Pam Lewison
Agriculture
Broccoli does not occur in nature, we should still eat it
“I only eat things that are natural.” “This color doesn’t occur in nature.” These are common arguments for why people should eat produce grown and labeled as “non-GMO” or “organic.” While there is certainly room in the market for these forms of agriculture, we should be careful about believing they ...
Agriculture
Balance between farms, fish needs to be found for food production
“Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink,” wrote Samuel Taylor Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. California’s farmers are feeling a similar sentiment this year with water allotments cut shorter than expected after a winter with abundant rain and snow. California is the produce basket of ...
Agriculture
Wildfires need more than money thrown at them to put the flames out
It has been an extraordinary year for California fires. The Park Fire currently raging as of this writing in Butte and Tehama Counties has destroyed nearly 300 homes and businesses and remains just 18 percent contained. More than 200,000 acres of have burned so far, well above the five-year average ...
Agriculture
Sonoma County Measure Would Put Animal Lives at Risk
There are nearly three times as many laying hens in Sonoma County as there are people. In a testament to the care area poultry farmers give to their livestock, many of the farms are multi-generational members of the county community. Yet, a ballot measure largely funded by animal activist group ...
Agriculture
Prop 12: Implementation aftereffects are just now becoming apparent
Under Proposition 12, veal calves must be provided 43 square feet of floor space, laying hens must be afforded 1 to 1.5 square feet of cage-free space either indoors or outdoors, and breeding pigs (sows) must be provided at least 24 square feet of space in a pen without touching ...
Agriculture
May is National Mental Health Month
Mental health should take center stage in rural communities
Recent data highlighting the loss of farms and ranches throughout the United States in the Census of Agriculture from the United States Department of Agriculture should bring particular attention to the stressors in rural communities. To put the national losses in perspective, the U.S. lost an average of 545 farms ...
Agriculture
Read latest about war on agriculture
Solution to CA’s farm loss is through proactively working with ag community
The U.S. Census of Agriculture shows a distinct acceleration of farm losses between 2007 and 2022. Yet, farms are not altogether disappearing in California. According to census data released earlier this spring, there was a peak in the number of farms reported in California in 2007 with 81,033 recorded. In ...
Agriculture
Proposed H-2A rule changes will make the program more difficult for everyone
In 2022, California’s agricultural employers hired 44,400 farmworkers through the H-2A visa program. The number of people hired through the program equates to about 12 percent of the total number of farmworkers hired through the visa program for the entire United States that year. Farmworkers with H-2A visas are temporary ...
Agriculture
Read about latest unworkable green mandate
New paper highlights the troubles with one-size-fits-all ag solutions
The Green New Deal, or the Inflation Reduction Act as it’s been rebranded, call for the installation of green or buffer zones on farms to act as wildland spaces for wild plants and animals. Legacy farms and ranches often already have those things in place. For example, our family farm ...
Agriculture
Learn about latest California green mandate
‘Build it and they will come’ is not the answer for climate change legislation
The trouble with severely limiting packaging to what can be recycled or composted is, according to the Covered Materials Category List that was developed under the requirements SB 343, most packaging materials cannot be recycled or composted. Phasing out single-use food packaging, which is harmful to the environment, is a ...
Broccoli does not occur in nature, we should still eat it
“I only eat things that are natural.” “This color doesn’t occur in nature.” These are common arguments for why people should eat produce grown and labeled as “non-GMO” or “organic.” While there is certainly room in the market for these forms of agriculture, we should be careful about believing they ...
Balance between farms, fish needs to be found for food production
“Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink,” wrote Samuel Taylor Coleridge in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. California’s farmers are feeling a similar sentiment this year with water allotments cut shorter than expected after a winter with abundant rain and snow. California is the produce basket of ...
Wildfires need more than money thrown at them to put the flames out
It has been an extraordinary year for California fires. The Park Fire currently raging as of this writing in Butte and Tehama Counties has destroyed nearly 300 homes and businesses and remains just 18 percent contained. More than 200,000 acres of have burned so far, well above the five-year average ...
Sonoma County Measure Would Put Animal Lives at Risk
There are nearly three times as many laying hens in Sonoma County as there are people. In a testament to the care area poultry farmers give to their livestock, many of the farms are multi-generational members of the county community. Yet, a ballot measure largely funded by animal activist group ...
Prop 12: Implementation aftereffects are just now becoming apparent
Under Proposition 12, veal calves must be provided 43 square feet of floor space, laying hens must be afforded 1 to 1.5 square feet of cage-free space either indoors or outdoors, and breeding pigs (sows) must be provided at least 24 square feet of space in a pen without touching ...
May is National Mental Health Month
Mental health should take center stage in rural communities
Recent data highlighting the loss of farms and ranches throughout the United States in the Census of Agriculture from the United States Department of Agriculture should bring particular attention to the stressors in rural communities. To put the national losses in perspective, the U.S. lost an average of 545 farms ...
Read latest about war on agriculture
Solution to CA’s farm loss is through proactively working with ag community
The U.S. Census of Agriculture shows a distinct acceleration of farm losses between 2007 and 2022. Yet, farms are not altogether disappearing in California. According to census data released earlier this spring, there was a peak in the number of farms reported in California in 2007 with 81,033 recorded. In ...
Proposed H-2A rule changes will make the program more difficult for everyone
In 2022, California’s agricultural employers hired 44,400 farmworkers through the H-2A visa program. The number of people hired through the program equates to about 12 percent of the total number of farmworkers hired through the visa program for the entire United States that year. Farmworkers with H-2A visas are temporary ...
Read about latest unworkable green mandate
New paper highlights the troubles with one-size-fits-all ag solutions
The Green New Deal, or the Inflation Reduction Act as it’s been rebranded, call for the installation of green or buffer zones on farms to act as wildland spaces for wild plants and animals. Legacy farms and ranches often already have those things in place. For example, our family farm ...
Learn about latest California green mandate
‘Build it and they will come’ is not the answer for climate change legislation
The trouble with severely limiting packaging to what can be recycled or composted is, according to the Covered Materials Category List that was developed under the requirements SB 343, most packaging materials cannot be recycled or composted. Phasing out single-use food packaging, which is harmful to the environment, is a ...
