State
reaches out to farmworkers about pesticides [San Francisco Chronicle]
Poison
experts want to reach as many California farmworkers as possible about the
importance of pesticide safety. But instead of going the traditional route with
pamphlets and flyers, for the first time they're spreading the word via a
mobile-optimized website….So the California Department of Pesticide Regulation,
UC Davis and the California Poison Control System, run by UCSF, teamed up to
launch a campaign using mobile technology to promote five Spanish-language
videos. The short films, already available to migrant workers who have come to
California for the summer's harvest and plantings, give tips using cinematic
storytelling on everything from pesticide-poisoning symptoms to the importance
of decontaminating clothing.
Report:
Increase pesticide safeguards [Salinas Californian]
In
a national report on farmworker exposure to pesticides released this week, a
Washington, D.C., advocacy group is calling for federal regulation that would
be modeled in large part on many of the safeguards California already has in
place. Virginia Ruiz, executive director of Farmworker Justice, said Wednesday
from her office in Washington that the report, “Exposed, Ignored — How
pesticides are endangering our nation’s farmworkers,” outlines a number of key
changes in federal pesticide regulation that she would like to see enacted,
including several that either are already rules in California or soon will
be….For example, Ruiz is calling for pesticide labels to be printed in both English
and Spanish, a rule the California Department of Pesticide Regulation said it
plans to institute in revised regulations governing the strawberry fumigant
chloropicrin. Chloropicrin is such an extreme eye and lung irritant that it was
used in World War I for chemical warfare. Another issue outlined in the report
is the call for national buffer zones between a pesticide-applied or fumigated
field and nearby farmworkers.
Rural
community sinking because of groundwater use [Santa Maria Times]
…The
U.S. Geological Survey and the Santa Barbara County Water Agency this week released
the first two parts of a four-part study of the Cuyama Valley groundwater
basin, a four-year study that will be used to develop a new hydrologic model of
the valley that can be used to guide future water use….With the 2010 Census
showing just 517 people in the Cuyama Valley, it’s not hard to figure out where
the water is being used. “Ag accounts for probably 95 to 98 percent of all the
water usage that’s out there,” Gibbs said. “We’re friends of agriculture. We
want to support agriculture. One of the reasons were doing this study is to
determine how to best use our water.”
White
satin moth infestation concerns NV, UT, CA [Associated Press]
Agriculture
and forestry experts in Nevada, Utah and California are concerned about a
potential infestation of a small white moth that can destroy entire groves of
aspen, cottonwood and willow trees, especially in mountainous areas. The white
satin moth numbers are up 100-fold this year in some parts of Nevada, and no
one is sure why. The good news is experts from the three states who studied the
moths near Lake Tahoe this month found signs their natural predators are making
a rebound and should help keep the invaders in check.
Editorial: Agriculture’s
misnamed agency [New York Times]
…There
will obviously be times when livestock and predators come into conflict, when
coyotes kill lambs and black bears become too accustomed to humans and cause
genuine harm. But Wildlife Services’ lethal damage is broad and secretive,
according to a series in The Sacramento Bee last year….The agency, opponents
say, has not scientifically evaluated the consequences of its actions and has
consistently understated the damage it does to “nontarget” species, like
songbirds. Its work also undercuts other programs intended to protect the
balance of natural ecosystems. It is time the public got a clear picture of
what Wildlife Services is up to, and time for the Department of Agriculture to
bring the agency’s work into accord with sound biological practices. Resolving
wildlife conflicts need not involve indiscriminate killing.
Commentary: Immigration's brown
herrings [Wall Street Journal]
…From
its inception, the most relevant tensions inside the immigration issue have had
to do with disputes over jobs….Anyone connected with these industries knows
that the notion of Latin immigrants displacing Americans is largely false. The
businesses are American-owned, but few Americans will work in them. The
California agriculture sector has become a grim object lesson in this reality.
There has been no significant presence of Americans workers in California's
farm fields since at least the 1950s. Now that Mexico's economy is growing well
above its weak historic average and needs workers, the California ag sector is
staring at a permanent shortage of workers. That guest-worker program in the
immigration bill could be a day late and a dollar short for California
agriculture, which itself would begin to migrate its worker-less industry
outside the U.S.
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