Ag employers target state’s new COVID-19 emergency rules [Bakersfield Californian]
A coalition of farm and business groups has sued state workplace safety officials over month-old emergency safety rules it calls unnecessary in light of steps already taken to slow the spread of COVID-19. … The rules’ physical distancing requirements are of particular concern to local ag. The coalition expressed specific concern about a rule that beds in employer-provided housing be spaced at least six feet apart in all directions. “A reduction in already-scarce housing will directly impact farmworker communities and harm rural economies across the state that depend on agriculture,” said a news release issued Thursday by the California Farm Bureau Federation.
An ‘epidemic of lawsuits’ due to COVID? Businesses want protections, setting up 2021 battle [McClatchy News Service]
… People are frightened not only about the future of their small business as the COVID pandemic rages on, but about whether employees will take them to court, saying they contracted the virus at work or were exposed to dangerous conditions. … Employee advocates counter that businesses should be liable if they were in any way negligent about preventive conditions. … This is a dispute that’s going to linger into 2021, as the new Congress convenes, President-elect Joe Biden takes office and Washington tries to craft a new COVID relief package
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article247853720.html
Riverside County allocates another $500K for farmworkers with COVID-19. ‘The need is still higher’ [Palm Springs Desert Sun]
An estimated 200 Riverside County agricultural workers infected with the coronavirus could be eligible for temporary housing, grocery delivery and a $2,000 check to cover lost wages after the county Executive Office last week allocated $500,000 in emergency funding to the Housing for the Harvest program. The action, taken last Wednesday, is set to be ratified during the county Board of Supervisors’ next meeting on Jan. 12. While farmworker advocates celebrated the news, they said the infusion of funding won’t last long.
At Ivanka Trump’s urging, White House announces new $1.5 billion in funding for Farmers to Families Food Box program [Washington Post]
The U.S. government is pumping $1.5 billion into the Farmers to Families Food Box program to help supply food lines, which were running low on food or had shut down completely in early December, through May. The $4.5 billion program, which launched amid great fanfare in the spring with the backing of President Trump’s daughter Ivanka, started to run out of money in early December, just ahead of the holidays. … The program, which has been a staple of food banks and food pantries throughout the pandemic, pays large food distributors to supply pre-packed boxes to nonprofits running food lines.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2021/01/04/ivanka-trump-usda-funding-food-boxes/
Pandemic drinking did not save the wine industry’s slowing sales, new data shows [San Francisco Chronicle]
… At the dawn of 2021, the industry’s situation looks very similar to the beginning of 2020: not growing. … Depending on which source you consult, U.S. wine consumption in 2019 was either flat or very slightly down, the first time in 25 years it had failed to grow. Though the final data aren’t all in yet, McMillan projects that wine consumption by volume will have grown between 0-1% in 2020, ever so slightly above 2019. That’s a surprising conclusion, given what things looked like at the beginning of the coronavirus shutdown.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/wine/article/Pandemic-drinking-did-not-save-the-wine-15845713.php
January rain might not be enough to improve drought impacts in 2021 [Chico Enterprise-Record]
Despite some rain through the first days of 2021, water analysts have warned much more is needed to offset many months of drought in the north state. … Although this storm could be followed with more snow and rain Wednesday, concern remains that precipitation levels are not meeting the needed amount to begin to impact months of drought. … At this time current precipitation levels are barely surpassing the record set in the 2014-2015 season, considered the worst point for the statewide drought in the last decade.
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