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California providing $95 million in storm relief to undocumented residents ineligible for federal aid [San Francisco Chronicle]
After months of pressure from advocates and flood victims, California will provide disaster relief to undocumented residents who were impacted by the state’s severe winter storms and are ineligible for federal aid. The Storm Assistance for Immigrants Project will provide $95 million to undocumented immigrants who were affected by the series of powerful storms that pounded the state from December 2022 through April 2023, said Scott Murray, a spokesman for the California Department of Social Services, which is running the program. The funding is available through May 31 of next year or until all funds are claimed. “The goal of this program is to help people with the recovery process by providing funding for food, shelter, and basic needs,” Murray said in a statement.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california/article/disaster-storm-aid-undocumented-residents-18129937.php
Grazing goats used to prevent wildfires may be out of business with new labor law for herders [KCRA-3 Sacramento]
With Northern California under the threat of wildfires and grass fires as warmer days are ahead, many businesses and cities are turning to goats to get rid of the dry brush. But now that's under threat by a new labor law.
Soon, it will be more expensive to manage the four-legged firefighters, with the goat herders getting a big raise: $4,000 to over $14,000 a month. The state labor commission recently reclassified goat herders from sheep herders, who both are paid monthly since they watch over the animals 24/7. Now the goat herders will receive overtime and be paid like farmworkers, a move the labor movement applauds. "If we are investing this as firefighting of the future, we should invest in the workers," said Lorena Gonzalez Fletcher, with the California Labor Federation. The California Farm Bureau said if the new rule goes into effect, the state will have to find other ways to prevent wildfires and grassfires. "It wouldn't surprise me to see a lot fewer goats for just petting zoos and things like that," said Bryan Little with the California Farm Bureau. "It seems like it's more like a wrinkle, an unintentional wrinkle in the regulations on how agriculture workers are paid in California."
https://www.kcra.com/amp/article/california-labor-law-threatens-goat-herders/44069488
L.A. has taken water from iconic Mono Lake for 82 years. Will California stop it? [CalMatters]
As trickling snowmelt in the Sierra Nevada slowly raises Mono Lake — famed for its bird life and outlandish shoreline mineral spires — advocates are pressuring state water officials to halt diversions from the lake’s tributaries to Los Angeles, which has used this clean mountain water source for decades. Environmentalists and tribal representatives say such action is years overdue and would help the iconic lake’s ecosystem, long plagued by low levels, high salinity and dust that wafts off the exposed lakebed. The city of Los Angeles, they argue, should simply use less water, and expand investments in more sustainable sources – especially recycled wastewater and uncaptured stormwater. This, they say, could help wean the city off Mono basin’s water for good. In December, the Mono Lake Committee, the basin’s leading advocacy group, sent a letter to the State Water Resources Control Board requesting an emergency pause on water diversions from the lake. The water board hosted an online workshop to discuss the matter in February, and it is now considering further actions to restore the naturally saline lake.
https://calmatters.org/environment/water/2023/05/mono-lake-water-diversion/
The farmers dealing with water shortages even before historic Colorado River deal [The Guardian]
Nancy Caywood worries about water constantly. Water – or the uncertainty of it – has kept the 69-year-old Arizona farmer awake at night since supplies began dwindling about two decades ago due to chronic overuse and drought in the American west. During one particularly low point in late 2021, every field on the 255-acre family farm was either fallow, shrivelled or dormant. “The canal was dry, the reservoir was empty, it was raining at the wrong times … the farm was 100% unproductive and we were using savings to pay bills,” said Caywood, a third-generation farmer in Pinal county who grows mostly alfalfa and cotton – two of the most marketable and water-guzzling commodity crops. “My dad started using the S-word, it was devastating, but we didn’t want to sell to solar,” added Caywood whose farmland is now surrounded by fallow fields, tumbleweed and solar farms. In 2022, the Colorado River water allocated for farmers in central Arizona – the state’s tri-county urban and agricultural heartland – was cut by 65% overall, but most Pinal county farmers lost 80% or more. This year the allocation is virtually zero, as the river’s complex priority system means farmers in central Arizona currently bear the brunt of the state’s reduced allocation. This was the case even before this month’s historic deal in which Arizona, California and Nevada agreed a plan which would cut their Colorado water consumption by 13% over the next three years – if adopted.
