Water managers say drought proclamation expected [Capital Public Radio, Sacramento]
California
water managers painted a dismal picture of dry conditions and low reservoir
levels to the state Board of Food and Agriculture Tuesday. They say a drought
proclamation from the Governor may come as soon as February 1st….It’s a grim
scenario for farmers. “What I think it means particularly in the San Joaquin
Valley is the fallowing of possibly 300,000 to 500,000 acres," says Craig
McNamara, President of the Board of Food and Agriculture….Water agencies are
also worried. Jason Peltier with the Westlands Water District says he’s telling
water users that they should brace for a 0-percent water allocation.
Commentary: Learning to adapt to droughts [Ventura County Star]
…It
was dry all over California in 2013, but some of the rainfall recordings were
stunning….It has historically taken periods of drought to create the political
conditions necessary to provoke action on water policy. As it happens, this
period of lack of precipitation comes at a precipitous time. The EIR on the Bay
Delta Plan and its controversial twin tunnels to divert Sacramento River water
beneath the Delta is now circulating and could be certified by the end of this
year. Additionally, the Legislature is seeking to craft a major water bond to
place before voters in November. The drought and the climate change forecasts
combine to bring a few imperatives into focus: the Bay Delta Plan must ensure
greater reliability of water exports, and the bond must include provisions for
additional water storage.
Pest found in Ojai
threatens Calif.'s billion-dollar citrus industry [Ventura County Star]
Ojai
citrus growers have gotten news they had been expecting for years but dreading:
the Asian citrus psyllid has been found in the Ojai Valley….The challenge that
arises from finding the insect in the Ojai Valley and keeping it from invading
commercial orchards is the many smaller growers there, said John Krist, CEO of
the Farm Bureau of Ventura County. Owners of 25 or more citrus trees are
considered a commercial growers by the state and must treat their trees. But
Ojai has many “borderline commercial growers,” Krist said. “They don’t think of
themselves as citrus ranchers or farmers, so we need to help them understand
why the state regards them as commercial growers and why we need them to
cooperate with the treatment protocol,” Krist said.
Psyllid drives some
growers to new crops [Riverside Press-Enterprise]
Gazing
over his citrus groves in the hills above Redlands, Bob Knight ponders more
than the majestic orange trees his great-grandfather planted a century ago. He
fears the end of his livelihood, brought about by the Asian citrus psyllid, a
ubiquitous pest that transmits citrus greening disease, a death sentence for
the trees….Knight and fellow grower Craig Wesson are so convinced that greening
disease will decimate the state’s trees that they have begun planting row crops
such as tomatoes and cauliflower on their vacant land and in large gaps between
rows of citrus trees. “We need to be ready when the trees die,” Knight said….Gardner,
the agriculture commissioner, called Knight’s view “overly pessimistic,” and
said he is confident a disease-resistant variety will be introduced before all
trees are lost.
Orange prices rise
$2-$3 a box after cold weather [Visalia Times-Delta]
Reports
are still coming in as to the extent of the damage to the citrus crop in the
Central Valley from the Dec. 4-10 freeze. Growers note the cold hit early in
the season, when about 75 percent of the state’s citrus crop was still on
trees. Luckily fruit had a high sugar content for this early in the year, which
is a plus in preserving the fruit in cold. Still, in some areas of Tulare
County, all fruit in mandarin groves was described as “toast,” whereas in many
navel orange groves damage appeared more limited. The variability of crop loss
reflected factors such as farm location, frost protection methods used, citrus
variety and crop maturity.
Why groceries cost
more in the Bay Area [San Francisco Chronicle]
Despite
living close to the country's most productive cropland, Bay Area shoppers pay
steeper prices at the grocery store than people who live much farther from
farms. A cost comparison of the staples of American diets shows that San
Francisco prices are on par with those in Washington, D.C., a city with a more
distant and tenuous connection to farmers….But if and when the farm bill is
adopted, prices in San Francisco and Washington are expected to remain similar.
That's because the distance food needs to travel to reach store shelves - and
the associated fuel and transportation costs - is a small piece of the pricing
structure, according to both agricultural economists and farm advocates.
"The ultimate seller has to factor in all those other costs as well,"
said California Farm Bureau Federation spokesman Dave Kranz. "The cost of
labor, keeping the lights on in the store, whatever regulations they have to
comply with all go into the cost, and that's a larger proportion of the cost
than the actual cost of the food itself."
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