Boxer’s actions often angered Valley, but she's also recognized for doing good [Fresno Bee]
As
a liberal Bay Area Democrat, Sen. Barbara Boxer wasn’t the most popular
politician in the central San Joaquin Valley. Boxer — who on Thursday announced
she wouldn’t seek re-election in 2016 — earned the ire of many in the region by
supporting the controversial San Joaquin River restoration project and
President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act. Republicans blame her for the
failure late last year of negotiations on a compromise California water bill.
They say she’s been more helpful to the state’s left-leaning coastal regions
than its more conservative inland regions. To say Boxer has never helped the
Valley, however, would be wrong. She stood up for Valley poultry ranchers and
citrus farmers, for horses and mule packers operating in Sequoia and Kings
Canyon National Park wilderness areas, for keeping federal agencies — and their
employees — in downtown Fresno and for the farm bill’s Market Access Program, which
helps overseas promotions and advertising…Critics say much of Boxer’s
shortcomings revolve around water.
U.S.
dairies get crash course in exporting [Wall Street Journal]
Historically,
America’s dairy processors have focused on their home markets, but many of them
have retooled in the past decade, boosting output to help supply infant
formula, cheese and other products to China and other countries with rapidly
expanding middle classes….Now, with prices down sharply from the highs reached
last year, the companies are getting a crash course in the risks of competing
globally and working to improve their use of hedging and other risk-management
tools. They’re also trying to tap other destinations, from Mexico to Malaysia,
for their products. They have little choice: While prices in the U.S. are
generally higher, demand has been anemic…. California Dairy Inc.’s response to
the market volatility has involved building an internal risk-management group, which
is trading more milk contracts on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange to help the
company weather global price swings as it boosts exports, says Andrei
Mikhalevsky, chief executive of the second-largest dairy cooperative in the
U.S. California Dairy expects global milk prices to stabilize by late summer as
global stockpiles dwindle.
Farming
feels the chill: 2015 ag forecast looks beyond drought [Pacific Coast Business
Times]
With
frost advisories at the start of this year already keeping many tricounty
growers on their toes, the agricultural community across the region is hoping
for a rainier, greener year….While the exact level of damage has yet to be
estimated, the hard freeze warnings are the first obstacle for tricounty
growers in a year that could be a comeback for the industry, after the emergency
drought of 2014 left behind a growing number of barren fields and slashes in
production. Many say that higher rainfall numbers in the early months of this
year could mean a major break for the industry….“The question right now is…are
we seeing a break in the drought or is this just an early bit of rain and
another super dry year?,” said John Krist, CEO of the Ventura County Farm
Bureau…. Along with the uncertainty of future rainfall, another water issue
growers are dealing with is the potential impact of the new statewide
groundwater legislation. “There’s a lot of work to be done to decide who’s in
charge of sustainability plans for all the individual groundwater basins,”
Krist said. “It’s going to require [growers] to participate and pay attention
to this.”
http://www.pacbiztimes.com/2015/01/09/farming-feels-the-chill-2015-ag-forecast-looks-beyond-drought/
County
considers increasing ag mitigation ratios for new developments [Davis
Enterprise]
Consistent
with the General Plan declaration that agriculture and open space are “the
defining characteristics of Yolo County,” the Board of Supervisors released a
study last month that investigates ramping up efforts to permanently preserve
farmland….Currently, when developers convert farmland, they essentially have to
purchase and relinquish development rights of an equal number of acres
somewhere nearby….The study looks at six possible policy changes that could
increase the ratio of acres developed to acres preserved….While the urban
growth is both inevitable and important for the growth of the county, policies
including mitigation would incentivize high-density projects developed close
together, to reduce the impact of new construction. “Otherwise we just become
like all the counties around us,” said Jeff Merwin, president of the Yolo
County Farm Bureau….“We’re not going to become an urban county like Los Angeles
overnight. But as time goes on, it’s nice to have a policy in place that
enables us to at least do what we can while we are.”
Editorial: Creating a policy
that works [Santa Maria Times]
Among
the battles expected between a Republican Congress and Democrat president is
immigration, specifically President Obama’s executive order on immigration….But
while politicians duke it out in Washington, the nation’s farmers are dealing
with what could be a very real problem — the loss of field workers, as a direct
result of Obama’s de-facto immigration policy reform….The problems are not all
on this side of the border….Coupled with Obama’s end run around Congress on
immigration reform, those out-of-country factors should compel lawmakers to
come up with a comprehensive, cooperative package of reform legislation, which
of necessity should include a guest-worker program that would facilitate easy
border crossing for those who want to do seasonal farm work in the United
States. The question is — do our elected leaders have the common sense to do
that?
Editorial: Faulty ruling on foie
gras ban [Los Angeles Times]
More
than a decade ago, in 2004, the California Legislature banned the production
and sale in California of foie gras, which is created by the inhumane process
of force-feeding ducks and geese to fatten their livers….But now a federal
judge has sided with a group of foie gras producers, farmers and restaurateurs
and enjoined enforcement of the portion of the regulation outlawing the sale of
foie gras, finding that it violates a federal law governing the sale and
distribution of poultry….California's foie gras ban, Judge Stephen V. Wilson
said on Wednesday, violates the poultry act because a force-fed bird's liver is
an "ingredient." Well, sure, an enlarged liver may be the main
ingredient in foie gras. But how the liver got enlarged is the result of the
bird's handling. And that, we believe, is something the state of California has
the right to regulate….The attorney general should appeal this ruling and
defend the state's right to enact humane laws.
Ag
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