Beef prices hit all-time high in U.S. [Los Angeles Times]
…Beef
prices have reached all-time highs in the U.S. and aren't expected to come down
any time soon. Extreme weather has thinned the nation's beef cattle herds to
levels last seen in 1951, when there were about half as many mouths to feed in
America.…The retail value of "all-fresh" USDA choice-grade beef
jumped to a record $5.28 a pound in February, up from $4.91 the same time a
year ago. The same grade of beef cost $3.97 as recently as 2008. The swelling
prices are roiling the beef supply chain from rancher to restaurant.
San Joaquin tops list
of endangered rivers in America [Fresno Bee]
The
San Joaquin River is America's most endangered waterway this year, says the
national advocacy group American Rivers, known for annually picking the
country's 10 most troubled rivers. The San Joaquin's water is spread too thin
among farmers, hydroelectric projects and other uses on the mainstem and three
tributaries, the Merced, Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers, the group announced
Wednesday in Washington, D.C. For decades, the San Joaquin has been
periodically dry for more than 60 miles northwest of Fresno, destroying salmon
runs and parts of the river channel. A restoration project began nearly five
years ago to reconnect the river with the Pacific Ocean and rebuild salmon
runs.
MID backs
district-managed and open-market water sales [Modesto Bee]
There’s
no longer a dispute over whether the Modesto Irrigation District should help
drought-stricken farms get more water this year by paying some growers a fixed
price to forgo their water shares or by allowing open-market sales among
farmers. The MID board on Tuesday quit arguing which approach – both approved
in February – best fits the district’s mission and agreed that both will
proceed. Details of so-called farmer-to-farmer sales should emerge in about a month,
while those who signed up for the district-managed program heard unexpected
good news Tuesday. Rather than getting an extra 6 inches on top of the 24
inches promised for each acre this year, those who signed up to buy at the
fixed price learned they will get 8 inches, for a total of 32.
Monterey County will
go after Salinas-area runoff for irrigation, domestic use [Monterey County
Herald]
After
a rousing debate between the Salinas Valley's interests and the Monterey
Peninsula's water needs, county officials agreed on Tuesday to pursue rights to
Salinas-area water runoff for irrigation and domestic uses. A joint committee
of county supervisors and county Water Resources Agency board members voted to
authorize agency general manager David Chardavoyne to submit an application to
the state water board for rights to the Blanco Drain and Reclamation Ditch.
According to a staff report, the heavily contaminated water runoff would be
treated for use in farm fields and public use in an effort to cut back on
pumping from groundwater wells to offset seawater intrusion. The application
process is expected to cost $450,000.
Judge spares one
defendant, punishes another in SK Foods corruption case [Sacramento Bee]
One
defendant was sent home to care for his ailing wife, despite prosecutors
insisting he deserved prison; the other was sentenced to a three-year prison
term over the objections of the same prosecutors, who said he deserved less.
This was how justice was meted out Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Lawrence K.
Karlton as he imposed the latest sentences in the government’s seven-year probe
and prosecution of bribery and racketeering in California’s tomato processing
industry. Alan Scott Huey was the first Tuesday to answer for his crimes. He
has admitted to knowing about the conspiracies hatched by SK Foods President F.
Scott Salyer to bribe food industry officials and label old and moldy tomato
products as fit for human consumption.
Editorial: In drought, guard our groundwater [Chico
Enterprise-Record]
When
it comes to the water that sits in north state aquifers, we trust our local
counties to safeguard it and determine how to use it much more than we trust
the state to manage it. Even though water is abundant in the north state, we
generally know how valuable the resource is. We manage it wisely for the most
part. Especially in a drought, other areas covet our water. Despite vague
remarks of indifference by water managers south of the delta, the underground
reservoir here is coveted as much as the water in the above-ground reservoirs.
And just like the building of Shasta, Trinity and Oroville dams was done solely
to capture that blue resource, we know in this state that no expense is too
great and no justification too exaggerated for getting their hands on any water
source. Ask the folks in the Owens Valley or Trinity County.
Ag
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