West Coast port employers: Shutdown could be 5 days away [Associated Press]
West
Coast seaports could shut down in as soon as five days — hobbling U.S. trade
with Asia — if dockworkers and their employers cannot reach a new contract, the
head of a maritime association warned Wednesday in remarks intended to pressure
an agreement after nine months of negotiations. Operators of port terminals and
shipping lines do not want to lock out longshoremen, but that would be
inevitable if cargo congestion persists at ports that handle about $1 trillion
in trade annually, Pacific Maritime Association CEO James McKenna said. The
maritime association has been negotiating since May with the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union, which represents dockworkers at 29 ports from
San Diego to Seattle. For months, employers have said ports in Los Angeles/Long
Beach, Oakland and Washington state are on the "brink of gridlock" —
and in recent weeks, queues of massive ships have grown longer in the waters
off docks now stacked high with containers of goods….In response to McKenna's
remarks — his most extensive public comments since talks began in May — the
union said the differences between negotiators are now small.
River
of rain heading toward Northern California [Sacramento Bee]
A
major storm is expected to blow into Northern California starting Thursday
night and lasting into Monday. Known as an “atmospheric river,” the storm is
funneling a stream of tropical moisture across the Pacific Ocean like a
firehose….Because the storm is so warm, it will not contribute significantly to
California’s mountain snowpack. That snowmelt is crucial to refill reservoirs,
which provides a major share of the state’s freshwater supply during long, hot
summers. But after three years of drought, all major storms are welcome. The
heavy rainfall runoff from this storm will help refill reservoirs, replenish
groundwater and recharge streams, and also help rangeland, farm fields and
natural habitats that are reliant solely on precipitation.
Defining
the decisive parts of Marin’s LCP [Point Reyes Light
Local
agriculturalists and environmentalists worked this month on articulating their
concerns about proposed changes California Coastal Commission staff made to a
key part of Marin’s Local Coastal Program update. Discussions have revolved
around how to regulate on-site processing facilities, what amount of grading
needs a permit—and how to define agriculture itself. The part of the
coastal program currently under discussion—the nuts and bolts of program,
called the implementation plan—is crucial, said Sam Dolcini, the president of
the Marin County Farm Bureau….The Coastal Act is in part meant to protect food
production, but ranchers and farmers say that time-consuming and costly permitting
and regulatory requirements can pose a heavy burden, particularly for small
operators.
Ranchers
oppose state’s drive to regulate livestock grazing [Bakersfield Californian]
Local
ranchers are speaking out against a state water protection initiative they say
would threaten private property rights and hurt the industry by imposing new
rules on livestock grazing. A group of ranchers delivered testimony Tuesday at
a meeting of the county Board of Supervisors, which then voted unanimously to
send the State Water Resources Control Board a letter opposing a program known
as the Grazing Regulatory Action Project….Regulatory changes resulting from the
project could have a significant local impact. County officials say Kern has
more than 1.5 million acres of private land suitable for grazing, plus cattle
and calves valued at more than $400 million in 2013. Austin Snedden, president
of the Kern County Cattlemen's Association, told county supervisors the state
project might infringe on private property rights and end up blaming livestock
for weather-related water discharges.
Opinion: Big Cattle, Big Gulp
[New Republic]
Food
production consumes more fresh water than any other activity in the United
States. “Within agriculture in the West, the thirstiest commodity is the cow,”
says George Wuerthner, an ecologist at the Foundation for Deep Ecology, who has
studied the livestock industry. Humans drink about a gallon of water a day;
cows, upwards of 23 gallons. The alfalfa, hay, and pasturage raised to feed
livestock in California account for approximately half of the water used in the
state, with alfalfa representing the highest-acreage crop….One obvious and
immediate solution to the western water crisis would be to curtail the waste of
the livestock industry. The logical start to this process would be to target
its least important sector: public lands ranching.
Comment: Laborers have no say
in their contract [San Diego Union-Tribune]
The
state is arguing it has the right to impose a contract on a group of
Fresno-area farm workers — but the workers have no right to even attend the
hearings in which that contract is hammered out. This is one “Alice in
Wonderland” scenario in a slow moving and bureaucratic labor battle that pits
workers against a union. Farm laborers at one of the nation’s largest fruit
farms, Gerawan Farming, have been pleading with the state Agricultural Labor
Relations Board — an agency formed, ironically, to give farm workers a voice in
their own contracts — to count their votes in a union-certification election
held 15 months ago….In the past, foes of uppity workers sent hooligans to beat
them into compliance. By contrast, the UFW and ALRB are wearing down these
workers through endless hearings and long, condescending processes to avoid a
simple vote tally – presumably because the workers aren’t smart enough to make
up their own minds.
Ag
Today is distributed by the CFBF Communications/News Division to county Farm
Bureaus, CFBF directors and CFBF staff, for information purposes; stories may
not be republished without permission. Some story links may require site
registration. To be removed from this mailing list, reply to this
message and please provide your name and e-mail address. For more
information about Ag Today, contact 916-561-5550 or news@cfbf.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment