San Joaquin Valley water districts have sued to stop releases of Central Valley Project water down the Trinity River for fish, and farm advocates say a federal agency is sending mixed messages about the drought. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Aug. 21 announced it would begin releasing as much as 88,000 acre-feet of water
Fresno Bee opinion piece by John Laird is California Secretary for Natural Resources and Asm. Henry T. Perea of Fresno. The drought has hit every part of California hard, but the Central Valley has been particularly devastated. A recent Fresno Bee article detailed the tragic case of East Porterville residents whose wells have run dry
A California lawmaker has proposed a new label for food irrigated with what he calls “fracking water." Assemblyman Mike Gatto, D-Glendale, said such water might include harmful contaminants, including carcinogens. Oil companies sell Central Valley farms millions of gallons of treated wastewater every day for irrigation. Some water extracted from the ground during hydraulic fracturing is also
The drought is costing California about $2.7 billion this year, according to a new UC Davis study, although the statistics suggest the state’s overall economy can withstand the impact. In their latest estimate of the four-year drought’s economic effects, professors at the university’s Center for Watershed Sciences said Tuesday the drought has reduced seasonal farm
On the same day this summer that he celebrated the 40th anniversary of the Agricultural Labor Relations Act at a reception in Sacramento, Gov. Jerry Brown announced the abrupt reassignment of Sylvia Torres-Guillen, general counsel of the board created to enforce the law. Farmers who accused Torres-Guillen of unfairly advocating for the United Farm Workers
A state court has struck down rules governing runoff from farms along the Central Coast, a decision that could have broader implications for the state's $43-billion agriculture industry. The Sacramento County Superior Court sided with environmentalists who opposed a blanket waiver for growers in the Salinas Valley and other areas of the Central Coast, saying
The Turlock Irrigation District gave final approval this week to selling Tuolumne River water to a proposed treatment plant. The 5-0 vote by the district board came two weeks after it approved the idea of providing the supply for Turlock, Ceres and south Modesto. City representatives approved the agreement, but with a slight change that
California's demand for lower agricultural water use during the drought will likely survive a legal challenge, a judge indicated Thursday. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Shelleyanne Chang said during a hearing that she believes the state's revised approach to warning farmers of insufficient supplies is legal. She previously ruled that other notices were improper. At issue are
Food is a constant tug-of-war between people and planet. We can’t feed ourselves without doing environmental harm. “Agriculture costs us no matter what,” says Rattan Lal, director of the Carbon Management and Sequestration Center at Ohio State University. “Every option has trade-offs.” Food production takes a toll, and neither maximizing the food nor minimizing the
Regional identity creation is being recognized for its economic benefits and as a strategic resource for producer communities. A regional identity is not a brand; it is built through a complicated process of developing cohesion and sharing in the industry community and communicating outside the industry community to opinion-makers and consumers. The California fine wine