San
Joaquin Valley farmers lag as nitrogen program signup deadline looms [Merced
Sun-Star]
With
a deadline less than two weeks away, officials say hundreds of regional farmers
have not signed up for the state's mandatory "nitrogen budgeting"
program aimed at improving groundwater quality. "There's people saying,
'I'm tired of this, and I don't want the water board involved with my
operation, and I'm going to chance it,' " said Amanda Carvajal, executive
director with the Merced County Farm Bureau. However, that's not a position
endorsed by local farm bureaus. "They will ultimately have to get
in," Carvajal said. "It's a no-choice operation. At some point, we
have to work together on this."…Last week, bureaus in Merced, Madera and
Modesto held workshops to inform farmers of their options and encourage
participation. Turnout was "excellent," said Parry Klassen, executive
director for the East San Joaquin Water Quality Coalition. "They certainly
showed up in droves. We were really surprised that there were as many people as
there were."
Why
an immigration deal won't solve the farmworker shortage [NPR]
The
Salinas Valley in Northern California grows about 80 percent of the country's
lettuce, and it takes a lot of people to pick and pack it. In a field owned by
, a dozen lechugueros, or lettuce pickers, are bent at the waist, cutting heads
of iceberg lettuce….Duda says the proposed immigration overhaul bill might
solve some of these problems. For one, it would give thousands of workers a
path to legal residency and make it easier for others to enter the U.S. But he
says those things are probably just stopgap fixes. "It'll help us in the
short term. The long term? Remains to be seen," Duda says. Since the late
1990s, there has been a slow but steady decline in the number of rural Mexicans
migrating north.
California
legislators move to strengthen immigrant workers' rights [Sacramento Bee]
As
Congress and President Barack Obama work toward a federal immigration overhaul,
lawmakers in California's Capitol are moving to strengthen the rights of
immigrant workers in the state. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg
highlighted two measures, which he is carrying, in a news conference Tuesday,
saying it's important to ensure that workers are treated with dignity and
respect, regardless of their legal status….Under Senate Bill 666, employers who
retaliate against employee complaints by threatening to report the immigration
status of workers or their families could lose their business license and face
civil penalties of up to $10,000. A second measure, Senate Bill 516, would set
licensing and employee relations standards for foreign labor contractors.
Oil,
ag opponents get more time to work out conflict [Bakersfield Californian]
Kern
County supervisors voted to give rancher and land developer Keith Gardiner and
Occidental Petroleum 30 more days to hammer out a deal that would resolve a
years-long dispute between the two….The conflict between Gardiner and
Occidental property Vintage Production is a sideline to a larger, more complex
and sweeping debate about the permitting of oil wells in Kern, county Planning
Director Lorelei Oviatt said….The goal, she said, is to streamline the
permitting process, but also to answer questions about the industry's use of
hydraulic fracturing, impacts on groundwater and other environmental concerns.
One of those concerns centers on how the industry gets access to mineral
resources it owns under property owned by someone else.
Ag
board member joining Yuba City officials on China trip [Marysville
Appeal-Democrat]
Yuba
City has added another member to its trade mission to China, now costing
taxpayers about $15,000 for the trip, officials said. Mat Conant, a Yuba-Sutter
Farm Bureau board member, will be joining Mayor John Buckland and Economic
Development Manager Darin Gale on a 10-day trip to China to promote local
agriculture from May 12-22…."We're really excited to be bringing a local
farmer to represent the city," Gale said….In a huge market like China,
Conant said sending a representative from the local ag community is critical to
the trade mission's success. "It's important that people from ag have a
voice," he said.
Commentary: Fresh produce
proponents disparage processed produce at their peril [Salinas Californian]
The
Californian’s April 24 article “Food Fight Brewing on Capitol Hill” was
colorful, but unfortunately reported only one side of the story. The
fundamental issue before Congress is whether the fruit and vegetable snacks
served to children in some schools must be fresh or whether school dietitians
may also select processed fruit and vegetables. The fresh industry is lobbying
to deny school dietitians the choice. The American Fruit and Vegetable
Processors and Growers Coalition is lobbying for local school choice. Should
the California peach industry provide products that are part of the school
snack program? We think so. Yet the chances of significant use of fresh
domestic peaches in the program are very low due to harvest time, shelf life,
serving challenges and the fact that the wonderful, juicy, fresh peaches we all
love tend to be messy in a grade-school classroom. On the other hand, processed
peaches used in schools today are nutritionally comparable, less expensive and
without season, shelf life or serving challenges. School dietitians should be
allowed greater choice.
Ag
Today is distributed to county Farm Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for
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