Proposed
farm bills would cut billions from current spending levels [Washington Post]
The
House and Senate are set to consider separate five-year farm bills that would
cut billions annually from current spending levels after the agriculture
committees from both chambers approved the legislation last week. Savings from
both plans would come in large part from reducing funding for the supplemental
Nutrition Assistance Program — which provides food credits for the poor — and
phasing out the controversial automatic subsidies that go to producers of
certain crops such as corn and cotton. The Senate plans to begin debate on its
farm bill Monday, while the House is expected to consider its version in June.
Agriculture
amendment breaks some eggs [Politico]
Pigs,
chickens, the U.S. Constitution — and a dose of olive oil — all got thrown
together in a House farm bill markup that took a remarkable turn from the
barnyard to the judicial bench late Wednesday night.…Before the dust settled,
the committee had adopted a far-reaching amendment that infuriated animal welfare
groups, delighted the pork and beef lobbies and broke more than a few eggs.
Where it goes next in the context of the larger farm bill debate, no one truly
knows. But scores of state laws could be impacted and it surely reaches well
beyond its initial target: sunny California. Most simply the language would bar
any state from excluding the marketing of “agricultural products” if they have
been grown in a manner “pursuant” to federal law and the laws of the state or
locality from which they come.…California is a pivotal battleground because it
is both a giant producer and market.
Farmers,
unions embrace pact on visas [San Francisco Chronicle]
California's
fabled produce industry is slipping quietly over the border, heading south,
much as the migrant workers on which it depends have for generations headed
north….Facing a border open to goods and increasingly dangerous and expensive
to cross illegally, farmers and the United Farm Workers union have locked arms
in a historic pact seen as critical to saving the industry, and which is the
linchpin of a precarious immigration bill now before the Senate. The
legislation would give workers temporary legal status, a "blue card"
visa that gives them a chance after five years to apply for permanent
residence. Farmers would benefit by getting a guaranteed supply of future workers.
Editorial: The immigration
bill presses on [New York Times]
When
the Senate Judiciary Committee meets on Monday to resume marking up an
immigration bill, it will have two weeks of solid achievement to build on. The
bipartisan “Gang of Eight” that drafted the deal has so far held together. The
full committee has rejected an array of amendments designed to cripple or kill
the bill, while adopting technical fixes and other amendments to make the
system fairer, smarter and more generous….We can be sure that the hard-core
opponents of reform will continue to throw all they’ve got against this bill.
But all they’ve got — so far, anyway — turns out to be not that much. With the
announcement on Thursday that a bipartisan group of House members had reached
agreement in principle on its own immigration bill, the anti-immigration crowd
— like Representatives Steve King of Iowa and Louie Gohmert of Texas, who held
a news conference to denounce reform — is looking less like a crowd and more
like a gaggle. There will be fireworks to come, especially when the bills reach
the floors of their houses. But the fundamental support for reform looks
strong.
State
dairymen seek bigger share of whey windfall [Los Angeles Times]
California
dairy farmers and cheese processors are fighting again over milk prices. It's
not Grade A, homogenized, pasteurized milk that's at issue in the state
Capitol. Rather, agriculture lobbyists are focused on the price of whey, a milk
byproduct probably best known to consumers who've read the Mother Goose nursery
rhyme about little Miss Muffet eating her "curds and
whey."…Financially distressed dairy owners want a bigger share of the whey
windfall. They're asking lawmakers to overhaul the California Department of
Food and Agriculture's complex milk-pricing formula. The pricing scheme is the
subject of a department administrative hearing set for Monday.…So, the dairy
industry is backing AB 31 by Assemblyman Richard Pan (D-Sacramento) to change
the current pricing system.
Commentary: Delta plan still
evolving as more is learned [Sacramento Bee]
…The
National Marine Fisheries Service is deeply engaged in providing technical
assistance in the development of the Bay Delta Conservation Plan and believes
that the core tenets are grounded in good science. Redoing the basic plumbing
is necessary to avoid a disastrous collapse of the existing system when the
next catastrophe hits, and thus to secure a reliable water delivery system for
the next generation….The problems facing the Delta are multi-faceted and so
must be the solutions. The plan must include new Delta plumbing, new water
operations and restored habitats, and reduced predation and invasive species.
Other essential efforts, like increased water conservation, aggressive demand
management and new storage, may lie outside the plan, but they remain core
components of the state's larger integrated water resource plan.
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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