Farm bill compromise protects California's egg law [Los Angeles Times]
California's
egg law survived a congressional effort to scramble it as key lawmakers from
both parties announced an agreement Monday on a multiyear farm bill. That means
beginning next year, all eggs sold in California will have been laid by hens
that had plenty of room to flap their wings. The compromise farm bill, which
could come up for a House vote Wednesday, would avert deep cuts sought by
Republicans in the federal food stamp program and end direct payments to
farmers — a controversial provision under the previous farm bill in which
farmers received federal subsidies regardless of their output….The California
Farm Bureau Federation hailed the compromise House-Senate bill and called for
its passage. "Although the debate about the King amendment focused on
eggs, the amendment threatened other state-specific standards to prevent pests
and diseases that threaten California crops," federation president Paul
Wenger said in a statement.
Negotiators
agree on farm bill [Stockton Record]
A
House plan to make major cuts to food stamps would be scaled back under a
bipartisan agreement on a massive farm bill, a near end to a more than two-year
fight that has threatened to hurt rural lawmakers in an election year. The
measure announced Monday by the House and Senate Agriculture committees
preserves food stamp benefits for most Americans who receive them and continues
generous subsidies for farmers. The House was expected to vote on the bill
Wednesday, with the Senate following shortly after….Bruce Blodgett, executive
manager of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau Federation, welcomed the news from
Washington, saying having a farm bill will provide some certainty for San
Joaquin County's No. 1 industry.
House
Republicans consider their own immigration plan [Los Angeles Times]
In
a potential breakthrough for long-stalled immigration legislation, House
Republicans will consider a proposal this week that would allow millions of
immigrants in the country illegally to gain legal status and, in some cases, to
eventually become citizens. House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio is expected
to issue a list of broad immigration "principles" to fellow
Republicans during a three-day retreat that begins Wednesday at a Chesapeake
Bay resort. For the first time, the list will include a narrow path to
citizenship as well as tighter border security and new visas for foreign
workers.
As
California drought continues, federal government could seize San Joaquin Valley
farm water [Modesto Bee]
Farmers
from the San Joaquin Valley set aside precious water last year, like money in a
bank. But now someone else might claim the investment.
With
the state extremely dry, farmers fear federal officials effectively could seize
for other purposes the water, set aside primarily in San Luis Reservoir on the
West Side. Affected farmers say that would be wrong. Unfortunately for them, it
might be legal.
Dan
Walters: Gov. Brown increasingly desperate to save bullet train [Sacramento Bee]
Desperate
times, it’s been said, call for desperate measures. The oft-quoted phrase
originated with ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, who declared, “For extreme
diseases, extreme methods of cure, as to restriction, are most suitable…” Gov.
Jerry Brown, without uttering the words, has adopted it as his guiding credo to
keep alive his bullet train project that otherwise would die a natural death.
Ernie
Righetti, local agriculturalist, dies at age 97 [San Luis Obispo Tribune]
Ernest
Righetti, pioneering Edna Valley farmer and pillar of the county’s agricultural
community, died Sunday. He was 97. He had been in ill health and under hospice
care recently. He died late Sunday night at Sierra Vista Regional Medical
Center in San Luis Obispo, where he had been treated since Tuesday, said son
David Righetti….Righetti was a longtime director of the San Luis Obispo County
Farm Bureau and served as its president from 1975 to 1977. The bureau named him
Agriculturalist of the Year in 1991.
Ag
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