Deportation protection sought for farmworkers in next coronavirus relief bill [McClatchy News Service]
Hispanic members of Congress are asking for more protections for farmworkers during the coronavirus outbreak, including assurances that they won’t be deported, hazard pay and help with childcare. … Congress has passed limited help for farmers during the pandemic. Most of the economic assistance has been to farmers directed to farmers rather the laborers. … Costa said the request for hazard pay in the caucus letter was meant to make sure farmworkers aren’t excluded if Congress offers that incentive to other essential workers like nurses or postal workers.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article242029016.html
Temporary agricultural workers can start work sooner, stay in U.S. longer, DHS announces [Salinas Californian]
The Department of Homeland Security announced temporary rule changes to H-2A worker regulations which will allow companies to employ temporary foreign farmworkers quicker and longer than previously possible. … The temporary change came as a relief to ag industry advocates, while worker advocates say enough has not been done to support the workers during this pandemic. … Monterey County Farm Bureau Executive Director Norm Groot applauded the changes. “Anything to improve the system is welcome news,” he said via text.
California farmer plows under lettuce after coronavirus shutters restaurant market [Reuters]
… The decision to destroy the crop didn’t come easy for Vessey. But he said he couldn’t justify paying for labor, and packaging and storage for a crop that distributors were not buying. He laid off 150 to 200 seasonal workers up to two weeks early. … Other growers in California, the top U.S. fruit and vegetable producing state, are facing the same dilemma. … Vessey said he still had 150 acres of lettuce to be harvested when his distributor stopped taking shipments.
Opinion: Toilet paper short, food abundant [CalMatters]
… California is, as everyone should know, the nation’s top agricultural producer, but we have often tended to take that fact for granted. In certain circles — especially among environmental and social justice activists — farmers are dismissed as greedy despoilers. They wrongly imply that there’s no need for large-scale industrial agriculture, and that small-scale organic farmers can meet our needs. This crisis should tell us otherwise and whenever it ends, we should emerge with a new appreciation for those who grow, harvest, process and deliver our food — and show that regard in tangible ways.
https://calmatters.org/commentary/toilet-paper-food-abundant-coronavirus/
Droughts exposed California’s thirst for groundwater. Now, the state hopes to refill its aquifers [Science]
… Groundwater science is taking on a new urgency as California and other regions around the world face growing threats from drought—and are increasingly drilling wells to make up for missing rain and snow. … California is a case study in the challenges of protecting those resources. … Still, researchers say truly protecting groundwater in California will require cutbacks in agriculture … Not surprisingly, such prospects worry farmers across the state, says Chris Scheuring, a water lawyer with the California Farm Bureau Federation. “We are absolutely hoping for mitigated outcomes that get us to sustainable management without causing a lot of pain.”
At Point Reyes, the contest is elk vs. agriculture. The people vote for the elk [San Francisco Chronicle]
A huge majority of people want elk to roam free at Point Reyes National Seashore without butting heads with ranchers or being shot by hired guns, according to a report released to The Chronicle on Wednesday. The analysis by the environmental group Resource Renewal Institute found that 91.4% of those who submitted comments favored elk over cows and other livestock when it came to a National Park Service plan to expand ranching and farming and manage wild elk herds. … The preferred alternative selected by the park service would allow ranchers to grow crops, put up tourists in their barns and dramatically diversify their livestock operations after signing 20-year leases.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/At-Point-Reyes-the-contest-is-elk-vs-15203706.php#
The creation of the Wildcat Ranch Development Fund [KVML Radio, Sonora]
The Sonora Area Foundation has created the Wildcat Ranch Development Fund. Shaun Crook, 2nd Vice President of the California Farm Bureau, was Thursday’s KVML “Newsmaker of the Day.” … “It was the efforts of the Tuolumne County Farm Bureau that got on the radar of some folks here locally, that were really committed to agriculture and were impressed with what we were able to do to retain the property,” said Crook. It was announced on Tuesday night that the Sonora Area Foundation created the Wildcat Ranch Development Fund with an opening contribution of $100,000.
