Monthly Archives: January 2012

http://www.capradio.org/articles/2012/01/23/vilsack-2012-farm-bill-will-be-smaller,-but-still-boost-california Monday, January 23, 2012 Every five years, Congress passes a Farm Bill.  It funds just about everything related to agriculture – including international trade, rural development, and crop payments to some farmers.  U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says California’s $37 billion agriculture industry benefits too -especially the state’s fresh produce growers. Vilsack: “When you consider the commodity purchases that …

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/23/v-print/4209096/federal-bill-introduced-to-improve.html WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2012 — WASHINGTON, Jan. 23, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — The Humane Society of the United States and the United Egg Producers announced that they will make passage of H.R. 3798, the Egg Products Inspection Act Amendments of 2012, introduced today by Reps. Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., Jeff Denham, R-Calif., Elton Gallegly, R-Calif., and Sam Farr, D-Calif., a top …

http://www.recorderonline.com/news/long-51469-organic-hippies.html By ALEX  K.W. SCHULTZ THE PORTERVILLE RECORDER Organic produce is no longer just for Birkenstock-donning, flannel shirt-wearing, long-haired hippies from San Francisco. That stereotype is long gone. What isn’t gone — and doesn’t appear to be going away any time soon — is a burgeoning group of consumers throughout the world who desire fresh fruits and vegetables that are …

http://www.foodsafetynews.com/2012/01/test-results-show-organic-pastures- by Mary Rothschild | Jan 20, 2012 In a letter to Organic Pastures owner Mark McAfee, the California Department of Public Health said 10 samples collected from the raw milk dairy’s calf area were positive for E. coli O157:H7, and two were a genetic match for the outbreak strain that infected five children. Those findings support the probability, the …

Nine cases of equine herpes virus have been detected this month at a property in Orange County. When the article below was written, the number of confirmed cases was fewer. http://theequestriannews.com/2012/01/17/show-goes-on-despite-ehv-1/ By Paula Parisi January 17, 2012 The five cases of EHV-1 diagnosed Jan. 11-15 in Orange County, CA, have been contained, according to sources close to the situation. Although the …

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/01/18/v-print/2195210/low-till-agriculture-gets-its.html By JOSHUA EMERSON SMITH jsmith@mercedsunstar.com Central Valley farmers are slowly getting hip to the idea that tilling land before planting seeds may not always be necessary. Conservation tillage has long been in vogue in places such as the Midwest and South America. Now in California, leaving land undisturbed between planting and harvesting cycles has started to catch on. Advocates …

http://www.thepacker.com/fruit-vegetable-news/Sunnyside-Packing-preps-small-growers-on-food-safety-137523543.html?ref=543 An in-house food safety training program at Selma, Calif.-based Sunnyside Packing Co. prepares even its smallest growers for third-party audits. The Sunnyside Agricultural Food Safety Education and Enhancement program — SAFE — launched in late 2010 with an eye to getting about 150 growers ready by this year. “Going from 0% to 100% in one season was unattainable, so …

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/01/18/v-print/4195352/california-farmers-eagerly-await.html mglover@sacbee.com Published Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012 Rain can’t come soon enough for California farmers and ranchers, who are counting the hours in anticipation of Thursday’s forecast arrival of meaningful showers. A nearly bone-dry fall/early winter season has been accompanied by periodic freezing conditions in December and this week. Hard freezes have already caused crop damage in some California fields, …