Supply-chain snarls leave Southern California swamped in empty shipping containers [Wall Street Journal]
The biggest export out of Southern California these days is air. And it is suffocating the supply chain. Hundreds of thousands of empty containers are filling marine terminals and truck yards across the region and tying up scarce trucking equipment as ocean carriers scramble to return empty boxes to factories in Asia. The gridlock on the export side of U.S. supply chains is the mirror of the congestion tying up imports, and officials say it is complicating efforts to unwind the bottlenecks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach. Greg Jackson, executive vice president at Border Valley Trading, a hay, alfalfa and straw exporter based in Brawley, Calif., said he struggles to secure space on ships out of Southern California. What bookings he does make are frequently canceled, he said. Loaded exports out of the port complex totaled the equivalent of 2.2 million containers in the first 10 months of this year, 1 million boxes fewer than total exports for all of 2019. The Agriculture Transportation Coalition, a lobby group, said a survey of its members showed that 22% of confirmed overseas sales are being lost because exporters cannot get their products shipped out.
Why buying a Christmas tree in the Bay Area is more expensive this year [San Jose Mercury News]
Prepare to open your wallet a little wider this year if you want a Christmas tree. From supply chain problems to the effects of climate change and hiring challenges, it’s gotten harder and more costly for Christmas tree sellers to find product — and that means more sticker shock for buyers, too. Oh, and here’s another warning: Don’t wait too long to bring yours home. “The economic instability caused by COVID-19 and the impacts of extreme weather have affected all parts of the global and U.S. supply chain, and Christmas trees are no exception,” the American Christmas Tree Association warned recently. According to a U.S. Department of Agriculture survey of Oregon tree growers, the cost of live trees has nearly doubled since 2015 and the number of acres devoted to trees was down 24%. That, the tree association said, has forced retail prices up as much as 20-30% from last year.
Kern citrus growers blame smaller fruit, lower volume on summer heat [Bakersfield Californian]
Damage from summer’s hotter-than-normal weather appears to be showing up in this year’s citrus crop. Local growers say some oranges have been coming in noticeably smaller in size and volume, enough to cut into sales for both reasons. But with the harvest expected to continue through early next year, it’s hard to know how the market will react and what the net financial impact will be locally. “Our yields look to be a little bit down but they’re not done yet,” said Brian Grant, executive vice president at Rio Bravo Ranch at the mouth of the Kern River Canyon. He added the quality of this year’s citrus seems to be better than last year’s. Grant and others attributed the lower volume to sustained bouts of high heat a few months ago.
Monsanto challenges $25.2 million award to North Bay cancer patient [San Francisco Chronicle]
Challenging a $25.2 million damage award to a man who was diagnosed with cancer after spraying Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide on his North Bay properties for 26 years, the company has told the Supreme Court the case should never have gone to the jury because a federal agency concluded the product was safe. The verdict in Edwin Hardeman’s case, if upheld, “transfers control over a product’s safety warning from the federal agency Congress chose to a California jury,” creating a “patchwork” of state-law labeling regulations for products sold nationwide, lawyers for Monsanto’s parent company, Bayer, said in a court filing this week. The company’s argument, if it succeeds, could affect not only Hardeman’s verdict but also multimillion-dollar awards by two state court juries in San Francisco and Oakland, and cases on trial in other states. Bayer, which acquired Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018, has agreed to pay $10 billion to settle pending Roundup suits that have not gone to trial. The Supreme Court is scheduled to consider Hardeman’s case at its weekly conference on Dec. 10 and could decide then, or at a later conference, whether to take up the company’s appeal or leave the verdict and damages intact. Hardeman sprayed Roundup on weeds at his home in Gualala and later on poison oak at his 56-acre property in Santa Rosa. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a sometimes-fatal lymph cancer, in 2015.
Fourth-generation dairy farmer warns economic woes, climate change regulations could end family farms [Fox News]
A fourth-generation dairy farmer warned that climate change-related regulations and a slew of economic woes could signal the end for her family’s way of life after nearly a century. “We’ve been attacked in the dairy industry for a while now,” Stephanie Nash told Fox News. “Instead of educating people through the farmer, we’re educating them through people that have never farmed and we’re killing off our family farmers.” Rising costs, labor and supply shortages and little support – in addition to climate change and conservation regulations – are all major obstacles threatening the Nash family, which has been in the dairy farming business for 92 years. Stephanie, 28, and her father, Steven Nash, moved their almost century-old dairy farm from California’s San Joaquin Valley to Tennessee in 2014 to escape the Golden State’s strict farming regulations and high cost of doing business. While the move to Tennessee saved the family from bankruptcy, the Nashes are concerned with some rhetoric and proposed legislation coming from Washington, D.C., surrounding agriculture. “They’re making all these bills and regulations, and people living in the city actually believe it instead of believing in your farmers that are actually putting food on the table for you,” said Stephanie, who is also a singer-songwriter and agricultural activist. In February, the USDA forecast the 2020 median farm household income at a loss of $1,840. On average, nearly 90% of a family farm’s income is supplied by another source of income or employment. Small dairy farms are among the least sustainable type of farm today as they grapple with declining demand for cow’s milk and consolidation in their industry, resulting in much larger but fewer farms, according to the USDA. Since 2003, the U.S. has lost more than half of its licensed dairy operations, down to under 32,000 operations.
https://www.foxnews.com/us/dairy-farmer-climate-change-regulations-family-farms.amp
Apple Hill thrived during 2020. But 2021 has been difficult for a very different reason [Sacramento Bee]
As terrible as 2020 was for so many food- and tourism-based businesses, it was the best year Apple Hill Growers Association President Chris Delfino could recall. Itching for travel after a pandemic-locked-in spring and slightly relaxed summer, he said people flooded the trove of foothill wineries and farms tucked away off Highway 50 in El Dorado County in fall. Yet as the rest of California roared back to life in 2021, Apple Hill ate a mean right hook from Mother Nature. The Caldor Fire destroyed 347 square miles of El Dorado County from August through October, and while the direct damage to Apple Hill’s farms could have been worse, poor air quality from the Caldor fire and northern Dixie Fire kept people inside through the start of prime visitation season. The Growers Association estimates 1.3 million people visit Apple Hill from September to December in a typical year, though blueberries, blackberries and lavender start drawing out-of-towners in June. Most come from the six-county Sacramento region, especially at the season’s bookends — 75% in June, 81% in November and 89% in December. People don’t go to Apple Hill to sit inside. Dazzling fall foliage, scenic hillsides and crisp autumn air have been central to the experience since it began.
https://www.sacbee.com/food-drink/article255775936.html
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