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Wet winter leads to more disease in California orchards, UC Davis research shows [KCRA-3 Sacramento]
Following a wet and cool winter, fruit and nut growers throughout Northern California are seeing an increase in disease in their orchards. Researchers with UC Davis’ Plant Pathology Department say that there is a direct connection between the recent wetter-than-average season and more prevalent problems with fungi and viruses. “With each rain event, you’re always at risk for introducing pathogens into these crops,” Alejandro Hernandez Rosas, with the department, said. If those pathogens land on a susceptible crop, infection is possible. Hernandez Rosas said that he and his colleagues at the department have been receiving more calls than usual from farmers asking for help identifying problems with their orchards. Some are noticing a slimy substance on their almond trees. Hernandez Rosas said that is indicative of a fungus that hasn’t been observed for quite some time.
https://www.kcra.com/amp/article/uc-davis-wet-winter-bad-for-california-orchards/43934890
Growing pistachios is a tough business. Here’s one couple’s story. [Marketplace]
In the state’s Central Valley, some farmers are pulling out almond and walnut trees and replacing them with pistachios, which require less water. Between 2020 and 2022, farmers increased the state’s pistachio acreage by more than 20% to a total of 446,000 acres of trees. But pistachios — and growers — are grappling with a changing climate. Stephen and Klytia Burcham’s ranch house looks out onto the couple’s pistachio orchard in Firebaugh, California, west of Fresno. Klytia’s dad, Larry Gage, planted the trees around 25 years ago. Pistachio trees can live more than a century, which Klytia said was part of the thinking when her father started the orchard as an investment for his grandchildren. Last year was not a good one for the Burchams.. The Burchams ended up bringing in just half of their usual production and revenue, estimating they lost $400,000 on last year’s crop. They even took out a crop loan for the first time. They suspect last year’s fluctuating temperatures had something to do with it.
https://www.marketplace.org/2023/05/18/growing-pistachios-is-a-tough-business-heres-one-couples-story/amp/
Opinion: California Floods Show the Limits of Man-Made Solutions [Bloomberg]
Adam Minter: Nobody should have been surprised when California’s Pajaro River burst through a levee this spring, flooding homes and dislocating thousands of people. Warnings that the levee system was inadequate date back decades. California’s recent drought, the worst in 1,200 years, dried out and weakened levees, heightening those concerns. But plans to act on them were still years from being executed when atmospheric rivers packed with rain surged water into the earthen works and cement channels designed to protect lives and property. It was a human-made disaster, intensified by climate change. Across the country, hard infrastructure — from levees to jetties — is proving inadequate to the challenges posed by increasingly extreme weather. Instead, what often works best to control the onslaught is what engineers and architects long sought to replace: natural features and processes such as flood plains and wetlands. Nature-based infrastructure, as the concept is known, remains a relative niche compared with concrete, steel and earthen works. It needs to be a priority.
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2023-05-19/california-floods-show-the-limits-of-man-made-climate-solutions
Weed war: Raids on licensed farms and dog shooting spark outrage [Los Angeles Times]
Video of a police raid on a Northern California cannabis farm earlier this month has set off outrage, in part because the 36-second clip shows an officer fatally shooting a grower’s dog. That the target of the armed strike held a state cannabis license was equally upsetting for many growers in the region. Three other cannabis farms for which a Trinity County magistrate in late April approved sheriff’s raids also were licensed by the state. What the targeted farms allegedly lacked were Trinity County permits. “That is insane,” said Matthew Hawkins, upon learning from The Times that his state-licensed McAlexander Ranch had been on the raid list but for unexplained reasons was not served. “It seems like they’re going after people with state licenses,” he said. “It’s like a bomb going off over my head.”
