Groundwater is at historic low levels throughout California [Modesto Bee]
Groundwater
levels throughout California – and particularly the Southern San Joaquin Valley
– are at historic lows, a Department of Water Resources report released Friday
shows. In many areas of the San Joaquin Valley, groundwater levels this spring
are more than 100 feet less than the previous historic lows, according to the
51-page report….During average years, groundwater supports about 40 percent of
California’s urban and agricultural water uses. But agriculture’s reliance on
groundwater increases dramatically when drought causes shortages in surface
water supplies from rivers and dams, forcing irrigation districts to reduce
canal water deliveries. State researchers say the results of this groundwater
study are particularly alarming because they are based on springtime well
measurements, when groundwater levels typically peak.
Drought prompts
likely limits on tapping rivers [Associated Press]
With
summer approaching and California's snowpack measuring a fraction of normal,
state officials said Thursday they will likely order farmers and other big
water users to limit the amounts they take from rivers. The State Water
Resources Control Board projected the curtailment letters would be sent out
later this month for users on 10 different rivers and their watersheds. It
would mark the first such directive since 1977.…The orders will be delivered
first to junior water-rights holders — those who obtained their water rights
after 1914 and whose ability to take water ranks behind pre-1914 senior rights
holders. Senior holders would still be able to take water initially, and would
only be ordered to curtail if conditions became even more extreme.
Large almond crop
projected despite drought [Modesto Bee]
California
could produce its third-largest almond crop in history despite the severe
drought this year, a federal agency reported Thursday. The 1.95 billion-pound
estimate, announced at the Modesto headquarters of the Almond Board of
California, trails only the 2.03 billion pounds harvested in 2011 and the 2
billion last year. The report suggests that growers are doing all they can to
get water to the trees so they can keep supplying the booming demand for the
nuts….Thursday’s projection was based on an April telephone survey of growers
representing 29 percent of the acreage, who reported on their crops’ development
and water outlook. A second and final estimate, based on nut counts and
measurements in a sampling of orchards, will be announced June 30.
California senate
advances bill to curb antibiotics in farm animals [Reuters]
The
California State Senate advanced a bill on Thursday to restrict the use of antibiotics
in farm animals for growth enhancement by requiring that the drugs be sold by
prescription for medical reasons only, officials said. The first-in-the-nation
legislation would codify into law voluntary U.S. Food and Drug Administration
guidelines, issued late last year, aimed at stemming a surge in resistance to
certain antibiotics in humans, according to state Senator Jerry Hill, the
bill's author….Hill's legislation would require that antibiotics be sold with a
veterinarian prescription and that antibiotic manufacturers label the drugs to
show that they require prescriptions. But the measure would apply only to
antibiotics used by humans, including tetracycline and penicillin, and would
not restrict drugs used solely for animals…."The livestock farmers and
ranchers want to make sure antibiotics remain effective," said Noelle
Cremers, director of Natural Resources and Commodities at the California Farm
Bureau Federation.
Why Big Meat hates
‘Made in the USA’ labels [Washington Post]
…For
many products, country-of-origin labeling has been a requirement for a long
time. But it was only mandated for food in the 2008 Farm Bill, which decreed
that most meat and produce carry a sticker with the place it came from (or, at
least, where it was born, raised, and slaughtered)….Most of the large scale
meatpackers, like Tyson Foods, buy animals from both Canada and Mexico and
bring them to U.S. slaughterhouses, which are all subject to the same safety standards. As several meatpacking
trade associations led by the American Meat Institute put it in their lawsuit
against the new rules: "In short, beef is beef, whether the cattle were
born in Montana, Manitoba, or Mazatlán….There are, however, some meat-producing
interests that still favor the country-of-origin labels: American ranchers
themselves, who just provide the animals, and don't have to deal with
separating streams of livestock from all over the continent and tracking it to
its destination.
Agribusiness funds
'Farmland' to counter Hollywood message [NPR]
The
movie Farmland opened in theaters Thursday. It's the latest in a string of
documentaries about agriculture, like Food Inc. and King Corn. But while the
latter two films made damning accusations about the environmental and human
costs of modern agribusiness, this documentary was funded by agribusiness. It
tells a very different story….Farmland was funded by the U.S. Farmers and
Ranchers Alliance….The alliance includes state farm bureaus and agribusiness
giants like Monsanto, whose genetically engineered seeds were targeted for
criticism in the film Food Inc. Randy Krotz, with the Farmers and Ranchers
Alliance, says they felt it was time to make their own movie.
Ag
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