Caldor Fire is throwing harvest into chaos in up-and-coming El Dorado wine country [San Francisco Chronicle]
The Caldor Fire has completely upended the beginning of the harvest season in the up-and-coming El Dorado County wine region, which more than 70 wineries call home. More than a week after its eruption, some winemakers remained unable to access their cellars, and everyone, no matter their evacuation status, was on high alert due to the smoky air, which can imbue wines with unpleasant flavors. By now, winemakers throughout California are used to contending with smoke taint, since the ambient ash can spread far away from a blaze’s epicenter. “Fire is always on our minds because we are in a wildland area with pine trees all around us,” said Ashlee Cuneo, general manager at Miraflores Winery, which has been under mandatory evacuation since Aug. 17. “We’ve always been cognizant of the possibility that there could be a fire. But it was a shock to all of us when this happened. I’ve never been this close before.”
California wildfire dangers may be spreading to the south [The Associated Press]
A wildfire that burned several homes near Los Angeles may signal that the region is facing the same dangers that have scorched Northern California this summer. The fire in San Bernardino County erupted Wednesday afternoon, quickly burned several hundred acres and damaged or destroyed at least a dozen homes and outbuildings in the foothills northeast of Los Angeles, fire officials said. After a few cooler days, California’s southern region was expected to experience a return of hot weather into the weekend that could boost wildfire risks. In addition to dangerously dry conditions, the region faces firefighting staffing that is increasingly stretched thin, said Lyn Sieliet, spokeswoman for the San Bernardino National Forest. Nationally, 92 large fires were burning in 13 mainly Western states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. Climate change has made the West warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make the weather more extreme and wildfires more destructive, according to scientists.
New Marin County agricultural commissioner Stefan Parnay aims to better balance the scales of consumer pricing [North Bay Business Journal]
Stefan Parnay, Marin County’s agricultural commissioner since 2020, faces a variety of issues, including drought and climate change impacts. But the most controversial in his region centers on cattle ranching in Point Reyes National Seashore. The park has allowed the practice for decades, drawing heavy criticism from environmentalists. “Ranching and agriculture have been around for hundreds of years,” he said in his support for the practice. “Cattle ranching accounts for 20% of our Marin County agriculture. That’s significant. If there was no ranching, it would be devastating.”
Federal assistance offered to state farmers, livestock producers impacted by wildfires, drought [Yuba, Colusa and Glenn Tri-County Newsaper]
California agricultural operations have been significantly impacted by the wildfires and ongoing, severe drought. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has technical and financial assistance available to help farmers and livestock producers recover. Impacted producers should contact their local USDA Service Center to report losses and learn more about program options available to assist in their recovery from crop, land, infrastructure and livestock losses and damages. “Production agriculture is vital to the California economy, and USDA stands ready to assist in the recovery from these wildfires and extreme drought conditions,” said Gloria Montaño Greene, deputy under secretary for Farm Production and Conservation. “I assure you USDA employees are working diligently to deliver FPAC’s extensive portfolio of disaster assistance programs and services to all impacted agricultural producers.”
Farmworkers deserve democratic protections when forming unions [Visalia Times Delta]
William B. Gould IV, guest columnist, writes: Assembly Bill 616 is misleadingly being portrayed as merely a way to shift farmworker union elections to mail-in ballots. In reality, the bill could deprive California farmworkers of many of their existing rights in choosing whether to form or join a union, including the secret ballot. The Legislature or the Agricultural Labor Relations Board should provide for genuine mail-in balloting in farmworker union elections in a way that maintains the current protections for farmworkers. Under the California act, farmworkers vote whether to join a labor union through a traditional election process overseen by the state board, with a secret ballot to protect employee free choice. AB 616 would eliminate that process and replace it with a “card check” process that, when mandated by the government (as opposed to voluntary negotiations), removes important democratic protections for farmworkers.
‘The Worst Thing I Can Ever Remember’: How Drought Is Crushing Ranchers [New York Times]
Drought conditions that are affecting nearly half the land area of the lower 48 states are helping send beef prices higher in America’s grocery stores. But ranchers here say they aren’t seeing that money — slaughterhouses and other middlemen are. If anything, the ranchers said, they are losing money because they are getting less from the forced sale of their animals. Rachel Wald, who works for North Dakota State University advising and supporting ranchers, said that livestock auction houses, called sale barns, had been very busy this spring and summer. “We’ve got 2,000 critters heading down the road each week” in the county, she said. By some estimates, half the cattle in the state may be gone by fall. For ranchers who have spent years building up the genetics of their herd, that can mean a giant step backward.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/25/climate/drought-cattle.html
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