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-19/weed-war-trinity-raids-on-state-licensed-farms-end-in-dog-killing
Got goat milk? Artisan soap, lotion maker opens Waterford boutique using milk from own herd [Modesto Bee]
Hughson resident Bethany Riner never thought the couple of goats she bought as pets when she first moved out of her parents’ home would eventually turn into her livelihood. But those goats turned into more goats. And then she started milking her goats. And then there was all this milk. Riner, who grew up in Ceres and graduated from Ceres High, began by using her milk to make food: cheese, yogurt and ice cream. Then she decided to try her hand at soap making. Her first batch came out dry as a brick, and it crumbled when cut. But she kept at it, using the goat milk from her small herd. About five years ago, Riner began making soaps in earnest. She started an Etsy shop in 2018, selling just her goat milk bar soap, called Mazzeltov Farms. The moniker is based on her maiden name, Mazza, and the nickname her high school friends gave her, “Mazzeltov.”
https://www.modbee.com/news/business/biz-columns-blogs/biz-beat/article275361431.html
Deere Lifts Profit Outlook as Supply Chain Improves [Wall Street Journal]
Deere raised its profit outlook for the full year as supply-chain challenges eased and a strong farm economy helped bolster demand for farm equipment even at higher prices. The Moline, Ill.-based company, the largest supplier of farm equipment in the U.S., saw improvements in the supply chain, though there are still constraints in some areas, Chief Executive John May said Friday. For the fiscal second quarter, which ended on April 30, Deere’s sales jumped 30% to $17.39 billion, topping the $14.89 billion expected by Wall Street analysts. Sales rose across each of the company’s three segments, powered by higher prices and volume. Deere and its peers have been benefiting as elevated crop prices lift farmers’ incomes and keep them interested in new machinery even as their own production costs stay elevated.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/deere-de-q2-earnings-report-2023-2b86f61c?mod=Searchresults_pos3&page=1
Even after a wet winter, California is preparing for the next drought [Stateline]
Mountains are capped with record snowpack, rolling hills are covered in a rainbow of wildflowers, reservoirs are filled to the brim, and rivers are rushing with snowmelt. A vast majority of California is finally out of drought this month, after a punishing multiyear period of severe aridity that forced statewide water cuts and fueled existential fear over the future of the water supply. Although a series of massive storms during the winter months brought desperately needed precipitation throughout the Golden State, water experts and state officials remain focused on preparing for the inevitable next drought. Based on lessons learned in recent years, they’re refilling the state’s over-drafted groundwater aquifers and encouraging water efficiency among residents learning to live with climate change. By recharging groundwater basins and keeping in place some conservation policies, state and local water officials can help alleviate the pain of future droughts — but those efforts require flexibility and more investment, said Andrew Ayres, a research fellow with the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank. “There’s still a lot of work to do to make sure that we can provide reliability in the next drought,” he said. “Whenever that rolls around, things are always uncertain. It could be next year, and we might be right back into it.”
https://stateline.org/2023/05/15/even-after-a-wet-winter-california-is-preparing-for-the-next-drought/
The Orchard Amid Concrete [Capital & Main]
Recognizing the need to address food insecurity and food apartheid in California’s urban centers, California lawmakers crafted Assembly Bill 551, which created Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones, essentially a tax break for owners of vacant land who agreed to convert their property into small farms in cities with more than 250,000 residents. 2023 marks the 10-year anniversary of AB 551’s passage. About one-fifth of California residents are food insecure — lacking reliable access to the amount of wholesome food necessary for a healthy life. The vision of AB 551 was that the communities that needed food the most should have the opportunity to grow it in their own neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the vision hasn’t materialized yet. Very few farmers and landowners are aware of the law, let alone applied for the tax break. AB 551 has not changed the landscape for urban farms. The state does not track applications for the incentive, nor those approved and their impact in local communities. Food insecurity has not lessened since 2013. Nonetheless, urban farming advocates believe there remains a path forward. “Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones as a policy is a failure,” said Janet Valenzuela, business counselor and program associate with the Los Angeles Food Policy Council (LAFPC). “It’s what happens when a policy concept doesn’t match local needs.”
