Bills a bonus for food stamp users, farmers [San Francisco Chronicle]
The
House and Senate farm bills before Congress would, for the first time, open a
trickle of funding for a program that doubles food stamp benefits that are
spent on fresh fruits and vegetables at farmers' markets. The program is
operating with private funds at 300 farmers' markets across the nation,
including seven in the Bay Area. A new Veggie Rx program that provides farmers'
market coupons to poor people who are obese or have diabetes is showing results
at hospitals around the country, including a pilot in Santa Rosa, but is not up
for federal funding.
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New
weekend psyllid finds include Fresno County [Fresno Business Journal]
The
feared Asian citrus psyllid appears to be spreading rapidly across the citrus
belt with new finds over the weekend in Fresno County between Orosi and Orange
Cove and near the Tulare County towns of Strathmore and Ducor. All three of the
latest finds were made in commercial citrus groves, bringing the recent tally
to nine discoveries in Tulare County and one in Fresno County. According to
Tulare County Agriculture Commissioner Marilyn Kinoshita, the find in Fresno
County is near the intersection of Hills Valley Road and Floral Avenue near the
Fresno-Tulare County line. The area is northeast of the town of Dinuba, where
the pest was discovered in a residential citrus tree earlier this month. The
separate discoveries over the weekend in Strathmore and Ducor are outside
established quarantine zones for the pest. The pest has also been trapped near
Exeter and Porterville.
Sutter
County farmers fearful over flood insurance rate increases [Marysville
Appeal-Democrat]
For
Sutter County farmers grappling with impending flood insurance rate increases
and draconian building restrictions, the only certainty is uncertainty. On top
of regulation that prohibits the construction of new structures, Sutter County
farmers are now facing massive insurance rate hikes from the Biggert-Waters
Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012. In short, an industry already facing its
share of issues is bracing for another hit. Local leaders are lobbying
congressional representatives and seeking reform for the series of policies
that could strangle the local agriculture industry.
Local
agency to have direct input on Salton Sea restoration [Imperial Valley Press]
Local
Salton Sea restoration efforts got a boost Saturday when Gov. Jerry Brown
signed Assembly Bill 71 into law. Brown’s signature is a milestone in local
stakeholders’ efforts for direct input on decisions involving the Salton Sea.
The new law directs the state Natural Resources Agency to coordinate with the
Salton Sea Authority on restoration efforts. It also allows the Salton Sea
Authority to proceed with a study that identifies potential funding sources and
matches them with needs at the Salton Sea, such as a revitalized wildlife
habitat and economic and environmental development. $2 million were approved
for the study in May. The new governance structure replaces the Salton Sea
Restoration Council, a board that was tasked with recommending a restoration
plan for the sea. Although critics said it placed too much control in the hands
of bureaucrats in Sacramento, it did not meet once or get any funding. Brown
dissolved the council in 2012.
Landowner
seeks to build hotels, vineyards in southwest Paso Robles [San Luis Obispo
Tribune]
The
initial steps to bring a major annexation project proposing hotels and
vineyards on Paso Robles’ southwest side will be considered Tuesday night by
the City Council. Called the Paso Robles Gateway Project, the development would
annex from San Luis Obispo County to the city approximately 270 acres at
Highway 101 and Highway 46 West, near South Vine Street. The proposal includes
three separate hotels, approximately 62,300 square feet of retail and office
space, up to 35 single-family residential units on one half- to one-acre lots,
114 acres of vineyards and additional open space….Water is the big question,
Mayor Duane Picanco said Monday. “We’re going to require that we make certain
that they verify we have enough water. We think we do, but we want to make
sure,” he said.
Opinion: Keep farmland for
farmers [New York Times]
WHEN
we went looking in upstate New York for a home for our farm, we feared
competition from deep-pocketed developers, a new subdivision or a big-box
store. These turned out to be the least of our problems. Though the farms best
suited for our vegetables were protected from development by conservation
easements, we discovered that we couldn’t compete, because conserved farmland
is open to all buyers — millionaires included….In the next 20 years, 70 percent
of the nation’s farmland will change hands.Farmers do not live forever, and
most farm kids do not choose to carry on the family business. An eager
generation of young Americans is motivated to farm but, like us, they need land
and few will be able to secure it without help.
Ag
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