Bill
would enforce farm labor negotiations [Associated Press]
The
state Senate approved legislation Monday that changes the ground rules for
negotiations between farmers and fieldworkers by giving state regulators more
authority to act. The bill lets the Agricultural Labor Relations Board require
binding mediation between the employer and union even if one side is appealing
an unfair labor practice decision in court. It also keeps farm contracts in
place if the agribusiness restructures its ownership.…But the organization
representing farmers objected that the bill could surprise non-union farm
operators who buy a piece of a union farm. Moreover, the non-union farms'
employees would suddenly be represented by a union they never authorized, he
said. "It puts people who are trying to do the right thing in a bad
position, potentially," said Bryan Little, labor relations director for
the California Farm Bureau Federation.
Workers
claim race bias as farms rely on immigrants [New York Times]
For
years, labor unions and immigrant rights activists have accused large-scale
farmers, like those harvesting sweet Vidalia onions here this month, of
exploiting Mexican guest workers. Working for hours on end under a punishing
sun, the pickers are said to be crowded into squalid camps, driven without a
break and even cheated of wages. But as Congress weighs immigration legislation
expected to expand the guest worker program, another group is increasingly
crying foul — Americans, mostly black, who live near the farms and say they
want the field work but cannot get it because it is going to Mexicans. They
contend that they are illegally discouraged from applying for work and treated
shabbily by farmers who prefer the foreigners for their malleability….With
local unemployment about 10 percent and the bureaucracy for hiring foreigners
onerous — guest workers have to be imported and housed and require extensive
paperwork — it would seem natural for farmers to hire from their own
communities, which they did a generation ago.
Ventura
County growers told to use less water [Associated Press]
Growers
in Ventura County are being told to use less water this fall or face shortages.
Officials with the United Water Conservation District said at a meeting Monday
in Camarillo that groundwater levels are as low as they've been in
years.…Murray McEachron, a hydrologist with United Water, predicted that by
August wells in the Saticoy area may go dry. More than 60 people from the Farm
Bureau of Ventura County and the California Strawberry Commission attended the
meeting.
Water
war between Klamath River farmers, tribes poised to erupt [Los Angeles Times]
For
decades this rural basin has battled over the Klamath River's most precious
resource: water that sustains fish, irrigates farms and powers the
hydroelectric dams that block one of the largest salmon runs on the West Coast.
Now, one of the nation's fiercest water wars is on the verge of erupting again.
New water rights have given a group of Oregon Indian tribes an upper hand just
as the region plunges into a severe drought. Farmers and wildlife refuges could
be soon cut off by the Klamath Tribes, which in March were granted the Upper
Klamath Basin's oldest water rights to the lake and tributaries that feed the
mighty river flowing from arid southern Oregon to the foggy redwoods of the
Northern California coast.
Sonoma
County Board of Supervisors to consider zoning changes for renewable energy projects
[Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
The
Sonoma County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider zoning changes that
would open up more land, including some agricultural, industrial and business
parcels, to commercial-scale renewable energy projects….The changes would
expand the permitted areas to include non-prime farmland, most of it in the
180,000 acres zoned “Land Extensive Agriculture,” and in about 3,000 acres of
commercial and industrial land….Still, the revisions have drawn scrutiny from
farming officials concerned about the conversion of productive ag lands. The
county's valley bottom vineyard lands are mostly shielded from commercial
projects. Caps would limit the size of systems on non-prime farmland and rural
resource land to 30 percent of the parcel, or a maximum of 50 acres.
“Initially, they said 49 percent (for the cap). We said 'No way,' ” said Tito
Sasaki, president of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.
Commentary: Research money can help ag feed world’s billions
[Modesto Bee]
…Due
to state and federal budget cuts over the past decade, the number of
Cooperative Extension Specialists and Advisors has decreased by 38percent. This
has caused reductions in our Integrated Pest Management Program, Sustainable
Agricultural Research and Education Program, Nutrition Education programs,
Water Resources Center and the elimination of regional offices. While new
partnerships and support from industry have helped, many of the developments
necessary to meet these challenges are public goods not easily monetized, but
long-term investments benefit us all. If the country continues to disinvest in
basic agricultural research, the results will be devastating for the health and
safety of our country and the world.…We must all look to the future and see the
opportunities generated by restoring and — whenever possible — growing funding
for the core capacity programs which help underpin the infrastructure of
land-grant colleges of food, agriculture, and natural resources and Cooperative
Extension units across America. Working together, we can ensure a safe, healthy
food supply for the planet.
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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