https://capitalandmain.com/the-orchard-amid-concrete
Newsom touts $60-million plan for ‘fishway’ along Yuba River; critics say it falls short [Los Angeles Times]
Citing the need to boost survival rates for imperiled salmon and sturgeon along the heavily dammed Yuba River, state, local and federal officials have announced a $60-million plan to build a channel that will allow fish to swim easily around a dam that has impeded their passage for more than a century. Joined by Gov. Gavin Newsom, officials announced that the fishway would bypass the DaGuerre Point Dam, in Marysville, and allow spring-run chinook salmon, green sturgeon, steelhead, and lamprey to access 10 to 12 miles of spawning habitat upstream. The announcement comes as California struggles to adapt to worsening periods of drought punctuated by intense intervals of precipitation — a type of weather whiplash fueled by climate change — as well as amid a growing national movement calling for the demolition of dams, due to their impacts on the environment. Already, some environmentalists and fishing advocates have blasted the Yuba River plan, saying it was the result of closed-door haggling between government agencies and doesn’t do enough to protect threatened species. Some say that a better solution would be removal of the dam.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-17/newsom-touts-plan-for-60-million-fishway-along-yuba-river
California’s two-decade battle over PAGA labor law still rages [CalMatters]
Dan Walters column: On Oct. 7, 2003, California voters decided to recall their governor, Gray Davis, less than a year after giving him a second term, and replace him with action movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger. Five days later, in one of his last acts as governor, Davis signed Senate Bill 796, the Private Attorneys General Act, or PAGA, a unique-to-California law empowering workers to file class-action lawsuits against their employers, alleging violations of state laws governing working conditions. It was also Davis’ way of thanking unions and trial attorneys for standing by him during his two campaigns for governor and the recall election. Business groups, of course, were and remain steadfastly opposed to PAGA, contending that it gives rapacious lawyers a hunting license to hector employers with suits or the threat of suits that are expensive to defend and even more costly to lose. Meanwhile, however, a coalition of California business and employer groups, calling itself Californians for Fair Play and Accountability, has submitted enough signatures to place a measure on the 2024 ballot that would repeal PAGA entirely and bolster state labor law enforcement.
https://calmatters.org/commentary/2023/05/labor-law-paga-still-rages/
US Makes Rare Wheat Imports From Europe After Drought Ravages Crops [Bloomberg]
The US is resorting to purchases of European wheat after a drought upended crop markets, pushing local prices higher. At least two cargoes of Polish grain have arrived in Florida this year, with more expected over the next few months, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the deals are private. The rare imports are a blow for the US, which has been losing its relevance in the global wheat market to top shipper Russia. Last year’s drought has hampered shipping through the Mississippi River, making it more expensive to haul crops by rail. The dismal weather also means American farmers are poised to abandon wheat crops at the highest rate in more than a century, making the deals profitable. “It’s an unusual trade route, but it makes sense because US wheat is expensive,” said Miroslaw Marciniak, a market analyst at InfoGrain in Warsaw. American hard red winter wheat — the variety used in all-purpose bread — has been trading at a wide premium to crops from other major global suppliers. Meanwhile, some eastern European nations are saddled with surpluses.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-17/drought-ravaged-crops-force-us-to-resort-to-rare-wheat-imports
Saving the farm: Heartland clergy train to prevent agriculture workers' suicides [Associated Press]
With traces of winter’s unusually heavy snow still lingering but a warm sun finally shining, farmers were out dawn to dusk in early May on their tractors, planting corn and soybeans across southwestern Minnesota fields many have owned for generations. The threat of losing these beloved family farms has become a constant worry, affecting many farmers’ mental health and raising concerns of another uptick in suicides like during the 1980s farm crisis. Much of the stress stems from being dependent on factors largely outside their control – from the increasingly unpredictable weather to growing costs of equipment to global market swings that can wipe out profits. “You’d be surprised how many people are suffering with depression. Farmers have been a group of people who keep problems to themselves, proud and private,” said Bob Worth, a third-generation crop farmer who with his son works 2,100 acres of rich, black soil near the hamlet of Lake Benton. Increasingly aware of agricultural workers’ struggles with mental health, states such as Minnesota and South Dakota, a few miles west of Worth’s farm, are offering suicide prevention training to clergy – who are a crucial, trusted presence in rural America.