https://amp.theguardian.com/global/2023/may/31/arizona-farmers-water-colorado-river-cuts
Water concerns prompt new limits on growth in Arizona [Los Angeles Times]
Arizona’s governor has announced plans to limit new construction in parts of the Phoenix area after a state analysis found there isn’t enough groundwater to support all the planned growth in the coming decades. The announcement Thursday by Gov. Katie Hobbs represents a major shift for one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in the country and is expected to hinder development in some suburbs that have been springing up in the desert around Phoenix. State officials analyzed groundwater in the Phoenix area and determined that the area’s groundwater wasn’t sufficient to supply all the projected water needs over the next 100 years. As a result, Arizona water regulators plan to stop issuing approvals for new developments in areas that depend entirely on groundwater pumping. The announcement comes as Arizona also deals with cuts in water supplies from the Colorado River, which is over-allocated and has been sapped by more than two decades of drought worsened by climate change.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-06-01/phoenix-arizona-water-crisis
Mendocino County vineyard manager ordered to pay $159,000 in farmworker back wages, penalties [Santa Rosa Press Democrat]
A Ukiah-based company that manages about 1,500 acres of vineyards in Mendocino, Lake and Sonoma counties has been ordered by federal labor regulators to pay almost $159,000 in back pay and penalties. Noble Vineyard Management Inc. was cited by for not paying contract wages to workers with agricultural temporary visas and not compensating U.S. workers at the same rate as those employees with such H-2A visas, the Labor Department announced Thursday. That amounted to $92,067 in back wages for 148 workers and $66,530 in civil penalties. Noble CEO Tyler Rodrigue didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Noble’s was among three actions the agency announced Wednesday, involving just over $129,000 in back pay for 353 agricultural workers and civil penalties of nearly $232,000. Another of the three California companies cited was farm labor contractor Next Crop of Los Banos. It was order to pay $36,764 in back wages to 105 employees and assessed $99,067 in penalties. Next Crop was operating farmworker transport with the unlicensed driver for Pebble Ridge Vineyards & Vine Estates LLC, grower of about 850 acres of grapes in San Benito County sold for brands such as Kendall-Jackson, J. Lohr and Robert Mondavi. Pebble Ridge was assessed $66,282 in penalties.
https://www.pressdemocrat.com/article/industrynews/mendocino-county-vineyard-manager-ordered-to-pay-159000-in-farmworker-bac/
Grazing goats prevent California wildfires. New salary rules may jeopardize industry [Los Angeles Times]
Increasingly in recent years, Californians have put goats’ voracious and almost indiscriminate diets to work, minimizing fuel for wildfires across the state — a method that has been heralded as sustainable, economical and effective at reducing underbrush that can become dangerous in the hot summer months. But goat ranchers worry a recent change in state labor requirements for herders could jeopardize the future of the industry. Goat herders were recently reclassified by California labor regulators, differentiating them from sheep herders — a new distinction that means goat herders will no longer be eligible for a monthly herders’ compensation, set at a minimum of $2,755 plus required overtime. Instead, employers will be required come Jan. 1 to compensate goat herders at an hourly rate, now set at $15.50 for farmworkers, plus required overtime. And given the nature of a goat herders’ job, which is considered on-call 24/7, industry leaders and the California Farm Bureau estimate that change would come out to almost $14,000 a month. “Goats are particularly well-suited to wildfire fuels control,” Bryan Little, director of employment policy for the California Farm Bureau, wrote in a recent post about the issue. “While they will graze dry grasses like sheep, goats also devour highly flammable taller brush that sheep don’t notice.” Little and others in support of goat-grazing businesses recently backed Assembly Bill 1099, which would keep the current compensation requirements for goat herders.
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-06-01/california-goat-herders-wage-increase-fight-wildfires
Can retiring farmland make California’s Central Valley more equitable? [High Country News]
The people of Fairmead, California, in the Central Valley, have struggled to gain reliable access to drinking water for years. The unincorporated community of around 1,300 — “mostly people of color, people of low income, people struggling and trying to make it,” according to Fairmead resident Barbara Nelson — relies on shallow wells to meet its needs. But in recent years, the combination of drought and excessive agricultural pumping has caused some domestic wells to go dry, and one of the town wells is currently very low. Last year, Fairmead received a grant to help plan for farmland retirement in order to recharge groundwater under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA. But the community’s vision for the future is bigger than that: The locals also want to see improved air quality, a community center and reliable domestic wells. The West is not just facing an energy transition, it is also at the beginning of a major transition in land and water use. In California’s Central Valley, groundwater regulations will require retiring between 500,000 and 1 million acres by 2040. But while groundwater sustainability is SGMA’s focus, it’s not the only thing on Central Valley residents’ minds: They also need jobs, as well as clean air and water. For many Central Valley residents, the biggest question concerns jobs, wondering how they’ll make a living once farmland is retired. Transitioning away from agriculture is “a hard pill to swallow,” said Eddie Ocampo, director of the organization Self-Help Enterprises.
