Opinion: Jerry Brown hands United Farm Workers a setback [Sacramento Bee]
Jerry
Brown devoted much of his first governorship to seeking other offices, so his
record of accomplishment was scant. He’s often touted a 1975 deal to give
farmworkers, excluded from the National Labor Relations Act, union rights in
California, supposedly settling years of strife between the United Farm Workers
Union and growers. However, it merely ignited decades of new strife, which
continues with Brown’s recent veto of a new farm labor bill….Meanwhile, the
Legislature passed still another bill requiring the ALRB to implement its
mediation order while reviews are pending and limiting the ability of courts to
intervene. Over the weekend, Brown vetoed Senate Bill 25, saying he wanted a
“balanced and fair” process. “We should look at the entire process before
making further changes,” he said, handing the UFW a big defeat and farmers a
victory.
Hearing
begins for Fresno farmworkers at Gerawan Farming [Fresno Bee]
An
administrative law judge began hearing testimony Monday in a case that could
decide whether more than 3,000 farmworkers employed by Gerawan Farming will be
represented by the United Farm Workers union or not. A decision on who will
represent the workers has been in limbo after a group of Gerawan workers fought
and won the right in November to hold an election to try and kick the union
out. But the Agricultural Labor Relations Board has refused to count the
ballots until it resolves numerous complaints of unfair labor practices against
Gerawan. The hearing that's taking place before administrative law judge Mark
Soble is expected to last for weeks, if not months….Soble will determine if the
unfair labor charges -- which include worker intimidation and forging
signatures -- are true and whether the petition to decertify the union will be
tossed out. If not, the ballots will be counted and the election results
announced.
New
California law aims to rid farmers markets of cheaters [Los Angeles Times]
Bringing
to fruition a decade-long campaign by farmers market stakeholders, on Friday,
California Gov. Jerry Brown signed AB 1871, which for the first time provides
what supporters say is adequate funding to ensure that growers at certified farmers
markets produce what they sell….Starting Jan. 1, 2015, the bill will increase
the state fee paid by markets for their vendors from 60 cents to $2 daily.
Currently only farmers pay the fee, but next year it will extend to all
vendors, including food and crafts sellers in non-agricultural sections.
Legislative analysts have estimated that the bill will raise $1.35 million
annually, including more than $1 million in new revenues, which will go to the
California Department of Food and Agriculture. It will be used chiefly for
hiring new state inspectors and reimbursing counties for local investigative
work, as well as maintaining a database of markets and growers.
Benoit:
Farmer assistance agency operates illegally [Palm Springs Desert Sun]
A
taxpayer-funded local agency has operated in near-total secrecy and paid more
than $100,000 per year to several members of the same family, County Supervisor
John Benoit told The Desert Sun on Monday. The Coachella Valley Resource
Conservation District — a little-known entity charged with helping farmers
conserve soil and water — receives about $135,000 in state property taxes, plus
rent from the building it owns in Indio. According to Benoit, the district's
scientific consultant — former Department of Agriculture employee Sam Aslan —
took control of the agency's board of directors over the past few years,
hand-picking board members and installing his wife Silvia as the paid district
manager….Benoit also charged the conservation district with violating the Brown
Act, California's open meetings law, by failing to provide public notice of its
board meetings….Additionally, Benoit said, the district's board illegally
appointed its own members by internal vote, rather than asking county
supervisors to do so.
How
much of world’s greenhouse-gas emissions come from agriculture? [Wall Street
Journal]
Agriculture
might seem green by definition, but farming accounts for a lot of
greenhouse-gas emissions when the entire food production system is taken into account.
Typically, estimates of greenhouse-gas emissions from agriculture are around
11%-15% of global emissions. Estimates discussed earlier this week at the
United Nations Climate Summit put that number closer to 50%....The reason for
the difference is that the 11%-15% estimates only take into account emissions
from the farming part of agriculture, such as plowing and fertilizing….The
43%-57% estimates, which are published in the United Nations Conference on
Trade and Development‘s 2013 Trade and Environment Review, look at food
production more broadly to also include emissions from land-use change and
deforestation, as well as the processing, packaging, transport and sale of
agricultural products….According to Bob Young, chief economist of the American
Farm Bureau Federation, the number seems high. He said it’s important to
distinguish U.S. agriculture from global agriculture, citing the technological
efficiencies of machinery as well as the “ways we process our manure, how we
feed animals, also the productivity out of our animals: The amount of milk out
of one animal in the U.S. would take 4 or 5 in Mexico.”
Editorial: Another water year
ends; so begins new weather era [Marysville Appeal-Democrat]
It's
pretty likely we'll never be the same again. While that might be a sort of
philosophical truism, we're talking about how it relates to water. Officially,
according to a press release from the California Department of Water Resources,
water year 2014 ends today. It goes into the record BOOKS as one of the driest
ever, "with no promise that the new water year beginning Wednesday will be
any wetter."…"The immediate certainty is that day-to-day conservation
— wise, sparing use of water — is essential as we face the possibility of a
fourth dry winter," said DWR Director Mark Cowin. Our prediction is that
we're passing a point where conservation becomes a permanent way of life, and
not just a short-term reaction to a drought.
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