New outbreaks in fruit and vegetable operations threaten farm workers and food supply [Forbes]
… As more farm workers hit the fields and packing facilities, the industry risks the health of its workers, and the food supply chains those workers support, if widespread protective measures are not put into place. … In Salinas, where field workers typically work quite close to each other during leafy greens harvest, Christopher Valadez, President of the Central Coast Growers Shippers Association in California, says growers are definitely taking precautions. … UFW’s Elenes says the precautions being put into place are a sign that growers are feeling the pressure from his and other farm worker associations.
Opinion: The White House wants to give farmworkers who put food on your table a dire pay cut [Los Angeles Times]
… Many growers have long lobbied against the H-2A pay rules. If they get their way, farmworkers’ wages would face downward pressure in most states, including California. … Strikingly, many California farmers oppose reducing wages. Casey Creamer, president of California Citrus Mutual, told CalMatters that cutting wages “is just not a thing we do.” … Another grower organization, the California Farm Bureau Federation, similarly disapproves of wage cuts.
In bid to reopen sooner, Napa County asks California to lift restrictions on wineries [Sacramento Bee]
Napa County, home of more than 130,000 Californians, has a unique request in its application to the governor to reopen: let wineries open sooner rather than later. While restaurants across the state have been permitted to slowly reopen under certain guidelines to keep coronavirus numbers down, wineries in Napa Valley still remain shuttered. … In a letter of support written by county Board of Supervisors Chair Diane Dillion, she said, “We strongly encourage and support the inclusion of Wineries and Tasting Rooms as businesses that the State deems eligible for reopening in Stage 2.”
https://www.sacbee.com/food-drink/wine/article242880951.html
Garlic shortage hits, a side effect of the coronavirus pandemic [Bay Area News Group]
… While other factors have contributed to the deficit, the shelter-in-place orders are the main reason shoppers may be finding no garlic, unusually sized garlic or more-expensive garlic in grocery stores, said Ken Christopher, executive vice president of Christopher Ranch, the famed garlic producer from the famed garlic town of Gilroy. People largely confined to their homes have been cooking more and buying more garlic to cook with, Christopher said.
SJ growers wait to assess damage to cherry crop after rainfall [Stockton Record]
Growers in pickers in San Joaquin County will take the next couple of days to assess damage to their cherry crops after unprecedented rain this past week halted harvest. “There were some spots that were hit more significantly with the rainfall than others,” Bruce Blodgett of the San Joaquin Farm Bureau said. … Last year, a late surge of storms pummeled cherry crops across the county, with estimates showing up to an 80% crop loss. After talking to some farmers and packers, Blodgett said early estimates of lost cherries this year are as low as a 5-10% impact, and up to significantly higher losses in some areas.
Weasel-like mammal endangered in southern Sierra Nevada [Associated Press]
Reversing course again in a 30-year-old battle over protection of a weasel-like mammal that eats porcupines, the U.S. government is declaring the Pacific fisher endangered in the southern Sierra Nevada but denying protection elsewhere in California and Oregon. … Earlier government assessments considered all Pacific fishers the same species. The new rule states Sierra populations probably were separated more than a thousand years ago. With as few as 100 remaining in the south, they’re threatened most by habitat loss due to logging, wildfires, climate change and rat poison used as pesticides at illegal marijuana farms, the agency said.
Opinion: The end of meat is here [New York Times]
… We cannot protect our environment while continuing to eat meat regularly. … We cannot claim to care about the humane treatment of animals while continuing to eat meat regularly. … We cannot protect against pandemics while continuing to eat meat regularly. … Don’t we need animal protein? No. … If we let the factory-farm system collapse, won’t farmers suffer? No. … Isn’t a movement away from meat elitist? No. … Can’t we work with factory-farming corporations to improve the food system? No.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/21/opinion/coronavirus-meat-vegetarianism.html
