the state secretary of food and agriculture. California's
$42.5 billion agricultural industry is bolstered by consumers' confidence in
its products. And Ross said the state is active in ensuring label and
advertised claims are met, helping regulate organic food standards and farmers'
markets, and enforcing standards for products such as processing tomatoes,
strawberries, garlic and leafy greens. "We want to stand for the strongest
standards possible to keep that consumer confidence in California
products," she said.
Farm
Bureau urges caution in reforming environmental law [Napa Valley Register]
Some
Napa County supervisors spoke in favor of reforming the California
Environmental Quality Act Tuesday, but stopped short of throwing their support
behind any specific proposal that’s currently being considered in the
Legislature.…Critics of the law assert special interest groups seeking to delay
or stop projects will file lawsuits under CEQA, dragging out the land-use and planning
process while driving up developers’ costs. But supporters say it provides
much-needed protection to the environment and to residents, who are able to
better gauge project impacts and participate in the process by offering
comments and attending public hearings.…Sandy Elles, executive director of the
Napa County Farm Bureau, urged the supervisors not to be hasty in staking out
positions on the proposals. While having to read 5,000-page CEQA documents
doesn’t help public transparency, Elles said CEQA is still an invaluable legal
tool for the public. “I don’t want to see the public and stakeholders lose
their ability to utilize this very important public process,” Elles said. “It’s
a very delicate process to reform CEQA.”
Advisory
committee: MID should consider reservoirs in Salida, Empire [Modesto Bee]
A
volunteer advisory committee may have found a silver bullet sought by grateful
Modesto Irrigation District leaders. In a progress report Tuesday, committee
spokesman Jim Mortensen pitched the idea of a new reservoir in Salida that
would build sorely lacking flexibility into the district's water delivery
system. Converting a partly dug stormwater basin owned by Stanislaus County
into a holding reservoir would allow the MID to capture water that otherwise
would continue to flow down canals into rivers, Mortensen said. The district
could conserve 4,700 acre-feet of water a year, he said, that might be sold to
generate money to upgrade its aging canal system. The committee suggested
starting environmental studies needed for a larger holding reservoir near
Empire that could conserve 7,930 acre-feet per year. By the time construction
would start in three or so years, the district would have enough data from the
Salida reservoir to know how valuable such flexibility is, Mortensen said.
Editorial: Immigration reforms
still needed [Monterey County Herald]
Opponents
of immigration reform, including Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Rand Paul of
Kentucky, want to slow down legislation in the wake of the Boston bombings.
It's no surprise; politicians exploit news events for political gain all the
time. But the hypocrisy is particularly transparent….Those grasping this excuse
to delay reforms do not want to fix the system. They don't want to make it
easier for tech companies and farmers to get the workers they need, or to bring
11 million immigrants out of the shadows. They want to kill reform. Senators
concerned about the safety of Americans should be for reforms now on the table.
The bipartisan proposal reflects years of work with a heavy focus on national
security….The proposal needs some work. The fees are awfully high. The rules
should do more to help families stay together, since tight relationships are
often key to an immigrant's success in America. Reforms must allow gays and
lesbians to bring their partners. But when it comes to what really matters —
the things that business, labor, immigrant rights advocates and law enforcement
have been clamoring for — this proposal is spot on.
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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