High-Speed Rail Authority approves local plan for connecting Bakersfield and Fresno [Bakersfield Californian]
A locally supported alternative for routing bullet trains into Bakersfield won approval Tuesday from California’s high-speed rail agency, capping what had been a contentious planning process that pitted city interests against officials in Sacramento. Pending final approval by federal authorities, high-speed trains would lead southeast from Shafter parallel to Union Pacific railroad tracks before stopping at a station planned for F Street and Golden State Avenue on the northwestern outskirts of downtown Bakersfield. An earlier alignment studied by the rail authority would have run trains all the way to Truxtun and Union avenues, causing what city government and others considered avoidable disruption to existing homes, businesses and city-owned property. California High-Speed Rail Authority Chairman Dan Richard said Tuesday’s unanimous approval by the agency’s governing board, which met in Bakersfield, reflected a successful collaboration with local partners, one that will benefit the region.
Broken pecan trees, ruined cotton harvest: Georgia counts Michael’s cost [Wall Street Journal]
Standing in a ruined field, Dan Simmons did some quick math as he surveyed row after row of bent stalks with lumps of white cotton scattered on the grayish-brown dirt. “That’s $64,000 laying on the ground,” Mr. Simmons, 52 years old, said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. It looks like an early snow.” The 80-acre field was just a small portion of the 4,200 acres of cotton on the farm Mr. Simmons manages, most of which suffered damage from Hurricane Michael. The farm’s crew worked frantically to protect the harvest in the days leading up to the storm’s arrival, but they only spared a portion of what would have been a bumper crop before the wind and rains swept in. In southern Georgia’s Dooly County, about 175 miles inland from where Hurricane Michael made landfall on the Florida Panhandle, cotton farmers and pecan growers were met with violent winds just weeks away from harvesting.
Sonoma County supervisors OK recreational cannabis sales but limit pot growing [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
Sonoma County supervisors Tuesday voted to allow recreational sales to begin at marijuana dispensaries as early as mid-November and limited most pot-growing farms to properties at least 10 acres or larger. The size requirement eliminates more than 5,100 properties previously eligible for cannabis cultivation, county staff said. This action and other rules for the newly regulated cannabis industry are the latest in a series of amendments to the ordinance governing marijuana cultivation, sales, production and other commercial activities outside city limits. This process began nearly two years ago to establish local regulations for a cannabis industry that previously operated either in the black market or under the state’s loosely defined medical marijuana laws. But the most pressing issue that emerged during Tuesday’s meeting was not on the agenda for county supervisors to consider: A newly proposed cannabis cultivation project near a portion of the West County Regional Trail in Graton. The proposal drew about two dozen residents from the unincorporated community north of Sebastopol who expressed outrage by the prospect of a large marijuana farm in the bucolic community and adjacent to the regional park bicycle thoroughfare.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/8847687-181/sonoma-county-supervisors-ok-recreational
Denham pleads Valley’s case for water to EPA chief [Turlock Journal]
With the State Water Board poised to order the flushing of 40 percent of water stored at three local reservoirs to enhance fish population and thus bypass Valley farms, Congressman Jeff Denham called in the head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday. Denham took Andrew Wheeler, acting administrator of the EPA, on a tour of a Stanislaus River fish weir and allowed local irrigation districts to stress the devastation the proposed Bay-Delta Plan would have on local farms and the Valley’s economy. “EPA is working closely with California’s farmers and landowners to help protect their valuable water resources and provide them greater certainty with respect to where federal jurisdiction begins and ends,” said Wheeler. “Hearing directly from Californians and our Region 9 EPA staff is vital to our efforts to protect the public health, environment, and natural resources of this unique and beautiful region of our country.” Denham hosted a roundtable discussion with members of the Turlock, Modesto, Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation districts at Jacob Meyers Park in Riverbank, where Wheeler was able to hear from residents and farmers about water quality issues impacting regional agriculture.
https://www.turlockjournal.com/news/government/denham-pleads-valleys-case-for-water-to-epa-chief/
Burger chains still lag on antibiotic policies [Los Angeles Times]
Consumer groups scorched nearly every fast-food burger chain in the country for continuing to buy beef raised using antibiotics in ways that make them less effective on humans. Only two small but up-and-coming chains, Shake Shack and BurgerFi, received A grades in an annual report card issued Wednesday by a coalition of five consumer and environmental groups. Wendy’s received a grudging D-minus for sourcing 15% of its beef from a supplier that has reduced use of one antibiotic, tylosin. The remaining 22 top burger chains failed. Overuse of antibiotics by both the food industry and human medicine has led to the proliferation of drug-resistant superbugs that kill 23,000 people in the U.S. and increase healthcare costs by $20 billion annually, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-burgers-antibiotics-20181017-story.html
Why Trump should sell grain to Iran [Bloomberg]
For ordinary Iranians, a sudden shortage of tomato paste, is an omen that U.S. sanctions, combined with their government’s mismanagement of the economy, could make basic foods more expensive, and harder to find. Tomato paste is a crucial ingredient in many Iranian dishes, and inevitably, panic-buying has set in. The fears are not misplaced: the sanctions reinstated by the Trump administration will make it harder for Iran to reliably and cheaply import agricultural commodities. And imports are crucial to Iran’s ability to feed its people. The Food and Agriculture Organization estimates that Iran will need to import 12.4 million tonnes of these critical foodstuffs next year. One obvious source for these commodities is the very country whose government is making it hard for Iran to get them. Over the past two decades, Iran has intermittently purchased cereals and other agricultural foodstuffs from the U.S. In 2012, at the height of tensions around its nuclear program, Iran purchased 120,000 tonnes of wheat from American suppliers in order to replenish stockpiles after successive poor harvests. Just this past August, as the Trump administration was finalizing the reimposition of sanctions, Iran was the number one destination for American soybeans, buying 414,000 tonnes.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-10-17/trump-should-sell-grain-to-iran?srnd=politics-vp
