New water rules for farmers OK'd [Stockton Record]
State
water cops approved rules Wednesday that will result in higher costs for
thousands of San Joaquin County farmers, with the goal of reducing polluted
runoff draining into already degraded streams. The unanimous vote by the
Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board formalizes what have been
described as the most significant new rules many farmers will have ever
seen….Most of the debate Wednesday, however, focused on what farmers have
called the "tattletale" provision of the new rules, which in certain
cases would require the farmers running the local coalition to essentially
report their own peers to the state for failing to comply…."We don't want
to be seen as the enforcer at all," dairyman Jack Hamm told the board
Wednesday. "It's very important that we're not seen as turning in our
neighbors." State officials said they would be the ones taking punitive
action, if necessary - not the coalition itself. The coalition would merely be
providing the information about which growers are following the rules.
E.P.A.’s proposed
rules on water worry farmers [New York Times]
…The
Environmental Protection Agency is set to issue regulations that farmers like
Mr. Lemke say may require them to get permits for work for which they have long
been exempt. The E.P.A. says the new rules are needed to clarify which bodies
of water it must oversee under the federal Clean Water Act, an issue of
jurisdiction that the agency says has been muddled by recent court rulings.
Opponents say the rules are a power grab that could stifle economic growth and
intrude on property owners’ rights. There is no timetable for when the rules
will be released. But if the agency expands its jurisdiction over streams like
the one on Mr. Lemke’s farm, he and other farmers say, the move could prove
costly by requiring farmers to pay fees for environmental assessments and to
get permits just to till the soil near gullies, ditches or dry streambeds where
water only flows when it rains….Don Parrish, senior director of regulatory
relations with the American Farm Bureau Federation, acknowledges that the draft
regulations do detail exemptions for agriculture. But he said the E.P.A. and
the Army Corps of Engineers have a lot of authority to interpret the rules as
they choose, despite reassurances from Tom Vilsack, the agriculture secretary,
and agency officials that farm work will not be curtailed.
Water meeting brings
crowd to Oxnard [Ventura County Star]
In
a sign of the drought’s severity locally, a water agency with no regulatory
power drew such a large crowd of farmers to its board meeting Wednesday that it
moved the session to an Oxnard hotel. The United Water Conservation District
board voted 6-0 to adopt a resolution declaring drought conditions exist. It
made formal existing priorities for how the district distributes surface water
it controls but imposed no cutbacks….Before the board voted, several speakers
urged members to wait and focus on developing new sources. “We’ve been here
before,” said Fred Van Wingerden, president of the Farm Bureau of Ventura
County, who raises flowers with Pyramid Farms. Growers worked together in the
1980s to find solutions, he said, adding the board should pursue a similar path
now.
Stopping theft on the
farm [Wall Street Journal]
For
decades, neighborhood-watch groups have helped combat crime in cities. Now, in
response to a surge in agriculture-related theft in recent years, U.S. farmers
and ranchers are forming similar groups, which trade photos of missing
equipment, possible suspects and other crime tips. Here in California's Central
Valley, a group known as Hilmar Farm Watch sprang up in 2011 after a rash of
thefts of items ranging from copper wire to electrical panels. Since then, the
group has ballooned to more than 3,000 neighbors connected by Facebook and email.
Police say the group's vigilance has helped lead to arrests and recovery of
stolen property….Watch groups like Hilmar's have sprouted as
agriculture-related crime, primarily theft, has soared in some rural areas over
the past few years due in part to the fragile economy and high jobless rates,
putting a further economic squeeze on farmers and ranchers.
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text included in attached Word file.
Firms plow through
farm bill, seeking an edge [Wall Street Journal]
Entrepreneurs
are poring over the recently enacted Farm Bill, looking for provisions and new
programs that might give their businesses an edge….The Farm Bill, which is more
than 900 pages long and took nearly three years for Congress to pass, provides
a blueprint for the next five years of agricultural policy….Traditional
programs for commodity crops like corn, soybeans, cotton and rice were reduced
by about $14 billion over 10 years. Money for fruits, vegetables, organics and
other food and farm programs were increased by about $2 billion over the same
period….Ali Partovi, of San Francisco, an early investor in tech startups such
as Facebook Inc., Dropbox Inc. and Zappos, and food and farming startups like
BrightFarms, Farmland LP and Hampton Creek Foods, says he hopes the bill, which
was signed into law Feb. 7, will increase the supply of organic food, bringing
down prices for consumers. Beyond that, the bill offers new angles for a few of
the startups in which he invests, including Farmland LP, a five-year-old
real-estate fund that transforms conventional farmland into organic farmland.
*Link may require paid subscription;
text included in attached Word file.
Columnist: California farmers: How the state feeds a nation [Los
Angeles Times]
You
know how the rest of the country likes to make fun of California, but how much
would they miss us if we were gone? You can certainly bet the weeping and
wailing would be off the charts at dinner time. According to the latest
statistics compiled by the California Department of Food and Agriculture, the
state produces almost half of all the fruits, nuts and vegetables grown in the
country, as well as a whopping share of the livestock and dairy. All told, the state’s
farms earned almost $45 billion in 2012, the last year for which statistics are
available – that’s more than 11% of the nation’s total. The biggest winners
include milk, which earned $6.9 billion; grapes ($4.5 billion); almonds ($4.3
billion); strawberries ($1.9 billion); lettuce ($1.5 billion); walnuts ($1.3
billion); and tomatoes ($1.2 billion).
Ag
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