Shortage of workers hampers SLO County's crop harvest [San Luis Obispo Tribune]
San
Luis Obispo County’s harvest season is in full swing, with a variety of crops
—from bell peppers to wine grapes — being picked from local fields. Growers,
however, say they have fewer workers, and that has hampered their ability to
quickly get wine grapes off the vine and vegetables out of the ground and into
the marketplace. “We’re struggling to find enough people to do the harvest of
our specialty crops,” said Dan Sutton, general manager of the Pismo Oceano
Vegetable Exchange…In years with an abundance of help, crews would consist of
about 12 to 14 people, he said. Now, crews average about eight to 10, and to
keep up with the workload, they have been working longer hours and into the
weekend, Sutton said.…Claire Wineman, president of the Grower-Shipper Association
of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties, which represents fruit and
vegetable growers, is also hearing about the labor shortage from members. Some
growers have adjusted work hours and are trying different ways to encourage
increased productivity.
State
OKs new water rules for farmers [Fresno Bee]
State
water regulators approved landmark groundwater rules Thursday for 850,000 acres
of farmland across Fresno, Tulare, Kings and Kern counties. About 7,200 growers
will be regulated in the program, which is part of a larger effort called the
Irrigated Lands Regulatory Monitoring Program. The Central Valley Regional
Water Quality Control Board met in Fresno Thursday for a day-long public
hearing before voting. The hearing covered details of previous meetings and
workshops over the last year.
Outside
review raises questions about key Delta tunnel claims [Stockton Record]
The
$24.5 billion twin tunnels plan might not give state officials the flexibility
they so desperately want to more efficiently move water to far-flung portions
of the state. And the hope that restoring large tracts of wetland habitat in
the Delta will help certain fish appears to be "overly optimistic," a
team of outside experts has concluded….Not all of the findings are negative.
The group agrees with plan proponents that taking water through the tunnels
would reduce the slaughter of fish that are often sucked into the existing
water export pumps near Tracy. Models show the benefits to be so great that if
the system had been in place over the past decade, populations of native fish
such as the Delta smelt might never have crashed to begin with, Mount said….The
study was conducted for two environmental groups, The Nature Conservancy and
American Rivers.
House
and Senate face deep divide over food stamps [Associated Press]
Farm-state
lawmakers hoping for passage of a farm bill by the end of the year will have to
bridge a deep divide between the House and the Senate over the role of the government
in helping the nation's poor. The House passed a bill Thursday that would make
around $4 billion in cuts annually to the almost $80 billion-a-year food stamp
program and allow states to put in place broad new work requirements for
recipients. A Senate-passed farm bill would make around a tenth of the amount
of those cuts, or $400 million a year….GOP leaders then split the farm programs
from the food stamps and passed a farm-only bill in July. Conservatives crafted
the food stamp bill, saying higher cuts would be easier to pass in a
stand-alone bill. Getting the three bills into a House-Senate conference could
be tricky under House rules. Republicans said Thursday that one more step is
needed — the House will have to hold a procedural vote to allow both the farm
and food stamp bills to go to conference. It is unclear if Republicans who
pushed to split the two bills will oppose that effort.
A
new stinkbug swarming in Sacramento’s downtown gardens [Sacramento Bee]
…Scientists
deem the marmorated stinkbug one of the newest “superpests,” and it now calls a
patch of downtown Sacramento home….This is the area where entomologists have
documented an infestation that covers over half a square mile. It is believed
to be the first reproducing population in California outside of Los Angeles
County….It’s because of their taste for greens – and many other plants – that
brown marmorated stinkbugs become a problem. They typically start out in urban
gardens, then spread to agricultural areas, where they’ve been known to damage
tomatoes, corn, berries, grapes and array of other fruit crops.
Misgivings
about how a weed killer affects the soil [New York Times]
…While
regulators and many scientists say biotech crops are no different from their
conventional cousins, others worry that they are damaging the environment and
human health. The battle is being waged at the polls, with ballot initiatives
to require labeling of genetically modified foods; in courtrooms, where lawyers
want to undo patents on biotech seeds; and on supermarket shelves containing
products promoting conventionally grown ingredients. Now, some farmers are
taking a closer look at their soil. First patented by Monsanto as a herbicide
in 1974, glyphosate has helped revolutionize farming by making it easier and
cheaper to grow crops. The use of the herbicide has grown exponentially, along
with biotech crops. The pervasive use, though, is prompting some concerns.
Critics point, in part, to the rise of so-called superweeds, which are more
resistant to the herbicide. To fight them, farmers sometimes have to spray the
toxic herbicide two to three times during the growing season. Then there is the
feel of the soil.
Ag
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