Not best of times nor worst of times for wine [Stockton Record]
It
might not be the best of times in the U.S. wine business — which one speaker
Wednesday characterized as “A Tale of Two Wine Markets.” But it certainly isn’t
the worst of times, especially for San Joaquin County’s wine region, which area
grape growers said provides much of the fruit for the fastest-growing segment,
those wines priced from $10 to $14 per bottle. While the dollar values
increased, volume shipments of wine to the U.S. market were nearly flat, up
just 1 percent to an estimated 375 million cases, it was reported at the annual
Unified Wine & Grape Symposium, the largest wine trade show in the Western
Hemisphere. Challenges facing the industry include currency exchange rates potentially
dampening demand for California wine exports; a relatively large 2014 harvest,
the third in a row; and growing consumer interest in craft beers and specialty
spirits displacing wine sales.
Dairies face
environmental court challenges [Hanford Sentinel]
A
ruling in Washington earlier this month defining dairy manure as “solid waste”
could mean tighter regulations and lawsuits against Kings County dairies,
according to sources in the industry….While environmentalists hailed the ruling
as a landmark, Kings dairy operators and a representative from Western United
Dairymen voiced concerns about the fallout for what they say are already
heavily regulated dairies in California. Hanford dairy owner Dino Giacomazzi
said that local dairies are already regulated by the State Water Resources
Control Board for how much manure and manure water they apply to cropland as
fertilizer….Hanford dairy operator Brian Medeiros called it “unfortunate” that
the ruling defined manure as a solid waste, akin to human solid waste that goes
into a wastewater treatment plant.
EAC joins suit against
pest plan [Point Reyes Light]
A
state program to guide the eradication of invasive plant pests circumvents the
public process and could have grave ecological consequences, according to a
lawsuit filed last week by the City of Berkeley and a suite of environmental
organizations, including the Environmental Action Committee of West Marin. The
lawsuit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, comes after the California
Department of Food and Agriculture released the final environmental impact
report for its Statewide Plant Pest Prevention and Management Program on
Christmas Eve. The E.I.R.—a programmatic document intended to streamline future
pest control and eradication efforts—included responses to a litany of
criticisms during last fall’s public comment period. Concerns at the time
ranged from the impacts of pesticides on organic agriculture, plants, wildlife,
human health and bees to the legality of forgoing public comment periods in
advance of future site-specific projects. The department’s response did not
satisfy the plaintiffs.
Merced County’s
proposed groundwater ordinance sees changes [Merced Sun-Star]
…Another
draft of Merced County’s groundwater ordinance was released this week, and it
contains several key changes, including a new requirement for those who are
“exempt” from the ordinance’s permitting process. Prompted by a proposal from
two Los Banos landowners last year to sell groundwater to Stanislaus County,
the supervisors began looking at protecting and monitoring groundwater
resources amid one of the worst droughts in recent history. The ordinance,
which has been under review since October, manages groundwater mining and
exports through a permitting process. Drilling a new well would also require a
permit. The process allows county staff to review each project individually to
evaluate its potential impacts.
Why food prices won’t
fall as fast as gas prices [Wall Street Journal]
…Americans
who are benefiting from lower gas prices could see some food prices fall,
especially dairy and meat products, but the rate of decline will be at a
far-slower pace than the recent plunge in the price of gasoline, commodity
traders and insiders say….Farmers and ranchers benefiting from declining prices
for fuel could lower the prices for commodity food items such as milk, eggs,
pork and beef, just not right away or commensurate with the fall of gas, said
Patrick Sullivan, a commodity trader at Great Lakes Trading Co., in Warsaw,
Ind. “It could take a while to trickle through but we could see some lower food
prices in six to eight months,” Sullivan said. “….One reason lower fuel prices
haven’t led to lower food costs yet is that nearly two-thirds of the machines
farmers employ use diesel fuel, which amounted to nearly $11 billion of the
more than $16 billion in fuel costs in 2013. And diesel prices haven’t fallen
as fast as gasoline prices with the decline in crude oil prices.
Editorial: Extreme precautions required for avian flu [Modesto Bee]
Avian
flu has serious consequences. That’s why, wherever it is found, extreme
measures must be taken to eradicate it before it can spread. That’s why Foster
Farms had to slaughter roughly 200,000 turkeys earlier this week….Still, the
thought of killing 200,000 birds as a precaution is startling. And costly. The
value of these birds alone is at least $300,000, likely much more….We wish it
were not necessary to slaughter animals in such a wholesale manner. But
considering that 300 million turkeys are raised and brought to market in the
U.S. each year, it is a small percentage of the nation’s flock. If such drastic
steps were not taken, the toll could be much higher.
Ag
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