https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-agriculture-can-retiring-farmland-make-californias-central-valley-more-equitable
Central Valley flooding offers birds bountiful water; Will it also poison them? [Los Angeles Times]
After struggling through years of punishing drought, California waterfowl and flocks of migrating birds are now enjoying a rare bounty of water as winter storms and spring snowmelt submerge vast tracts of Central Valley landscape. But even as birders celebrate the return of wet conditions along portions of the Pacific Flyway, experts worry that this liquid bonanza could ultimately poison tens of thousands of the avians as temperatures rise and newly formed lakes and ponds begin to evaporate. The concern: botulism. “Botulism occurs naturally in the soil and in the Tulare basin,” said John Carlson, president of the California Wildfowl Association. “When the water temperature heats up during the summer and gets stagnant, the botulism really kind of booms, and you can have multi-thousand-bird die-offs.” That grim prognosis has added to the emotional whiplash bird lovers and wildlife officials have experienced in recent years as extreme climate variability has gripped the West Coast, alternately parching and starving waterfowl and providing them with a surfeit of habitat.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-06-01/central-valley-flooding-may-threaten-migrating-birds
California to send $95 million to undocumented flooding victims – months after promising ‘rapid response’ [CalMatters]
California will send $95 million to flood victims in a long-awaited program to assist undocumented residents suffering hardship and damage from the recent months of storms. The money will be available in many affected counties starting in June, according to the state’s Department of Social Services. The announcement comes two months after Gov. Gavin Newsom promised flood victims that help would come from the state’s Rapid Response Fund. Since then his office provided few details despite repeated queries and criticism. Alex Stack, a spokesperson for Newsom, said state officials were trying to ensure the program would be accessible to a population that is often hard to reach, while also protecting taxpayer funds from fraud. The funds would be available to residents living or working in counties that were federally designated major disaster areas and that were approved for individual assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Originally the Legislature allocated $175 million to that fund for the 2022-2023 fiscal year, to assist with migrants at the Southern California border and to fund other needs. Now state grants are expected to go to nonprofit organizations to provide financial assistance to people recovering from floods or storms, the governor’s office said.
https://calmatters.org/california-divide/2023/05/california-flooding-fund/
It was the most controversial land-use debate in Napa history. Now, Walt Ranch has been sold [San Francisco Chronicle]
The most contentious land-use debate in Napa Valley’s history has come to a close following a shocking change of heart. On Wednesday, the Land Trust of Napa County finalized the purchase of Walt Ranch from its previous owners, who endured a relentless, 17-year battle against environmental groups in order to plant a vineyard in Napa’s rural Eastern Hills. Last July, owners Craig and Kathryn Hall — who own Hall Wines in St. Helena and Walt Wines in Sonoma County — received final approval from Napa County to move forward with developing their land. But six months later, the Halls suddenly announced a new plan: They had offered the property to the land trust, and at a steep discount of $18 million. The couple had been “in conversations” with the land trust since they purchased the property regarding required conservation easements, according to a written statement from Hall Winery President Mike Reynolds. Those discussions ultimately “led to this acquisition” he wrote. The land trust accumulated the $18 million through donations and loans in order to close on the 2,300-acre property; it’s one of the largest acquisitions in the organization’s nearly 50-year history according to Doug Parker, president and chief executive officer of the land trust.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/napa-walt-ranch-18105063.php
Judge dismisses criminal charges against California energy company in 2020 fatal wildfire [Associated Press]
A California judge on Wednesday dismissed all charges against Pacific Gas & Electric in connection to a 2020 fatal wildfire sparked by its equipment that destroyed hundreds of homes and killed four people, including an 8-year-old. The utility also reached a $50 million settlement agreement with the Shasta County District Attorney’s Office, officials from both announced in separate statements. The wind-whipped blaze began on Sept. 27, 2020, and raged through rugged terrain and small communities west of Redding, killing four people, burning about 200 homes and blackening about 87 square miles (225 square kilometers) of land in Shasta and Tehama counties. In 2021, state fire investigators concluded the fire was sparked by a gray pine tree that fell onto a PG&E distribution line. Shasta and Tehama counties sued the utility, alleging negligence. They said PG&E failed to remove the tree even though it had been marked for removal two years earlier. The utility says the tree was subsequently cleared to stay.
