Senate
passes farm bill, moving debate to House [Associated Press]
Conservatives
calling for an overhaul of the domestic food aid program will try to trim the
nation's nearly $80 billion grocery bill when the House weighs in on farm
legislation in a few weeks. The Senate overwhelmingly voted Monday to expand
subsidies for crop insurance and make small cuts to food stamps in a five-year,
half-trillion dollar measure. But passage in the House isn't expected to be so
easy - or so bipartisan….Both the House and Senate versions of the legislation
cost almost $100 billion annually and expand some subsidies while eliminating
others. The Senate version would end up saving about $2.4 billion a year on the
farm and nutrition programs, including across-the-board cuts that took effect
earlier this year, while the House version would save about $4 billion a year.
House consideration will come after more than a year's delay. The Senate passed
a similar version of its farm bill last year, but the House declined to take it
up during an election year amid conflict over the amount to cut from food
stamps, now known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
Supreme
Court: Valley raisin growers can challenge marketing rules [Fresno Bee]
Dissident
central San Joaquin Valley raisin farmers harvested a Supreme Court win Monday,
easing future legal challenges to the decades-old program that regulates the
raisin marketplace. In a 9-0 decision that's both technical and important, the
court effectively empowered Fresno County farmer Marvin D. Horne and his allies
to claim that the industry program takes their property in violation of the
Fifth Amendment….The decision Monday doesn't eliminate or even directly
challenge the California Raisin Marketing Order or the other federal marketing
orders that regulate crops, ranging from California almonds to Florida tomatoes
to Texas citrus….But the 15-page decision authored by Justice Clarence Thomas
gives a new tool to farmers who are unhappy about how the marketing orders
operate. In particular, Horne and other raisin farmers now may argue in federal
court that the marketing order's mandatory setting-aside of a certain portion
of the raisin crop is a Fifth Amendment taking.
Supervisors
hear pleas for 4-H [Santa Maria Times]
Even
though the first day of the 2013-14 Santa Barbara County budget hearings
featured discussion of county departments with multimillion dollar budgets, one
small proposed cut attracted the most attention: The Agriculture Commissioner’s
Office recommended elimination of the UC Cooperative Extension contract….Ag
Commissioner Cathy Fisher’s recommendation to end contracts with the UC
Cooperative Extension and the U.S. Department of Agriculture — an animal
services contract — would help the department address a $262,000 budget gap. It
also would kill county participation in 4-H, which has been included in the
budget since 1927. The 4-H organization is marking its 100th birthday in
California this year. On Monday, supporters from Carpinteria to Cuyama ranging
in age from 8 to 81 asked the supervisors not to allow the cut.
Turlock
Irrigation District set to buy water from Modesto? [Modesto Bee]
The
Turlock Irrigation District wants to buy water from the Modesto Irrigation
District, its neighbor to the north, to help it through this dry year. The
district boards will meet separately this morning 6/11 to discuss a proposal
for the TID to get up toas much as 7,000 acre-feet of Tuolumne River water from
Don Pedro Reservoir, which the districts share. The TID would pay $100 per
acre-foot and pass the cost along to the farmers who request the water. That is
five times the highest acre-foot charge in the district’s dry-year rate
schedule….TID board President Michael Frantz said the water would be especially
useful to dairy farmers growing feed crops such as corn and other feed crops in
soil types that drain quickly. They would face even higher costs if they had to
purchase feed from outside, he said.
Analysis:
Biotech wheat furor shows GM food safety debate far from settled [Reuters]
The
refusal of some foreign buyers to purchase U.S. wheat after an unapproved
genetically modified strain was discovered growing in a farm field in Oregon is
the latest demonstration that the issue of biotech food safety is far from
settled….At the crux of the concerns is the question of safety. While crop
developers and U.S. regulators say that biotech crops on the market are safe,
there are widespread fears that gene-altered crops, carrying DNA from other
species, are harmful to humans and animals that consume them. Both sides of the
debate say scientific studies buttress their points….FDA officials also say no
credible independent research has found harm from GMOs, and many independent
studies show genetically altered crops are as safe as conventional ones. There
are many studies to back them up….But other studies indicate potential dangers.
A
Glamorous Killer Returns [New York Times]
Puma
concolor is back on the prowl. That is one of the great success stories in
wildlife conservation, but also a source of concern among biologists and other
advocates, for their increasing numbers make them harder to manage — and harder
for people to tolerate. No reliable estimate exists for the cougar population
at its lowest point, before the 1970s, but there are now believed to be more
than 30,000 in North America….Despite their propensity to wreak havoc on other
wildlife and livestock (they will take on animals up to seven times their own
size, including full-grown elk, horses and steers), cougars are regarded as a
manageable nuisance by ranchers and offered a respect that wolves, the West’s
other legendary marauders, can only dream about….Ogden Driskill, a northeast
Wyoming cattle rancher, offered a simpler explanation. “Cougar are easier to
hunt” than wolves “and easier to control,” he said….But if cougars are easier
to control now, “things will change,” said Harley G. Shaw, a retired wildlife
biologist for the Arizona Game and Fish Department and an author of a cougar
field guide now in its fourth printing. “That time may even be here now.”
Ag
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