Growers lobby for immigration bill [Gannett News Service]
Farm
groups in California, the nation’s top agricultural producer, are lobbying for
the Senate’s immigration bill, which proposes bringing in thousands of new
migrant workers and allowing undocumented employees already in the U.S. to
become legal, permanent residents in about 10 years. But their push could hit a
wall in the House, where conservative Republicans oppose what they call
“amnesty” to 11 million undocumented immigrants in the U.S., even though
critics acknowledge California farmers have a labor-supply problem….Paul
Wenger, president of the California Farm Bureau, urged the House to accept the
“workable” solutions in the Senate bill. “We have to have a reliable supply of
labor. What we need is regulatory certainty,” he said. “We have a unique
opportunity this year — and this year alone — to solve an ongoing problem.”
Slim
pickings for peach labor in Yuba-Sutter [Marysville Appeal-Democrat]
Yuba-Sutter
peach farmers are again facing a labor crisis and fear the shortage for picking
at harvest time will be worse than it was in 2012. "Last year we had a
shortage during the thinning time, but not like this," said Kulwant Johl,
a peach farmer who is on the California Farm Bureau Federation's labor
committee.…Louie Mendoza, Yuba County's agricultural commissioner, said the
region may be experiencing labor shortages for a couple of reasons: Many
migrant farmworkers are shifting to construction jobs, while others may be
moving to find higher paying jobs on farms growing higher-priced crops.…Peach
tree orchards in Yuba-Sutter are still being thinned. It's a process of taking
off the green and budding peaches by hand in order to grow peaches to the right
size for canneries.
Milk
money: Farm bill could hinge on dairy vote [Associated Press]
Approval
of a massive farm bill - and the cost of a gallon of milk - could hinge on a
proposed new dairy program the House is expected to vote on this week. An
overhaul of dairy policy and a new insurance program for dairy farmers included
in the farm bill have passionately divided farm-state lawmakers. Most
importantly, it has caused a rift between House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio,
and the top Democrat on the House Agriculture Committee, Rep. Collin Peterson
of Minnesota.…The proposed dairy program would do away with current price
supports and allow farmers to purchase a new kind of insurance that pays out
when the gap between the price they receive for milk and their feed costs
narrows. The program is voluntary, but farmers who participate also would have
to sign up for a stabilization program that could dictate production cuts when
oversupply drives down prices….Peterson wrote the proposed dairy policy, which
Boehner last year compared to communism.
A
rice gets a price premium [Wall Street Journal]
Peanut,
cotton and rice farmers are big beneficiaries of price guarantees tucked into
agriculture legislation under consideration on Capitol Hill. But another big
winner may be producers of what is known as sticky rice, the kind used in sushi
and other Asian dishes across America—and grown by a congressman who helped
push for the provision. The federal subsidy in the House bill guarantees
farmers of Japonica Rice that if market prices drop below 115% of the average
price of all types of rice, they will get a government payment to make up the
difference. Japonica is the formal name for medium- and short-grain rice
strains commonly called sticky rice….The sticky-rice provision won strong
support from, among others, two Northern California lawmakers from neighboring
districts, according to congressional aides and people working with the rice
industry: Freshman Republican Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a fourth-generation Japonica
Rice farmer who sits on the House agriculture committee; and Democratic Rep.
John Garamendi, a rancher and pear farmer…. Mr. Garamendi said U.S. farm policy
is moving toward price-loss coverage programs to replace direct subsidies to
"cover multiple varieties of losses, including price collapse." Mr.
Garamendi, who said he helped fashion the rice provision, called the insurance
program a "significant improvement" over direct subsidies.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324049504578543613189018032.html?KEYWORDS=a+rice+price
*Link may
require paid subscription; text included in attached Word file.
Water
cutbacks, dry year may push San Luis Reservoir to lowest point [Fresno Bee]
Massive
San Luis Reservoir will turn into a mud puddle this August on the San Joaquin
Valley's west side — maybe a historic low. The mud puddle will be a symbol of
frustration in the nation's biggest farm water district, Westlands Water
District, which depends on this unique California reservoir.…The reservoir had
long been considered a chance to slow west Valley agriculture's chronic
overdrafting of the underground water, which continues today and increases in
dry years, such as this one.But farm water leaders say this year's problem is
more than a dry winter. They calculate nearly 1 million acre-feet of water —
about enough to fill Millerton Lake twice — were lost as a result of delta
pumping curtailments under a federal plan to protect threatened delta
smelt….Projections show the reservoir's pool of water probably will bottom out
at about 150,000 acre-feet. That's below any past year, except when the
reservoir was drawn down for maintenance in the 1980s.
High
hopes for more exports, from chickens to cheese, as Obama heads to Europe
[McClatchy News Service]
As
President Barack Obama prepares to go to Northern Ireland on Sunday to promote
a new trade pact with the European Union, hopes are running high for many U.S.
businesses eager to squeeze more cash from one of the world’s most lucrative
markets….With Europeans’ longstanding suspicions of American food, Obama faces
an uphill climb in his bid to revise trading rules between the two giants. The
stakes are high for the president, who wants to double U.S. exports under his
watch and whose team has made a European deal a top economic plank of his
second term. But in both Europe and the United States there’s skepticism, with
many saying the historical hurdles and huge cultural differences will be hard
to overcome. “This negotiation will be far more difficult than a lot of people
have anticipated,” said Clayton Yeutter, the U.S. trade representative from
1985-88, before becoming the secretary of agriculture.
Ag
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