https://apnews.com/article/suicide-prevention-heartland-farm-mental-health-pastor-3afed21d83eafd8c82a296f0a0eeb57f
States near historic deal to protect Colorado River [Washington Post]
California, Arizona and Nevada — the three key states in the Colorado River’s current crisis — have coalesced around a plan to voluntarily conserve a major portion of their river water in exchange for more than $1 billion in federal funds, according to people familiar with the negotiations. The consensus emerging among these states and the Biden administration aims to conserve about 13 percent of their allocation of river water over the next three years and protect the nation’s largest reservoirs, which provide drinking water and hydropower for tens of millions of people. But thorny issues remain that could complicate a deal. The parties are trying to work through them before a key deadline at the end of the month, according to several current and former state and federal officials familiar with the situation. Participants are discussing cutting back about 3 million acre-feet of water over the next three years, the majority of it paid for with federal money approved in the Inflation Reduction Act. But the parties are still negotiating how much of those water savings will go uncompensated.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/05/17/water-rights-colorado-river-near-deal/
Chevron scrambles to batten down oil fields amid threat of Kern River flooding [Los Angeles Times]
Preparing for the threat of massive flooding during California’s “Big Melt,” federal engineers have been releasing more Kern River water from Lake Isabella than is flowing into the reservoir from the snowbound peaks of the southern Sierra Nevada. The action is needed, officials say, to prevent water from spilling over the reservoir dam and sending floodwaters rolling into low-lying areas that include the city of Bakersfield, farm towns, Highway 99, and portions of Kern County’s famed oil patch — an intrusion that would risk significant ecological harm. Now, with temperatures rising and river flows approaching an all-time record of 7,000 cubic feet per second, Chevron Corporation is taking steps to avoid an oil spill at its Kern River Oil Field in the event of catastrophic flooding. In areas where pumpjacks bob along the shoulders of the Kern River, Chevron has been shutting down wells, draining pipelines, turning off electrical power, erecting dikes and bolstering river banks with riprap. Crews on the ground and in spotter planes are fanning out each day to search for emerging hazards along the river’s edge.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-05-17/chevron-prepares-kern-county-oil-fields-for-flooding
California announces $60 million project to move threatened salmon to cooler waters [San Francisco Chronicle]
A run of endangered salmon will return to its native habitat in the Sierra Foothills for the first time in 100 years, following a $60 million state- and locally funded project, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday. The project will build a fishway around a dam in the North Yuba River (Yuba County) to help spring-run Chinook salmon reach the cold-water habitat they need to spawn. Paid for with $30 million from the state along with funding from the Yuba Water Agency and due to be completed in 2025, the fishway will also benefit sturgeon, steelhead and lamprey. Newsom announced the investment during what would usually be the first weeks of California’s commercial salmon season, which was canceled this year because of historically low numbers of salmon on the coast. Named for the time of year they migrate into the river from the ocean, spring-run Chinook salmon once outnumbered all other types of salmon in the Central Valley and are now listed as threatened. After dams cut them off from their native cool mountain habitat, they spawn in the Sacramento River, where water temperatures are often too high for eggs and babies to survive, especially during drought years.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/climate/article/calif-invest-60-million-move-threatened-salmon-18103280.php
Feds kick in $1 million for Stanislaus 2030 effort at bioindustry jobs. What will it do? [Modesto Bee]
Advocates for bioindustrial jobs in and near Stanislaus County have received a $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation. The money will help refine the Stanislaus 2030 Investment Blueprint, which already has $18 million earmarked by county supervisors earlier this year. They seek to create up to 40,000 well-paying jobs by decade’s end in making materials and fuels from biological sources. This is the largest part of a $75.8 million plan that also urges general support for small business, job training and child care. The grant, announced May 11, will bolster Stanislaus 2030’s work with a federal lab in the East Bay that does small-batch testing for bioindustry startups. The county aims to build a much larger complex that would scale up production from sources such as orchard wood, corn stalks and dairy manure. The Northern San Joaquin Valley’s “renewable agricultural residues can serve as feedstocks for biomanufacturing technologies, and its complementary manufacturing capabilities can enable commercial-scale production,” lab Director Deepti Tanjore said.
