Study: Proposed immigration reform to help Tulare County agriculture [Gannett News Service]
California
agriculture would suffer unless Congress overhauls the immigration system, the
Obama administration said Monday in a renewed push to lobby for a
Senate-approved measure that has the support of the Golden State’s farm lobby.
Seventy-three percent of California’s agricultural workers are non-citizens —
the highest in any state — and a majority of them are undocumented workers,
according to a White House report issued Monday….During a conference call with
reporters, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack urged Congress to pass an
immigration overhaul bill that would grant legal status to undocumented farm
laborers. Without them, California’s $34 billion agriculture industry would
suffer, he said. Quoting from the report, Vilsack said California farmers could
lose $1.7 billion to $3.1 billion if migrant workers are barred from working
for them.
USDA
improperly pays millions to dead farmers, audit finds [Los Angeles Times]
The
U.S. Department of Agriculture has improperly paid millions of dollars in aid
to thousands of farmers after they have died, according to a government audit.
An inspection of the department's crop insurance, disaster assistance and
conservation programs found that $36.6 million had been issued to deceased
recipients, the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office said Monday….While
the abuse represents a fraction of the $20 billion in annual federal subsidies
for farm incomes, the report comes at a sensitive time when Congress is
fighting over the cost of a yet-to-be-passed $1-trillion farm bill.
Supervisors
survey options for saving Paso Robles groundwater basin [San Luis Obispo
Tribune]
County
planners have outlined a series of emergency steps county supervisors could
take to minimize depletion of the Paso Robles groundwater basin. In a 25-page
staff report to be considered Aug. 6, Kami Griffin, assistant planning
director, laid out a wide range of land-use restrictions and limitations that
could be contained in an emergency ordinance. Included are prohibitions of any
new plantings of irrigated crops, bans on conversion of dry land farming or
grazing land to irrigated crops and limitations on building new development if
it is dependent upon the groundwater basin. The law could also give supervisors
the option to ban or limit agricultural ponds, require water offsets for
development and irrigated crop production, metering and monitoring of wells and
limiting average water use.
Yolo
crops may go thirsty in '14 due to water shortage [Woodland Daily Democrat]
Yolo
County crops are making their way through the season, but farmers are already
concerned about how they will irrigate next year's fields. Due to dry
conditions and low precipitation, growers were allocated water this year, the
first time since 2009. "We're still delivering irrigation water,"
said Tim O'Halloran of the Yolo County Flood Control and Water Conservation
District. "We're releasing about 1,300 acre-foot per day now, and it will
start dropping off as harvest finishes up."…As for how each specific crop
will fare due to the week-long stretches of extreme heat, time will tell during
harvest. Some tomato growers were "hit real hard with the heat," said
Yolo County Farm Bureau President Eric Paulsen. The early tomatoes were
"hammered," he said, and didn't size up but are instead the size of
golf balls, which will not produce a good yield.
Butte
letter launches effort to get state water panel into pot garden fight [Chico
Enterprise-Record]
…In
early May, Bill Connelly, chairman of the Butte County Board of Supervisors,
sent a letter from the board to Karl E. Longley, chairman of the Central Valley
Regional Water Quality Control Board, asking the agency to join in the fight
against illegal marijuana grows by enforcing water quality laws that are
applied to business operators, loggers, industries, farmers and ranchers. In
response to Connelly's letter, Pamela C. Creedon, executive officer for the
Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, agreed marijuana
operations present threats to water quality. But she wrote enforcement would be
expensive, and "accessing and inspecting these sites present a danger to
Central Valley Water Board staff."…In a telephone interview Monday,
Connelly agreed water quality control officers "are not set up to go after
criminals," but that raises a question of unequal enforcement of the law.
"They will come in against a logging company, they'll come in against a
farmer, a rancher, but they won't come in against a marijuana grower? Give me a
break," said Connelly.
Tracing
germs through the aisles [New York Times]
Twice
a month for a year, Lance Price, a microbiologist at George Washington
University, sent his researchers out to buy every brand of chicken, turkey and
pork on sale in each of the major grocery stores in Flagstaff, Ariz. As
scientists pushed carts heaped with meat through the aisles, curious shoppers
sometimes asked if they were on the Atkins diet. In fact, Professor Price and
his team are trying to answer worrisome questions about the spread of
antibiotic-resistant germs to people from animals raised on industrial farms.
Specifically, they are trying to figure out how many people in one American
city are getting urinary infections from meat from the grocery
store….Scientists say genetic sequencing will bring greater certainty to the
debate. They will be able to trace germs in people to their origins, be it from
a farm animal or other patients in a hospital. Representative Louise Slaughter,
a Democrat from New York who has pushed for legislation to control antibiotic
use on farms, said such evidence would be the “smoking gun” that would settle
the issue.
Ag
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