Monthly Archives: January 2012

http://www.mercedsunstar.com/2012/01/11/2187706/js-west-demonstrates-larger-chicken.html By JOSHUA EMERSON SMITH C J Brantley, sales representative for JS West Milling Company, Modesto, visited Merced High school Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2012 morning and talked about business model, which highlights the relationship between state regulation and private industry. JS West vocally suppported state regualtions that increased cage space for chickens. In the parking lot of Merced High School, about …

http://agalert.com/story/?id=3719 By Steve Adler When the clock struck midnight on Dec. 31 to usher in 2012, not everyone was singing “Auld Lang Syne.” Livestock and poultry producers—particularly those in California—were singing goodbye to ethanol subsidies and tariffs. The start of the new year brought the end of a federal tax credit, created more than 30 years ago, which many political …

http://www.redding.com/news/2012/jan/10/a-wolf-at-the-door-county-talks-options/?print=1 By Ryan Sabalow Tuesday, January 10, 2012 YREKA — Ranchers and Siskiyou County’s supervisors told state and federal wildlife biologists Tuesday they were concerned livestock and the public would be put at risk if a pack of wolves moves to California in the wake of a lone wolf that entered the state last month. In the first of a …

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/08/us/restaurants-used-fryer-oil-attracting-thieves.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=steven%20yaccino&st=cse Thieves Seek Restaurants’ Used Fryer Oil By STEVEN YACCINO Companies that collect used cooking grease from restaurants across the country have turned to all forms of sleuthing in recent years. Private investigators. Surveillance cameras. Rigged alarms. And still, containers full of used fryer oil are slipping through their fingers. For years, restaurants had to pay companies to haul away …

http://www.californiareport.org/archive/R201201050850/b Scientists from the University of California are releasting minute, stingerless wasps in Los Angeles to counter the spread of the Asian citrus psyllid, a pest that carries a disease that threatens California’s citrus farmers. UC Riverside entomologist and researcher Mark Hoddle was a guest recently on public radio’s the California Report to discuss the effort.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/12/25/MNK81MDGNQ.DTL Stacy Finz, Chronicle Staff Writer Sunday, December 25, 2011 The average age of a farmer in California is creeping toward 60, and the California Department of Food and Agriculture is trying to attract newcomers to work the land. The need is especially acute, given that experts are forecasting that the world will have to double its food supply to …

http://www.thegrower.com/issues/the-grower/Report-backs-California-farmers-efficient-use-of-water-135867553.html?ref=553 Over the years, growers—particularly those who farm in the arid West—have gotten a bad rap as water-wasters. Nowhere are the voices louder than in California, which has faced droughts over the past three decades as well as escalating competition among water users. Many environmental groups criticize the state’s agriculture for using what they perceive as wasteful irrigation practices. Many …