Jerry
Brown joins move to rewrite California's Prop. 65 [Sacramento Bee]
Gov.
Jerry Brown is throwing his weight behind a push to update Proposition 65,
California's defense against exposure to toxic chemicals. Passed by voters in
1986, Proposition 65 sought to shield the state's water supply from
contamination and to protect consumers by requiring companies to post clear
warnings about harmful chemicals in products. The law has been "a
resounding success" as a consumer safeguard, California Environmental
Protection Agency Secretary Matthew Rodriquez said. But it is time to amend the
law, he said, citing a proliferation of profit-seeking lawsuits and scientific
strides that render obsolete some of the standards set 27 years ago.
Foreign
food inspections on decline as illnesses from imported goods rise [New York
Times]
…
While Congress spared meat and poultry inspections by the Agriculture
Department from the automatic budget cuts known as the sequester, inspections
at foreign food factories have been in decline because of years of budget cuts,
and border inspections like this one in New York may be eliminated. The Food
and Drug Administration, which inspects everything but meat and poultry, is
struggling to find the money to inspect foreign foods under a new food safety
law that Congress did not support with enough funds. The Obama administration’s
2014 budget calls for an increase in agency financing, but the most money would
come from fees that the food industry and Congress oppose….The upheavals in
government food inspections are occurring as Americans are biting into more and
more foreign food and the rate of illness from imported food is rising.
Oakdale
Irrigation District to sell more water to Westlands [Modesto Bee]
The
Oakdale Irrigation District board agreed Tuesday to sell more water to
drought-wracked farms west of Fresno, as long as its customers are not left
short. The board voted 5-0 to sell up to 40,000 acre-feet from the Stanislaus
River to the Westlands Water District, which is dealing with severe cutbacks in
federal deliveries. The price is $175 per acre-foot, up from the $100 discussed
earlier and far more than what OID farmers pay. The district could make as much
as $7 million in the one-year deal for use on canal upgrades and other work.
Butte
County Board of Supervisors wants to gently take firm stand opposing water
transfers [Chico Enterprise-Record]
Butte
County wants to make it clear that it opposes transferring groundwater out of
the region, but just how aggressively they want to make that point is another
issue. Agencies seeking to transfer water pumped from the ground in Butte
County are required to get a permit and no permits have been issued since 1994,
according to county records. Now a pair of water districts, which won't be
drawing water from inside Butte County jurisdiction, are considering shipping
groundwater south.
Bee
deaths put crops at risk [Wall Street Journal]
The
winter of 2012-13 was another rough one for honeybees, threatening an industry
that is integral to a large part of fruit and vegetable production in the U.S.
A study released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture said the number
of honeybee colonies declined 31% last winter, by about 800,000 colonies, the
latest reported toll of the mass die-offs with multiple causes that have been
plaguing the U.S. for several years….While the 31% loss during the 2012-13
winter is roughly in line with most winter declines since 2006, when the USDA
says beekeepers began reporting the widespread hive losses, it is worse than
the 22% decline in the 2011-12 winter.
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Almond,
fruit growers count losses following weekend storm [Bakersfield Californian]
Sunday's
fierce, day-long wind storm hit Kern County's stone fruit and almond growers
hard over the weekend -- stripping cherries, peaches and plums off trees,
ripping through almond orchards and uprooting thousands of the shallow-rooted
trees. The blow to almond growers, who produce Kern County's second-largest
crop, could be a major, long-term handicap. It isn't uncommon to lose some
almond trees to the wind, said Glenn Fankhauser, a deputy director with the
Kern County Department of Agriculture and Measurement Standards. The trees have
shallow roots. When they are heavy with almonds, they are vulnerable to being
blown down.
Ag
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