https://www.modbee.com/news/business/article275461241.html
Napa County's crop report shows rise in grape values [Napa Valley Register]
Napa County's total agricultural production value, centered almost entirely on wine grapes, rose 19.9% in 2022 to reach its third-highest mark ever. Total production value in the annual crop report the county released Tuesday was $894 million, compared to $746 million for 2021, Agricultural Commissioner Tracy Cleveland told the county Board of Supervisors. “Certainly a year of growth," board chair Belia Ramos said. That amount fell short of the all-time record for county farm production of $1 billion in 2018 and the runner-up of $943 million for 2019. But it continued the rebound from a drop to $465 million in 2020, when two wildfires struck the North Bay amid the grape harvest. Napa County in 2022 had 36,809 acres of red wine grapes and 9,319 acres of white wine grapes. Red grapes accounted for $800 million in value and white grapes $90.8 million.
https://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/napa-countys-crop-report-shows-rise-in-grape-values/article_ed8eae6c-f3f8-11ed-be34-7f35e4d00a48.html
Vaccine authorized for emergency use in California condors amid bird flu outbreak [Associated Press]
California condors will receive a vaccine for a deadly strain of avian influenza that threatens to wipe out the already critically endangered vulture species, federal officials said Tuesday. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service granted emergency approval for use of the vaccine after more than a dozen condors recently died from the bird flu, known as H5N1. There are fewer than 350 California condors in the wild, in flocks that span from the Pacific Northwest to Baja California, Mexico. A pilot safety study will begin this month in North American vultures, a similar species, allowing investigators to check for any adverse effects before they give vaccines to the endangered condors, according to an agriculture department statement.
https://apnews.com/article/california-condors-vaccine-avian-influenza-6740bddc8ae6b9f9ab8d9a4b43360d4e
Newsom seals unusual deal allowing farmworkers new way to unionize [Los Angeles Times]
California farmworkers can now unionize more easily after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed legislation Monday in the final step of an unusual compromise struck last year between the Democratic leader and union advocates. Under intense political pressure, Newsom agreed to sign a high-profile bill last year expanding unionization rights for agricultural workers, but only on the condition that the United Farm Workers and the California Labor Federation supported follow-up legislation in 2023 rescinding some of its provisions. The rare agreement allows farmworkers to unionize by signing cards under a process known as “card-check” instead of being required to vote in-person at a polling place, but removed their ability to unionize through mail-in ballots as the original bill would have allowed. “Card-check” essentially gives workers an opportunity to organize without the employer knowing. Newsom referred to farmworkers as “our state’s backbone,” in a statement. “We’ve removed barriers for farmworkers in union elections, in order to advocate for themselves and fight for a better workplace,” he said.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-15/newsom-concludes-deal-allowing-farm-workers-new-way-to-unionize
Biden administration announces nearly $11 billion for renewable energy in rural communities [Associated Press]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a nearly $11 billion investment on Tuesday to help bring affordable clean energy to rural communities throughout the country. Rural electric cooperatives, renewable energy companies and electric utilities will be able to apply for funding through two programs, U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said during a media briefing on Monday. Vilsack said it was the largest single federal investment in rural electrification since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936 as part of the New Deal. “This is an exciting opportunity for the Rural Utility Service to work collaboratively with our great partners, the Rural Electric cooperatives, in order to advance a clean energy future for rural America,” Vilsack said. The Empowering Rural America program will make $9.7 billion available for rural electric cooperatives to create renewable energy, zero-emission and carbon capture systems. The Powering Affordable Clean Energy program will make $1 billion available in partially-forgivable loans for renewable energy companies and electric utilities to help finance renewable energy projects such as large-scale solar, wind and geothermal projects.
