Agriculture
Agriculture
Win-win for farmers, communities in Colorado River agreement
Films like How the West was Won, teach viewers conquering the West was, and still is, about taming the landscape and the people in it. However, the true winning of the West is about maintaining access to clean, fresh water. The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) and the U.S. Bureau of ...
Pam Lewison
October 2, 2024
Agriculture
Capping food prices will not fix grocery bills
Since the beginning of COVID, there has been a great deal of discussion about the supply chain but there is still not widespread understanding of how complex the system is. In the case of the food supply chain, there are several stops between the farm gate and a consumer’s plate. ...
Pam Lewison
September 30, 2024
Agriculture
Read the latest on the Harris grocery price gouging plan
Kamala Harris is wrong. The ‘California Way,’ not corporate greed, hikes grocery prices
Harris is right: we’re paying more at the grocery store these days. According to the Federal Reserve, food prices are up about 20 percent compared to when Harris became vice president. But when looking for a culprit for rising food prices, economists suggest Harris should look in the mirror – ...
Kerry Jackson and Tim Anaya
August 29, 2024
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 ...
Pam Lewison
August 13, 2024
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 ...
Pam Lewison
August 6, 2024
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 ...
Pam Lewison
August 1, 2024
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 ...
Pam Lewison
June 4, 2024
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 ...
Pam Lewison
May 15, 2024
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 ...
Pam Lewison
May 8, 2024
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 ...
Pam Lewison
March 28, 2024
Win-win for farmers, communities in Colorado River agreement
Films like How the West was Won, teach viewers conquering the West was, and still is, about taming the landscape and the people in it. However, the true winning of the West is about maintaining access to clean, fresh water. The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) and the U.S. Bureau of ...
Capping food prices will not fix grocery bills
Since the beginning of COVID, there has been a great deal of discussion about the supply chain but there is still not widespread understanding of how complex the system is. In the case of the food supply chain, there are several stops between the farm gate and a consumer’s plate. ...
Read the latest on the Harris grocery price gouging plan
Kamala Harris is wrong. The ‘California Way,’ not corporate greed, hikes grocery prices
Harris is right: we’re paying more at the grocery store these days. According to the Federal Reserve, food prices are up about 20 percent compared to when Harris became vice president. But when looking for a culprit for rising food prices, economists suggest Harris should look in the mirror – ...
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 ...