Drought taking bite out of almonds [Hanford Sentinel]
The
prediction a few months ago was that the 2014 California almond crop would top
last year’s. That turns out not to be the case as water issues put a bigger
dent in the harvest than forecasters expected. Water availability – an almost
universal concern in the fourth year of punishing drought – might not have been
the biggest issue. Growers drilled new wells, lowered pumps in others and
generally managed to extract enough of the wet stuff to keep trees alive and
productive. The problem is reportedly poor water quality. As growers drill
deeper and deeper into a sinking aquifer, the water tends to have more unwanted
elements like boron.…Experts now believe the harvest will be closer to the 1.95
billion pounds that the service predicted back on May 1 That is also 2.5
percent below the 2013 figure.
Sonoma County unveils
proposed rules for new wells [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
Sonoma
County planning officials on Monday unveiled the most significant changes in
nearly 40 years to the county’s underground well ordinance, which sets in place
rules property owners must follow when drilling a new water well….The goal is
to prevent new wells from sucking streams dry and diminishing connected
underground supplies. The rules are also intended to shield streams from
sediment and other pollution that can be unleashed during well
construction….Tito Sasaki, president of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, said he
hasn’t identified any specific problems with the proposed well rules. He said
his organization is studying the revisions to identify conflicts with other
looming regulations. Those include the rules on groundwater pumping — required
by recently approved state legislation — and the county’s proposal to establish
50- to 200-foot setbacks along 3,200 miles of streams to shield them from
development and agriculture.
Salinas River winds
path to restoration [Salinas Californian]
…A
year in the making, the Salinas River Stream Maintenance Program has earned
federal approval to move forward with river work aimed at mitigating flood
damage and protecting river habitats. The first phase of the program is a
demonstration project that will clean up a 5-mile stretch of the Salinas
River….One of the toughest tasks facing the cleanup project will be removing
Arundo, a bamboo-like invasive cane plant that clots river channels and creates
choke points through which water can't easily flow. Norm Groot of the Monterey
County Farm Bureau says that farmers and landowners have been waiting for the
day they could get back in and clear the reeds out. Says Groot: "They've
been just idly sitting by watching this all happen for the last seven years.…Nobody's
paying attention to the fact that the channel keeps degrading and it's a real
threat to not only public safety but also to our farmland." The
demonstration project broke ground on Oct. 10.
Opinion: Farm Bureau supports Proposition 1 [Visalia
Times-Delta]
California’s
voters will have a historic opportunity this November to make an important
commitment to everyone’s future food, job and economic security by voting Yes
on the bond initiative now known as Proposition 1 — the Water Quality, Supply
and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014. This will be a critical measure to
create broad, bipartisan support amongst California’s voters this November.
Tulare County Farm Bureau’s board of directors, at its Sept. 11 meeting, voted
to officially support the bond. The bond with its $7.5 billion price tag
provides long overdue funding to build critical infrastructure, storage and
conveyance projects for increased water storage and movement of water around
the state. The state’s rural communities and urban areas all desperately need
more water and more access to storage to manage the arid climatic conditions in
California that often lead to extended periods of drought and scarce rainfall.
California's foie
gras ban left intact by Supreme Court [Bloomberg News]
The
U.S. Supreme Court left intact California's ban on the sale of foie gras, a
delicacy made from the livers of force-fed ducks, as the justices turned away
an appeal from producers in New York and Canada. The high court today refused
to second-guess a federal appeals court's conclusion that the ban probably
complies with the U.S. Constitution. The producers argued unsuccessfully that
the law illegally interferes with interstate and foreign commerce.…California
enacted its ban in 2004 at the urging of celebrities including Paul McCartney
and Alicia Silverstone. The measure, the first of its kind in the U.S., took
effect in 2012 after an eight-year delay designed to give farmers time to
change their production methods.
Agricultural crimes
remain an issue in Ventura County [Ventura County Star]
…Although
local officials don’t keep specific statistics on agriculture crime, thefts and
vandalism continue to be an issue in rural areas of Ventura County. Detective
Ray Dominguez, who runs the sheriff’s agricultural crimes unit, said these
types of incidents are cyclical and depend on numerous factors….Dominguez also works
closely with the Farm Bureau of Ventura County and the county Agricultural
Commissioner’s Office to keep agricultural businesses in the loop on crime
trends and prevention….“We’re very fortunate in Ventura County to have a
detective who tracks crimes,” said John Krist, CEO of the farm bureau.
“(Dominguez) has been instrumental in the recovery of stolen materials.”
Ag
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