https://apnews.com/article/climate-environment-biden-solar-wind-renewable-energy-abf79c38d380172023c8e9978746b54c
Fossil fuel companies are to blame for significant share of California wildfires, scientists say [Sacramento Bee]
Worsening wildfires in the Western U.S. have been definitively linked to climate change for years, and now scientists are drawing a measurable connection between acres burned and carbon emissions released by the world’s largest fossil fuel companies. A new study released Tuesday by the Union of Concerned Scientists, a national science advocacy organization, linked emissions from the world’s major fossil fuel producers to 37% of acres burned by wildfire in the North American west between 1986 and 2021. Those emissions, researchers say, are also responsible for nearly half the atmospheric conditions drying out California forests. They hope these findings translate into corporate accountability for damages wrought by past and future disasters. “This is the first study that we know of in the world that attributes wildfire impacts from climate change to specific fossil fuel producers and cement manufacturers,” said Kristina Dahl, Union of Concerned Scientists researcher and the study’s leading author. To conduct the study titled “The Fossil Fuels behind Forest Fires,” scientists used a measure of air’s thirstiness for plant and soil moisture, called vapor pressure deficit, to connect fossil fuel emissions to increasing wildfire intensity.
https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article275323596.html#storylink=cpy
California’s Green-Fuel Program Gets Too Popular for Its Own Good [Wall Street Journal]
A boom in the production of green trucking fuel is punishing renewable-energy producers across the country, thanks to the shifting market for California’s low-carbon fuel credits. U.S. production of so-called renewable diesel, which is made from feedstocks such as beef tallow and soybean oil, has tripled over the past three years. Truckers and fuel producers say the gains are driven by federal incentives and the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard program, which issues resellable credits to firms that sell low-carbon fuels such as ethanol in California. Those credits can make biofuels far more lucrative for producers than their petroleum-based relatives. And because producers earn California’s credits only for renewable diesel sold into the state, the vast majority of the country’s production ends up there. Now, in a twist few in the industry anticipated, the green-diesel boom has tanked the market for California’s credits, which are now trading for about $84 per metric ton, down from over $200 at the beginning of 2021. The renewable-diesel boom has lifted biofuels to nearly 50% of the diesel used in California, while helping the state reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by about 13% since the program was instituted in 2011. The credit-price collapse threatens the economics of some renewable-energy projects and highlights how unanticipated market dynamics can compromise government objectives.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/californias-green-fuel-program-gets-too-popular-for-its-own-good-dedfb89?mod=Searchresults_pos2&page=1
Famed Cabernet winemaker just sold his second Napa winery — but this time it’s different [San Francisco Chronicle]
Mark Herold made headlines when he sold his Napa Valley garage winery Merus, coveted for its big and bold Cabernets, to billionaire Bill Foley and his rapidly expanding empire Foley Family Wines in 2007. But when it came time to sell his namesake winery, he took a different route — joining a small countermovement of vintners attempting to disrupt Napa Valley’s corporatization trend. This month, Herold sold the Cabernet Sauvignon-focused Mark Herold Wines to a client of 13 years, Brion Wise. Wise owns two eponymous wine brands, B. Wise Vineyards in Sonoma and Brion, a premium, single-vineyard Cabernet label in Napa; Herold, a sought-after winemaking consultant in the Bay Area, works with both. A prolific investor across several industries, Wise also has an ownership stake in 400 acres of premium Napa Valley vineyard land in top subregions like Oakville and Coombsville. The acquisitions of big-name wineries — like Joseph Phelps and Shafer — by conglomerates for hundreds of millions of dollars have become the controversial new normal in Napa Valley. Many in the local wine industry are concerned that the region will lose its roots as a multi-generational farming community, and that sustainable farming and wine quality will falter as a result of hands-off ownership by absentee parties. But recently, more winery and vineyard owners, like Herold, are selling to a familiar face or a small, family operation instead of a corporation.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/mark-herold-cabernet-18094792.php
California Revenue Could Drop by $11 Billion More Than Newsom’s Forecast [Bloomberg]