https://apnews.com/article/pge-zogg-wildfire-criminal-charges-dropped-4130b74c8ae2b5c79f7355b730aaec51
Why Insurers Are Fleeing California [Wall Street Journal]
State Farm General Insurance Co. last week became the latest insurer to retreat from California’s homeowners market. The culprit isn’t climate change, as the media claims in parroting Sacramento talking points. The cause is the Golden State’s hostile insurance environment. The nation’s top property and casualty insurer on Friday said it won’t accept new applications for homeowners insurance, citing “historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market.” In other words, State Farm can’t accurately price risk and increase its rates to cover ballooning liabilities. Other property and casualty insurers, including AIG and Chubb, have also been shrinking their California footprint after years of catastrophic wildfires, which are becoming more common owing to drought and decades of poor forest management. Wildfires in 2017 and 2018 wiped out two times the underwriting profits that insurers had accrued over the prior 26 years. Yet state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara won’t let insurers raise premiums to account for increasing wildfire risks. California is the only state that requires insurers to set premiums based on historical experience.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/state-farm-homeowners-insurance-california-2a934a22?mod=Searchresults_pos2&page=1
This California town was already dying. Then the state moved to close its prison [CalMatters]
Two things bring people here, prisons and water, and this tiny desert town is losing both. The locals interested in keeping Blythe afloat have ideas: They’ll build a logistics center, or they’ll develop better recreation opportunities on the Colorado River, or they’ll reopen their soon-to-be shuttered state prison as an immigration detention center. But they don’t yet have answers. The city’s latest disappointment came in May, when the governor’s proposed budget kept Chuckawalla Valley State Prison on the list of prisons Newsom wants to close. Then there’s Blythe’s water, which feeds fields of alfalfa taken out of town by the truckload as bales of hay, and is increasingly going to large farm conglomerates. The Metropolitan Water District, which sends water to Los Angeles and other Southern California cities, pays Blythe farmers to leave their fields fallow as competition for Colorado River water gets increasingly desperate.
https://calmatters.org/justice/2023/05/california-state-prison-closure/
Westlands Water District lets bounty of flood water flow to the ocean instead of maximizing groundwater recharge [SJV Water]
Groundwater recharge – or the lack of it – was a driving force behind the sweep of new board members who took over the behemoth Westlands Water District last fall. “Urgently develop groundwater recharge,” was the top plank in the platform of four candidates who won election in November. And the district has, indeed, built a 30,000-acre network of grower-owned recharge ponds with enough capacity to recharge, or absorb, 3,300 acre feet a day into the overtapped aquifer. So, it was surprising that the district showed it was only recharging a total of about 572 acre feet per day through April 30, according to a report at Westlands’ May 16 board meeting. A map presented at the meeting shows only a small fraction of recharge ponds in use. Westlands Board President Jeff Fortune agreed the district had missed recharge opportunities in the past but said he’s proud of the progress the district has made. “I think we’re doing a fantastic job,” he said. “We’ve gone from 0 to 100 miles per hour awfully fast. You could say we should have been more prepared but no one saw this weather pattern coming.”
