Tacking
health care costs onto California farm produce [New York Times]
Farm
labor contractors across California, the nation’s biggest agricultural engine,
are increasingly nervous about a provision of the Affordable Care Act that will
require hundreds of thousands of field workers to be covered by health
insurance. While the requirement was recently delayed until 2015, the
contractors, who provide farmers with armies of field workers, say they are
already preparing for the potential cost the law will add to their business,
which typically operates on a slender profit margin.…The effects of the law
could be profound. Insurance brokers and health providers familiar with
California’s $43.5 billion agricultural industry estimate that meeting the
law’s minimum health plan requirement will cost about $1 per hour per employee
worked in the field.…Farm labor contractors generally rely on a 2 percent
profit, and they say they will have to pass the added health care costs
required by the law on to growers.
Conflicts
keep water bond in flux [Salinas Californian]
With
legislators worried about public reaction to an $11.4 billion water bond slated
to go before California voters in June 2014, a dramatically slimmed down
version was introduced last week. But a senator representing the Salinas Valley
says the reduced bond will be dead on arrival. Sen. Anthony Canella, whose
district covers the eastern side of the Salinas Valley, said when Sen. Lois
Wolk, D-Davis, introduced an amended Senate Bill 42 that pared down the bond to
$5.6 billion, it tossed out new groundwater and surface storage projects that
are important to his constituents.
Northern
California tribal members protest at Westlands office over water [Fresno Bee]
Members
of two Northern California tribes Tuesday demonstrated at Westlands Water
District, asking district officials to drop their lawsuit against water
releases that would protect a large run of salmon. The Hoopa and Yurok members
are in Fresno this week for U.S. District Court hearings in the case, which
begin Wednesday. They arrived Tuesday to protest and attend Westlands' board
meeting. But Westlands leaders said the lawsuit would continue, adding that the
water should be made available to contractors, as federal rules have
established.
IID
board approves 2014 fallowing programs [Imperial Valley Press]
Two
water conservation programs were approved Tuesday by the Imperial Irrigation
District Board of Directors, moves that are expected to help the IID meet its
daunting water transfer and payback obligations in 2014. Both programs involve
fallowing, a temporary water-conservation program in which farmers are paid to
leave a field idle for a period of time to conserve the water that would
ordinarily irrigate it. The board’s action allows IID staff to seek
solicitations for the district’s 2014 calendar year fallowing program. Farmers
whose fields qualify for the program can fallow their fields for a maximum of
three years out of five.
Ag
plays significant role in SLO County economy [Santa Maria Times]
One
in 10 people employed in San Luis Obispo County works in the agriculture
industry, according to a report highlighting economic contributions. “We wanted
to assess the economic significance of agriculture in the county,” said county
Agricultural Commissioner Marty Settevendemie about the report presented to the
Board of Supervisors on Tuesday….Supervisors were told the industry provides an
annual $1.87 billion to the local economy, with an additional $578 million
generated from multiplier effects — the ripples sent through the economy when
growers purchase equipment and supplies and services from local
businesses….Jackie Crabb, county Farm Bureau executive director, said the
report outlines the financial impacts agriculture has on the local
economy….Crabb said the county has managed to be resilient over the years, with
growers changing their products as the market demands.
Critics
say California relies on outdated approach to fire prevention [Los Angeles
Times]
…To
many firefighters like Porter, a fourth-generation San Diegan and chief of the
San Diego County Fire Authority, and others who have been on the front lines,
it's obvious: Areas that have burned recently are less likely to ignite, or
will burn less intensely, while old-growth patches are primed to combust. But
what many firefighters believe they've learned from experience is the subject
of much debate, as state officials search for a way to approach Southern
California's large, unwieldy blazes….The state's proposal relies on what
scientists refer to as the "mosaic model," which calls for burning or
cutting down thick, old-growth plants to create a patchwork of ages in the
vegetation. The patchwork, fire managers argue, makes for less intense fires
and more protection against their spread. Experts on both sides agree that for
decades, the model has been used with great success in forests, where
controlled burns on old underbrush have prevented wildfires from climbing to
the tops of trees. But the mosaic model crumbles in the dry, exposed chaparral
and scrubland so pervasive in Southern California, fire science specialists
say.
Ag
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