Farmworker
dies harvesting watermelons near Coalinga [Fresno Bee]
State
officials are investigating a suspected heat-related fatality in Fresno County
after a 30-year-old farmworker died this week. Cal/OSHA officials are trying to
determine whether the recent high temperatures were a factor in the worker’s
death and whether his employer was following the state’s heat illness
prevention rules. Erika Monterroza, spokeswoman for the Department of
Industrial Relations, said the farmworker died Tuesday after harvesting
watermelons in a field near Coalinga. The temperature that day hit 109 degrees.
Farmers
worry about fate of immigration bills [Associated Press]
For
northern Michigan fruit grower Pat McGuire, the most potent symbol of the
immigration debate isn't grainy television footage showing people slipping
furtively across the U.S.-Mexican border. Instead, it's plump red cherries and
crisp apples rotting on the ground because there aren't enough workers to pick
them - a scenario that could become reality over the next couple of months….A
measure that recently cleared the Democratic-led Senate contained provisions
that the farm lobby said were promising. The Republican-controlled House is
expected to take up the issue shortly. But with agriculture's once-mighty
political influence in decline as its workforce has fallen to 2 percent of the
population, it's uncertain how the industry will fare. Farmers' complaints
about a shrinking labor pool are being overshadowed by the ideologically
charged issues of border security and giving legal status to people in the
country illegally. McGuire, 42, a self-described conservative who usually votes
Republican, was among representatives of the American Farm Bureau Federation
who made their case on Capitol Hill last week.
Bill
aims to stop farm-labor scam [Salinas Californian]
The
practice of unscrupulous labor contractors owing farmworkers wages and abruptly
shutting down the business to duck their obligations, only to reopen under a
new name, will be stopped if a proposed law hammered out between farm interests
and a Central Coast lawmaker reaches the governor’s desk. Senate Bill 168,
authored by state Sen. Bill Monning, D-Carmel, would hold any successor of a
farm-labor contractor liable for the first contractor’s owed wages, regardless
of whether the original contractor was licensed or not….Initially the bill drew
the ire of farm interests up and down California, including the Monterey County
Farm Bureau. From the farm bureau’s perspective, the original bill was overly
broad and would have penalized legitimate farm-labor contractors who take over
prior businesses from sham operations, even if the new contractor had nothing
to do with the predecessor’s shenanigans.…So farm interests huddled with
Monning to define and narrow the scope of what it means to be a “successor.”
Norm Groot, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau, said in a
newsletter issued Friday morning that Monning accepted an amendment to narrow
the circumstances under which a successor could be held responsible for wages
not paid to workers who worked for an errant contractor.
Wineries
scrambling to make room for upcoming harvest [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
As
the summer days stretch long and hot, and grapes thicken with sugar on the
vine, wineries are clamoring to ensure they'll have enough space in tanks and
barrels to fit the fruits of an early harvest. Growers anticipate the grapes
will be ready for picking two to three weeks earlier than usual, and many are
expecting the size of the harvest will be average or larger. That has some
wineries scrambling to add capacity in their storage rooms, or to book
additional space in the custom crush facilities that dot Wine Country.
Commentary: How best to reuse
water [Salinas Californian]
Farmers
strive for highly efficient use of water when growing their crops, realizing
this is a precious resource not to be wasted. More research and newer
technology continues to refine how water is used to grow crops — using less
water and only when the plant requires moisture. More than 60 percent of our
irrigated crop lands in Monterey County now utilize drip-tape irrigation as a
means to deliver water only to the root zone of the plant when needed. Water
use for crop production is actually lower in recent years while yields continue
to grow each year. Yes, it takes a lot of water to grow the crops that we all
find so plentiful in our supermarkets, but new techniques are helping to
conserve water use in ways our grandfathers never dreamed of. As we all become
more in tune with our local water resources and how water is used, it leads to
consensus that we should find a way to reuse our water as many times as we can.
Indeed, many manufacturing industries have found ways to recycle water multiple
times for their purposes. Nursery operations throughout California developed
closed loop recycling systems to reuse their irrigation water repeatedly;
unfortunately, farms producing vegetables don’t have this on-site opportunity
due to concerns over food safety, although many farms collect their water for
other uses such as dust control.
Opinion: Healthy animals
ensure healthy food [San Francisco Chronicle]
…Addressing
antibiotic resistance in human medicine requires a comprehensive approach and
cooperation among physicians, veterinarians, policy makers and government
agencies assigned to oversee this complicated issue. Banning antibiotic use in
livestock would not solve the problem of human resistance and might have other
negative consequences for public health. You can be sure that farmers, ranchers
and veterinarians are aware of the concerns about antibiotics and work
constantly to improve our knowledge about how to help food animals remain
healthy. When antibiotics are required, we use only what is needed, when it is
needed, to make sure animals don't suffer from illness. Healthy animals are the
key to healthy, humane and safe food.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Healthy-animals-ensure-healthy-food-4651437.php
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require paid subscription; text included in attached Word file.
Ag
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