https://sjvwater.org/westlands-water-district-lets-bounty-of-flood-water-flow-to-the-ocean-instead-of-maximizing-groundwater-recharge/
The California Issue: First Drought, Then Flood. Can the West Learn to Live Between Extremes? [New York Times]
In recent years, it is the dry side of California that has captured headlines: dwindling reservoirs where boat ramps lead only to sand, almond orchards ripped up for lack of irrigation water, catastrophic wildfires that rage through desiccated forests and into towns. In the longer view, though, the state’s water problems have come just as often from deluge as from drought. Other parts of the country can count on reasonably steady precipitation, but California has always been different, teetering between drenching winters and blazing summers, between wet years and dry ones — fighting endlessly to exert control over a flow of water that vacillates, sometimes wildly, between too much and too little. As we’ve learned more about how humans are transforming the planet’s systems, these swings have grown only more pronounced, leaving experts to wonder how the state will face a future balanced ever more precariously between wet and dry. Can it find ways to better handle — to steward, even — the overwhelming water when it does come? And will those measures be sufficient for it to withstand the times it doesn’t? These questions matter not just to California and those who live there, but to anyone who eats the food the state produces, who is affected by the fluctuations in its economy or who lives in a place trying to manage its own climate-fueled “extremification” — in other words, all of us.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/31/magazine/california-floods-droughts.html?searchResultPosition=3
Facing sweltering summers, California’s Newsom floats plan for state to buy energy [Associated Press]
For most of the year, California’s quest to rid itself of fossil fuels seems on track: Electric cars populate highways while energy from wind, solar and water provides much of the power for homes and businesses. Then it gets hot, and everyone in the nation’s most populous state turns on their air conditioners at the same time. That’s when California has come close to running out of power in recent years, especially in the early evenings when electricity from solar is not as abundant. Now, Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to buy massive amounts of renewable energy to help keep the lights on. The idea is to use the state’s purchasing power to convince private companies to build largescale power plants that run off of heat from underground sites and strong winds blowing off the coast — the kinds of power that utility companies have not been buying because it’s too expensive and would take too long to build. Demand for electricity in California has increased as the state takes step to move away from fossil fuels, including banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. California will need to add about 40 gigawatts of new power over the next 10 years, according to the California Independent Systems Operator, which manages the state’s power grid. One gigawatt is enough to power about 750,000 homes.
https://apnews.com/article/california-blackouts-wind-geothermal-energy-fd6e382afd43c3e88d8a35a8dc22578f
Oroville olive rancher will speak at state ag board meeting [Chico Enterprise-Record]
Grants of approximately $33 million from the federal government will be the topic of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture’s meeting Tuesday. The board will discuss the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure grant program at the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s main auditorium at 1220 N St. in Sacramento. The meeting is scheduled to run from 10 a.m. until 2:30 p.m. Invited speakers include Jamie Johansson, an Oroville olive grower who’s also president of the California Farm Bureau Federation; Tricia Kovacs, USDA Agricultural Marketing Service; Trish Kelly, Valley Vision; Tim Johnson, California Rice Commission; Emily Rooney; Agricultural Council of California; Michael Dimock, Roots of Change; Paul Towers, Community Alliance of Family Farmers, and other invited speakers. The RFSI will assist states in building resilience in the middle-of-the-supply-chain and strengthen local and regional food systems by creating new revenue streams for producers.
https://www.chicoer.com/2023/05/31/oroville-olive-rancher-will-speak-at-state-ag-board-meeting/
Supreme Court scales back clean water protections. What does it mean for California? [Los Angeles Times]
The Supreme Court’s landmark decision scaling back federal protections for many wetlands and streams has drawn criticism from scientists and environmental advocates, who say the gutting of safeguards will jeopardize water quality throughout the arid West. California’s water regulators say the ruling will be harmful for protections nationwide, but the more stringent state protections of wetlands won’t be affected. The Times spoke with Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, about the potential effects of limiting federal protections under the Clean Water Act and how the board will continue to regulate wetlands and streams under the state’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act. Esquivel stressed that because more than 90% of California’s wetlands have already been drained and destroyed, strong protections for those that remain are vital. He said California’s stringent protections will continue to safeguard wetlands and streams, even as the court’s decision narrows the authority of the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. One of the biggest areas of concern is the Colorado River, he said. The ruling will put at risk water quality in intermittent streams and wetlands that feed the river. That could affect quality — and treatment costs — for one of Southern California’s major water sources.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-05-28/what-does-supreme-court-water-decision-mean-for-california
California overtime law threatens use of grazing goats to prevent wildfires [Associated Press]
Hundreds of goats munch on long blades of yellow grass on a hillside next to a sprawling townhouse complex. They were hired to clear vegetation that could fuel wildfires as temperatures rise this summer.
