More pay for California farm workers promised in Democrat’s coronavirus proposal [Sacramento Bee]
California farm workers could get an extra $3 an hour and additional sick time during the coronavirus outbreak under emergency legislation announced on Wednesday … The proposal, Assembly Bill 2915, would expand paid sick leave from three days to two weeks and would authorize “supplemental hazard pay” so workers can cover increased health and child care costs during the COVID-19 outbreak, said Assemblyman Robert Rivas, D-Hollister, who wrote the bill. … “Clearly, farmers and ranchers are rightfully concerned with their ability to keep their employees safe and keep food flowing to the marketplace, while hoping they can still afford to pay their employees and creditors,” said Jim Houston, administrator of the California Farm Bureau Federation. “Any new costs, mandates or regulations could seriously harm farms and ranches that are simply struggling to survive right now.”
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article241873976.html
Opinion: All ag parties agree they are in this together [Monterey Herald]
… Farmers and farmworkers are working together side-by-side to ensure a steady and consistent supply of fruits and vegetables reach American’s tables. … While the health and safety of farmworkers must be our primary concern, any proposals for new, unfunded mandates must be carefully contemplated. Like many businesses in our communities, there is substantial economic uncertainty associated with farming during this unprecedented worldwide pandemic.
Coronavirus outbreak could force more California dairy farms out of business [KFSN TV, Fresno]
… Some dairy operators worry this latest crisis could cause the industry to lose even more farms. Dairies are in the middle of their “spring flush,” a time when milk production hits its peak. … “Powder and butter is mostly what California dairies processes into, as well as cheese,” says Riverdale dairy operator Donny Rollin. … Rollin says the price of class III milk – used for cheese and whey – plummeted in the last few months from $20 per hundredweight to under $12 – a price he hasn’t seen since 2009.
https://abc30.com/california-dairy-farm-coronavirus-covid-19/6088218/
Why some dairy farms are dumping milk instead of donating to food banks [KXTV, Sacramento]
… Dairy farmers are dumping their milk because restaurants and customers are not buying milk because of stay at home orders that have kept people inside their home and forced restaurants to close or do take-out only. … Dairy is not like produce, which allows farmers to give it away for free directly. Regulations make it illegal for farmers to either sell or give away raw milk, which has to be pasteurized first. Raudabaugh said while the dairy industry is doing everything its power to donate milk to food pantries, one obstacle is convincing the companies that it would be a good use of resources pasteurize milk to donate products directly to food banks.
The farm-to-table connection comes undone [New York Times]
… For the first few weeks, farmers scrambled to find other ways to sell their crops. Some turned to online sales or tapped a renewed interest in community-supported agriculture, or C.S.A.s, in which farmers sell subscriptions for boxes of produce. Others delivered food to restaurants that had turned into pop-up grocers, or doubled down on the farmers’ markets that remained open. … For some, it’s been the agricultural equivalent of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Celtuce, microgreens and gooseberries might make for a beautiful restaurant menu, but they aren’t what most stuck-at-home cooks are looking for.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/09/dining/farm-to-table-coronavirus.html?searchResultPosition=2
‘A disastrous situation’: mountains of food wasted as coronavirus scrambles supply chain [The Guardian]
Billions of dollars worth of food is going to waste as growers and producers from California to Florida are facing a massive surplus of highly perishable items. … Agriculture officials insist that the supply itself is not in question, but matching that supply with demand and getting it to where it’s needed most is a new and urgent problem. … Strawberries on the California coast and lettuce in the Salinas Valley “salad bowl” – which grows roughly 70% of the nation’s lettuce crop – have been hit particularly hard. And efforts to keep farmworkers safe and socially distanced in the fields mean even slower harvesting.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/09/us-coronavirus-outbreak-agriculture-food-supply-waste
Cow poop could fuel California’s clean-energy future. But not everyone’s on board [Los Angeles Times]
… SoCalGas calls the manure fuel “renewable natural gas” and says it can help fight climate change by keeping methane out of the atmosphere, and by replacing some of the “fossil” natural gas that normally flows through the company’s pipelines. … But in California, state officials have largely embraced electricity as the best strategy for cutting emissions from homes and workplaces. … In the San Joaquin Valley, environmental justice advocates worry that renewable gas will help sustain polluting dairy farms.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-04-09/cow-poop-california-clean-energy-future
