Modesto area’s congressman seeks $2.5 billion to help farmers combat climate change [Modesto Bee]
Agriculture would get about $2.5 billion over five years for efforts against climate change under a bill from Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock. The money would help farmers take steps such as capturing carbon in trees and soil, switching to low-emission tractors and turning cattle manure into energy. The bill would direct $25 million to projects that convert tree nut shells and related waste into fuel through a process known as pyrolysis. Harder first proposed the bill in August 2020 as House Resolution 7482, but it did not move past committee. He reintroduced it Wednesday and noted support from an almond industry leader and an environmental group. “Farmers are always treated like the enemy when it comes to climate change – and that’s just not how it works,” Harder said in a news release from his office.
Harder seeks $2.5 billion to help farmers protect climate | Modesto Bee (modbee.com)
California farmers struggle to secure wildfire insurance coverage [Modern Farmer]
In 2019, Tawny Tesconi, executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, started hearing from members who were having trouble securing property and fire insurance coverage. Farm, winery and ranch owners reported being dropped by their longtime insurance carriers, and having to go out into the open market to find a new plan—ones that tended to be twice as expensive with much less coverage….Hundreds of farm owners in California are currently scrambling to find wildfire insurance coverage. Some have seen their rates triple or quadruple for a fraction of the coverage they once received. Many have received letters about their policies not being renewed. “There’s not one insurance company that’s cancelling insurances or totally increasing the premiums beyond the capability of a farmer to pay. It’s across the board,” says Tesconi….To help protect California farms from future wildfires and provide some relief, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 11 (SB-11) on July 23. The legislation makes farms, ranches, and grape growers eligible to insure their buildings through the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan, or FAIR Plan….“Even though SB-11 has passed, even though the governor has signed it, and even though, someday, that insurance will be available to add stakeholders, it’s not available today,” says Tesconi. “So, there are some folks out there that are kind of caught in this lame duck period.”
California Farmers Struggle to Secure Wildfire Insurance Coverage | Modern Farmer
Bacon may disappear in California as pig rules take effect [Associated Press]
Thanks to a reworked menu and long hours, Jeannie Kim managed to keep her San Francisco restaurant alive during the coronavirus pandemic. That makes it all the more frustrating that she fears her breakfast-focused diner could be ruined within months by new rules that could make one of her top menu items — bacon — hard to get in California….At the beginning of next year, California will begin enforcing an animal welfare proposition approved overwhelmingly by voters in 2018 that requires more space for breeding pigs, egg-laying chickens and veal calves. National veal and egg producers are optimistic they can meet the new standards, but only 4% of hog operations now comply with the new rules. Unless the courts intervene or the state temporarily allows non-compliant meat to be sold in the state, California will lose almost all of its pork supply, much of which comes from Iowa, and pork producers will face higher costs to regain a key market.
Bacon may disappear in California as pig rules take effect (apnews.com)
Almond industry cracks market for orchard byproducts [Bakersfield Californian]
The most valuable part of an almond tree is still the nut. But the rest is slowly catching up. Byproducts that used to be burned in the open air — shells, hulls and the wood itself — are becoming a bigger focus for an industry trying to improve its environmental footprint while also opening new markets for its diverse bounty of marketable products. Most immediately, U.S. and Chinese trade negotiators recently reached a breakthrough that will soon allow domestic almond processors to begin selling pelletized or cubed hulls as animal feed to China….To top it off, hopes are rising within the industry that growers may soon harvest climate subsidies, thanks to the carbon-sequestration benefits of whole orchard recycling and perhaps burial of almond biochar. “Choices are good for farmers,” said Arvin-area farmer Kent Stenderup, chairman of the Almond Board of California. He said it was very exciting there seems to be an emerging market for the different byproducts.
Almond industry cracks market for orchard byproducts | News | bakersfield.com
Will Delta water users sue — again — to stop California’s drought rules? [CalMatters]
Drought-plagued California is poised to bar thousands of farmers, landowners and others from pumping water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed, a move that irrigation districts said exceeds the water board’s authority. The emergency rules would be the first time state regulators have taken such wide-reaching action during a drought to prevent diversions from the massive Delta watershed stretching from Fresno to the Oregon border. At a more than three-hour workshop Tuesdato discuss the proposal, State Water Resources Control Board officials said the status of the Delta was so severe that they had to take urgent action. The board will vote on the regulation next week, and it could lead to formal curtailment orders as soon as August 16. “We don’t take this action lightly,” Eileen Sobeck, executive director of the water board, said in a press briefing last week. “We know that it’s going to impose hardship on folks.”
Will Delta water users sue — again — to stop California’s drought rules? (visaliatimesdelta.com)
Basin farmers struggle to navigate unreliable water [Klamath Falls Herald and News]
In 2001, the Bureau of Reclamation cut off water to the Klamath Project for the first time in 94 years. After 20 years of uncertain irrigation deliveries, water has been cut off again — damaging the basin’s agricultural industry, leaving domestic wells dry and forcing farmers to question if there is a future for them in the Basin….Before 2018, Jason Hagerty thought farming in the Klamath Basin was difficult but worthwhile. After 2018 he considered it impossible….Claude has farmed since he was a teenager and bought his first homestead with his wife in 1948. He has always relied on the Klamath Irrigation Project to bring water from Upper Klamath Lake to their farm each spring. But to meet Endangered Species Act requirements for C’waam and Koptu (Lost River and shortnose suckers) during a severe drought, the Bureau held water in the lake until late in the summer of 2018 — too late for the Hagertys. And the family didn’t have the permits needed to irrigate their hay fields with their well.
Basin farmers struggle to navigate unreliable water | Local News | heraldandnews.com
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