These voracious herbivores are in high demand to devour weeds and shrubs that have proliferated across California after a drought-busting winter of heavy rain and snow. Targeted grazing is part of California’s strategy to reduce wildfire risk because goats can eat a wide variety of vegetation and graze in steep, rocky terrain that’s hard to access. Backers say they’re an eco-friendly alternative to chemical herbicides or weed-whacking machines that are make noise and pollution. But new state labor regulations are making it more expensive to provide goat-grazing services, and herding companies say the rules threaten to put them out of business. The changes could raise the monthly salary of herders from about $3,730 to $14,000, according to the California Farm Bureau. Companies typically put about one herder in charge of 400 goats. Many of the herders in California are from Peru and live in employer-provided trailers near grazing sites. Labor advocates say the state should investigate the working and living conditions of goatherders before making changes to the law, especially since the state is funding goat-grazing to reduce wildfire risk.
https://apnews.com/article/california-wildfires-goats-overtime-labor-farmworkers-3a547a83a0d94bd2db0a52cf2831daf5
Audit finds California water agency not adequately considering climate change in forecasts [Los Angeles Times]
The state auditor has issued a report strongly criticizing the California Department of Water Resources, saying the agency has overestimated the state’s water supply during drought and continues relying on forecasts that don’t adequately factor in the effects of climate change. The report by State Auditor Grant Parks said the Department of Water Resources has “made only limited progress” in improving its water-supply forecasts to account for climate change, despite acknowledging more than a decade ago that it needed to improve its forecasting methods. The audit also concluded that DWR “has not developed a comprehensive, long-term plan” for the State Water Project, the system that delivers water from Northern California to Southern California and supplies almost 27 million Californians, to proactively respond to more severe droughts. The auditor said that in 2021, amid the driest three-year period on record, DWR significantly overestimated the state’s water supply.
https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2023-05-27/audit-finds-problems-in-how-california-manages-water
California’s largest property insurer halts new home policies due to wildfire risk, rising costs [San Francisco Chronicle]
State Farm, California’s largest property and casualty insurer as of 2021, stopped issuing new home, business and casualty insurance policies in the state Saturday, citing wildfire risks and rising construction costs. In a statement issued Friday, the company said it made the decision “due to historic increases in construction costs outpacing inflation, rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, and a challenging reinsurance market.” The state has suffered increasingly massive and destructive wildfires in recent years, leading to scarcer and more expensive insurance policies in wildfire-prone zones. California has banned insurance companies from dropping homeowners in certain ZIP codes and issuing non-renewals for policies following wildfire emergency declarations as the state is scrambling to preserve insurance for its residents. The state also doubled coverage limits under the Fair Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort for homeowners and renters who can’t get coverage elsewhere, to $3 million in recent years.
https://www.sfchronicle.com/california-wildfires/article/state-farm-stops-california-home-insurance-18122670.php
They were designed to be safer: How de-horned cows created at UC Davis were doomed [San Jose Mercury News]
Every year, millions of beef cattle are born without horns, a trait that naturally emerged in Scottish pastures in the 16th century and has since spared many lives from goring. But when UC Davis created horn-free dairy cattle — through gene-editing, rather than generations of routine breeding — federal regulators did not welcome the new bovines to the herd. Under rigorous federal rules established in the early years of the genomic revolution, and upheld during the Obama administration, genetically modified animals are considered to be a new type of veterinary pharmaceutical, needing FDA approval. Without it, meat and milk can’t enter the food supply. As a result, the nine cows — and the experiment — are now dead, burned, at a cost of $1,200 each. “It was a waste. There wasn’t any risk,” said animal geneticist and professor Alison Van Eenennaam of UC Davis, who spent seven years on the project. “Basically, they were an unapproved drug.” Charged with protecting consumer health, the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine requires that anything that potentially affects the structure or function of a food animal, including a genetic change, be considered a veterinary drug. The rule applies even if the trait improves animal welfare, exists in other animals of the same species, and creates animals that are indistinguishable from ones created by conventional breeding.
https://www.mercurynews.com/2023/05/29/they-were-designed-to-be-safer-how-de-horned-cows-were-doomed/
Judge says fire retardant drops are polluting streams but allows use to continue [Associated Press]
The U.S. government can keep using chemical retardant dropped from aircraft to fight wildfires, despite finding that the practice pollutes streams in western states in violation of federal law, a judge ruled Friday. Halting the use of the red slurry material could have resulted in greater environmental damage from wildfires, said U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen in Missoula, Montana. The judge agreed with U.S. Forest Service officials who said dropping retardant into areas with waterways was sometimes necessary to protect lives and property. The ruling came after came after environmentalists sued following revelations that the Forest Service dropped retardant into waterways hundreds of times over the past decade. Government officials say chemical fire retardant can be crucial to slowing the advance of dangerous blazes.
https://apnews.com/article/wildfires-retardant-pollution-judge-c34fd1723c0f91628416bdfe6abb6809
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