Our next edition of Ag Today will be Monday, Dec. 2. Happy Thanksgiving from the California Farm Bureau!
Obama
bending on immigration [Salinas Californian]
The
Salinas Valley has President Barack Obama’s ear, according to a Salinas
official who was part of a grower contingent invited to hear the president
discuss immigration reform Monday in San Francisco. What Obama said served to
re-energize Sergio Sanchez, a former Salinas Councilman and now a community
relations adviser to the Watsonville-based California Strawberry Commission,
Sanchez said. He said Obama understands the plight of growers here who are
having to disc under crops because they can’t find enough immigrant
labor….Still, Sanchez and other grower interests, such as the Monterey County
Farm Bureau and the Salinas-based Grower Shipper Association of Central
California, remain optimistic that enough pressure exerted from the
agricultural sector – historically a strong GOP base – can change enough minds
to get reform passed.
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Fresno
farm dispute spolights California’s ag labor law [Sacramento Bee]
…The situation at
Gerawan is raising questions about whether California’s landmark agricultural
labor law, a signature achievement of Gov. Jerry Brown’s first tenure, is
working as intended to expedite contract disputes….One issue, in the Gerawan
case and other disputes, is whether unions certified years ago can still prompt
the mediation process. The Agricultural Labor Relations Board, which
adjudicates these conflicts, has rejected multiple claims from employers that a
long period of union inactivity invalidates that union’s bargaining
position….Regardless of how the election shakes out, the fight over the UFW’s
relationship with Gerawan workers reverberated all the way to Sacramento this
year. Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg , D-Sacramento, was drawn into
the conflict after authoring a bill that would have expanded mediation,
allowing it not just for an initial contract, as current law stipulates, but
for subsequent contracts.
Modesto,
Turlock irrigation districts take key step toward new Don Pedro license
[Modesto Bee]
A
massive set of documents traveled across cyberspace Tuesday, laying out plans
by the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts to keep using Don Pedro
Reservoir. They filed a draft application for a new license from the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees reservoirs that have hydroelectric
plants. The filing launches a new round of public comment on Don Pedro, mainly
on how much water should be released into the lower Tuolumne River to benefit
salmon and other fish. Environmentalists would like to see much more than is
provided under the current license, issued in 1966. Others note the continuing
need for farm and domestic water from the reservoir, along with power. “Water
is the lifeblood of agriculture,” said Ron Peterson, president of the
Stanislaus County Farm Bureau. “Without it, we’re not going to be able to
continue.”
County
exempts small farmers from some Paso Robles groundwater rules [San Luis Obispo
Tribune]
The
San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday gave small farmers a
break when they approved a list of criteria for exemptions from the county’s
emergency ordinance to protect the Paso Robles groundwater basin. Supervisors
voted unanimously to exempt farms smaller than 20 acres from some of the rules
that require evidence of contracts to do work on the farm in preparation for
planting. Owners of small vineyards told supervisors that they do much of the
site preparation themselves and do not contract out for it.
Ag
preservation ordinance used for 1st time since adoption [Stockton Record]
The
Board of Supervisors allowed a developer to pay a fee instead of providing an
acre-for-acre swap to preserve 5 acres of lost farmland Tuesday, the first time
a controversial agricultural-preservation ordinance was utilized since being
adopted seven years ago. County staff recommended Love's Travel Center be
allowed to pay the $8,675-an-acre fee after unsuccessfully trying to buy land
or an easement to preserve 5.06 acres of farmland to replace a piece of the
approved 12-acre project to add a new truck stop in Flag City, where Highway 12
meets Interstate 5….The opportunities are there for the buyer who is looking
for them, said Bruce Blodgett, executive director of the San Joaquin Farm
Bureau Federation, which lobbies for agriculture in the county. Paying a fee
instead of finding an easement moves the responsibility from the developer to
the county, he said. Most of the projects in the unincorporated county are
smaller than 40 acres, he said. And the fees don't match reality, he said.
"Fair market value has gone up for these easements," he said.
"Allow the market system to work."
Editorial: On the origins of food
[Los Angeles Times]
…On
Saturday, after years of wrangling, new, more stringent labeling rules took
full effect, letting consumers in the U.S. know where the meat in their stores
is from so that they can make informed decisions about whether to buy it. The
law requires meat to be labeled with information not only about its country of
origin but also all the places it has traveled on the way to the
supermarket….After a lawsuit to stop the new meat-labeling regulations was
unsuccessful, the meatpacking industry, arguing that the law's tracking and
record-keeping requirements are too onerous, embarked on a 13th-hour campaign
to weaken or undo them, using the federal farm bill that is being negotiated in
Congress as a vehicle….Of course, U.S. food production is far from perfect, and
many other nations have excellent records. But consumers should at least be
given the opportunity to decide for themselves whether they want to buy meat
from a particular country. And they can't do that if they don't have the information
in the first place.
Ag
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