California’s tax revenue could drop by $11 billion more than Governor Gavin Newsom projected in the event of an economic downturn, exacerbating deficit woes, the state’s nonpartisan budget adviser said. The new forecast by the Legislative Analyst’s Office comes after Newsom on Friday forecast a $32 billion budget hole — $9.3 billion more than a January forecast — due to sharp drops in income for the state’s wealthiest residents who pay the bulk of income taxes. Newsom proposed a $224.1 billion general-fund budget for the fiscal year starting July 1. The LAO report, released over the weekend, said Newsom’s revenue outlook carries “considerable downside risk” and doesn’t fully account for the effect of a potential recession on California’s three main revenue sources: personal income, corporate and sales taxes.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-15/california-revenue-could-drop-by-11-billion-more-than-newsom-s-forecast
Monterey County agriculture: survey finds $600 million in total damages, future losses from winter storms [Monterey Herald]
Between January and March, the Monterey County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office is estimating that torrential weather generated $600 million in damages, losses and future impacts to the local agricultural industry. After repeatedly heavy rain again doused local farmland with floodwaters in March – some just starting to recover from storms two months prior – the Ag Commissioner’s Office conducted a survey to gauge the extent of second-round impacts. Survey results, released on Friday, show damages, current losses estimated and projected future losses totaling $264 million from flooding in March. According to the Ag Commissioner’s Office, approximately 8,736 acres of crops were destroyed or unable to be planted due to the flooding, half of which were newly impacted from storms at the outset of the year. Strawberries were especially affected, primarily in the Pajaro Valley, where a breached levee along the Pajaro River forced thousands to evacuate and drowned nearby ag fields in floodwater. Per the county’s survey results released this week, an estimated 1,919 acres of strawberry fields were damaged, totaling $160 million in losses. Other losses include: $54.4 million to lettuces; $24.2 million to vegetable crops, such as broccoli, cabbage and cauliflower; $11.4 million to raspberries and blackberries; and $1.35 million to wine grapes.
https://www.montereyherald.com/2023/05/12/monterey-county-agriculture-survey-finds-600-million-in-total-damages-future-losses-from-winter-storms/
Scientists take flight to map California’s vast snowpack and measure flooding threats [Los Angeles Times]
Flying thousands of feet above the Sierra Nevada in a plane equipped with specialized imaging devices, Elizabeth Carey has been scanning the mountains with lasers to precisely map the snow. By mapping the snowpack with laser pulses and spectrometers, Carey and her colleagues are able to provide a detailed picture of one of the biggest snow accumulations ever recorded in the state. The flights are also collecting data to estimate when and how fast the snow will melt, helping California officials prepare for the runoff, manage water releases from dams, and assess which areas are most at risk of flooding. Their measurements, along with estimates by other researchers, show that when the snowpack reached its peak in April, it held approximately 40 million acre-feet of water, nearly as much as the total capacity of all the state’s reservoirs combined. Although some of that snow has started to thaw at lower elevations, much of it remains in the mountains — setting the stage for melting on a vast scale, as well as enormous river flows that could inundate some low-lying communities. To help prepare for the onslaught of snowmelt, state water managers and emergency officials are relying on the extensive aerial surveys provided by Carey’s employer, Airborne Snow Observatories Inc.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-05-15/planes-track-california-historic-snowpack
Opinion: The Supreme Court’s Pork Chops [Wall Street Journal]
Who says the Supreme Court marches in ideological lockstep? On Thursday a mixed majority upheld a California regulation that imposes enormous burdens on out-of-state pig farmers and carves up interstate commerce. The result will not be more constitutional clarity. There’s no practical way for slaughterhouses to separate pigs raised for consumers in California. Pork producers argued that the law thus violated the Court’s so-called dormant Commerce Clause doctrine, which bars states from imposing excessive burdens on interstate commerce. A heterodox 5-4 majority of Justices Neil Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas, Amy Coney Barrett, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor ruled for California but split in their reasoning. Justice Gorsuch’s majority opinion holds that California’s law is kosher because it doesn’t intentionally discriminate economically against out-of-state businesses, unlike other state laws that the Court has struck down. Justice Gorsuch is right that the dormant Commerce Clause is a judge-made doctrine and state laws shouldn’t be struck down merely because they impose incidental costs on out-of-state business, as many do. But California’s rules impose a substantial burden on interstate commerce by any measure, which was a key concern of the Constitution’s Framers.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/national-pork-producers-council-v-ross-supreme-court-decision-neil-gorsuch-john-roberts-interstate-commerce-41cd6830?mod=Searchresults_pos7&page=1
