Trump defends trade policies to farmers feeling the pinch [New York Times]
President Trump, seeking to shore up his base of support in rural America, promised farmers on Monday that “the greatest harvest is yet to come” and insisted that the pain they were experiencing from his economic policies would ultimately make them better off. In a speech to the American Farm Bureau Federation at its annual convention in New Orleans, Mr. Trump asked farmers to be patient as he tried to rewrite trade agreements with China, Europe, Canada and Mexico and as he battled with congressional Democrats over immigration….In a stemwinder that touched on immigration policy, news media criticism and the importance of standing for the national anthem at football games, Mr. Trump told farmers that the benefits of trade deals that have not been finalized were already being realized.
Amid trade war that’s hurting their bottom line, many farmers are conflicted about Trump [Los Angeles Times]
…But the cheers he received, from those who waited in hourlong security lines to hear him speak inside the city’s riverfront convention center, belied a more complicated relationship with America’s farmers, who have largely supported him. Most still do, though they have been hurt in recent months by the tariffs that top trading partners have slapped on U.S. farm products, in retaliation for the tariffs Trump first imposed on their country’s goods….“If there’s one thing farmers need and want, it’s reliability and predictability,” said Jamie Johansson, president of the California Farm Bureau Federation.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-farmers-tariffs-20190114-story.html
U.S., EU set conflicting goals for looming trade talks [Wall Street Journal]
The U.S. and European Union are staking out sharply different goals for coming trade negotiations, raising the prospect for renewed trans-Atlantic commercial tensions….“We have been very clear that from the EU side that we will not discuss agriculture,” European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said last week after meeting in Washington with her American counterpart, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer. Two days after that meeting, Mr. Lighthizer released the Trump administration’s “negotiating objectives” for the coming talks, declaring that a top priority is to “secure comprehensive market access for U.S. agricultural goods in the EU by reducing or eliminating tariffs.”
Santa Clara Valley Water District files suit challenging state plan to divert water for fish [Bay Area News Group]
In an attempt to block the state’s plan to divert more water toward the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and away from the Bay Area, the Santa Clara Valley Water District has filed a lawsuit arguing the project could significantly reduce the local water supply. If the plan advances, the water district might have to spend millions of dollars to obtain alternate water supplies and pull up more groundwater….The suit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court, asks the court to “determine whether the state has taken proper action to require increased flows for fish and wildlife in the San Joaquin, Tuolumne, Stanislaus and Merced rivers.”
Wonderful Citrus restores pickers’ pay cut, opening way to workers’ return to the groves [Bakersfield Californian]
Wonderful Citrus, which grows and packages the popular Halo brand of clementine and mandarin oranges, has responded to a workers’ walkout that began Friday by restoring the amount it pays for each bin of the freshly picked Halos….”We’ve resolved the main concern raised by our third-party labor contractors and are currently paying the same bin rate for picking mandarins that we previously paid for clementines,” the company said in a statement. “The majority of our workers are back on the job, and we anticipate returning to normal operations soon.” Contracted farmworkers walked off the job near Shafter on Friday to protest a move by the Kern County grower to reduce the price it pays for harvested mandarins.
Residents question decisions to log burned forests following 2017 Napa County fires [Napa Valley Register]
…The property was logged with a Cal Fire emergency timber operations permit….But Leggat and others say Mount Veeder logging has gone overboard to include fire-damaged trees that would have survived….Logging has long been controversial in Napa County, with pre-fire spats on Howell Mountain east of St. Helena over tree removal for vineyards. The logging pace picked up last year as fire-damaged trees were trucked off to saw mills and PG&E cut down trees near power lines.