How Newsom solves California budget that went from a $97.5 billion surplus to $31.5 billion deficit [San Jose Mercury News]
Gov. Gavin Newsom, who just a year ago was extolling an unprecedented $97.5 billion budget surplus, on Friday laid out his plan for closing a newly projected $31.5 billion deficit, with trims to climate programs, no bailouts for beleaguered mass transit systems and no new taxes.California’s governor insisted that most of the shortfall — which has grown $9 billion since his first-draft plan in January and now amounts to about 10 percent of the $306.5 billion 2023-24 state budget — can be absorbed through accounting maneuvers that won’t require significant program or service cuts beyond those he previously proposed. The California Chamber of Commerce praised the governor for flatly refusing a state Senate proposal to cover the shortfall instead by raising taxes on large corporations. Despite the deficit, the budget included increases in some areas, including flood control. After damaging storms this winter ended California’s drought, filled reservoirs, and caused catastrophic flooding in southern Santa Cruz County and elsewhere, flood risk remains high in areas like the southern San Joaquin Valley and Tulare Basin between Fresno and Bakersfield as the massive Sierra Nevada snowpack melts. The California Farm Bureau thanked Newsom on Friday for “important investments in flood-protection measures and in agricultural business grants.”
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/05/12/how-newsom-solves-california-budget-that-went-from-a-97-5-billion-surplus-to-31-5-billion-deficit/
Column: For Santiago Nieto, all roads in California lead to farmworkers [Los Angeles Times]
Alejandro Maciel: When I think of Santiago Nieto and his walks, I imagine him as the knight from Quixote de la Mancha, who in his crazy wanderings around the world mistakes windmills for menacing giants. But Nieto isn’t crazy, actually, he’s painfully sane and has decided to put his time and effort into helping California farmworkers. His way of calling attention to the impoverished conditions in which hundreds of thousands of California farmworkers live, the vast majority of them migrants from Mexico and Central America, is through his campaign “Por ti campesino, yo camino” (“For you farmworker, I walk”), which leads him through mountains, rivers and deserts. According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, one-third of the vegetables and two-thirds of the fruits and nuts produced in the United States are grown in the Golden State. And to get an idea of the profits that this sector generated in 2021, it is enough to say that counting only the top 10 agricultural products, among them dairy, grapes, almonds, strawberries, pistachios, lettuce, tomatoes, nuts and rice, California farmers took in more than $32 billion. In total, the state’s farms and ranches generated $51.1 billion in 2021. But this economic prosperity does not reach the more than 420,000 workers who make this gigantic agricultural production possible. Farmworkers in California earn an average of $26,000 per year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-05-15/column-for-santiago-nieto-all-roads-lead-to-farmworkers
Biden proposal would let conservationists lease public land much as drillers and ranchers do [Associated Press]
The Biden administration wants to put conserving vast government-owned lands on equal footing with oil drilling, livestock grazing and other interests, according to a top administration official who defended the idea against criticism that it would interfere with industry. The proposal would allow conservationists and others to lease federally owned land to restore it, much the same way oil companies buy leases to drill and ranchers pay to graze cattle. Companies could also buy conservation leases, such as oil drillers who want to offset damage to public land by restoring acreage elsewhere. Tracy Stone-Manning, director of the Bureau of Land Management, said in an interview with The Associated Press that the proposed changes would address rising pressure from climate change and development. While the bureau previously issued leases for conservation in limited cases, it has never had a dedicated program for it, she said. “It makes conservation an equal among the multiple uses that we manage for,” Stone-Manning said. The pending rule also would promote establishing more areas of “critical environmental concern” due to their historic or cultural significance, or their importance for wildlife conservation. More than 1,000 such sites covering about 33,000 square miles (85,000 square kilometers) have been designated previously.
By comparison, about 242,00 square miles of bureau land are open to grazing livestock.
https://apnews.com/article/public-lands-conservation-leases-biden-c96bb20ed80e2b5f459bb7afc366f651
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