Now that the growing season is back in swing,
Ag Alert, the publication of the California Farm Bureau, is back in stride with some interesting articles.
Ag Alert is sent to most farmers in the state has a definite political bent, and has stories that you won't find in the mainstream press.
There have been several diaries about the bee crisis on Daily Kos. Bees are essential to agriculture throughout the United States - without them, many important crops will fail completely. Because of Colony Collapse Disorder, the city yokels among us have gotten a crash education in the economics of bees and how valuable each colony is. This article, about Queen Bees, tells the story of a Shasta County family that raises bees for beekeepers.
The Wootens are among the largest of a small colony of queen bee breeders in the world. Their domestic counterparts are in the Sacramento Valley and San Diego County, as well as Texas, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Hawaii. Outside of America, large queen bee breeding operations are found in Australia, Argentina and Spain.
The process of giving nature a helping hand, and producing a queen bee that wins the genetic lottery, makes splitting the atom seem simple. It's an ever-evolving, complex art form that blends modern science with processes started by Homer Park and other trailblazers from earlier generations.
"There are texts written from way back that are the groundwork of what these people are doing," said University of California bee expert Eric Mussen. "It's also an evolving thing. Bee breeders don't keep records and lineages similar to the ones for other livestock. Every few years when a queen wears out, there's a good deal of examination and selection to find a new one."
The queen bee is vital to the colony for two reasons: She is the source of all of the eggs, and all of the offspring come from her genes and the drones she mates with.
Bees are something I have always taken for granted, but there's a lot of specialized knowledge that we all depend on to keep our economy alive.
Immigration is of course in the news this week, and it's a key issue for California farmers. Of course, what farmers want is a reliable source of cheap but temporary labor, so that they can pay for people to pick their crop and then forget about them. And, in turn, food consumers benefit as well with cheaper prices for produce. With the crackdown on illegal laborers that has been happening over the past year, many crops have gone unpicked in the past year because no one could be found to harvest them in time. Although these jobs are portrayed as unskilled labor, indeed they are specialty jobs - how many of you know how to safely climb a 16' ladder and pick pears, or how to thin a fruit tree for maximum commercial value?
In California, a big trend is to make harvesting machines and use them whenever possible. The machines are easier to schedule and don't need to wait in line at ICE, though they are expensive.
Farmers seem to be in support of the current bill and its guest worker provisions, but I'm sure there's much division on it, as there is in the general population.
The 2007 Farm Bill is another topic that's been simmering under the radar here at Daily Kos. The Farm Bill is one of the reasons that corn, and anything manufactured from corn, is so cheap. Did you ever wonder why you can buy a Twinkie, which is highly manufactured and depends on a fair amount of energy, machinery, and labor once it leaves the field, for less than a pound of apples, which literally just grow on trees? Thank the Farm Bill, a ubiquitous piece of legislation that subsidizes certain staple crops but not fresh fruits and vegetables. The Farm Bill is due for renewal this year and there's a lot of jockeying about what will change. California, as a primary producer of specialty crops, does not benefit from many subsidies in the current bill, and so of course the CFBF is looking for support for helping consumers to buy more fresh fruits and vegetables. I am pleased to see, though, that their focus is more on getting money for research and for pest control programs rather than direct crop subsidies, as has been the soul of this legislation in the past.
Expansion of conservation programs to benefit California's working farmlands to encourage the following:
* Reducing greenhouse gases: Many existing farm practices reduce greenhouse gases. These practices should be further encouraged with the creation of programs that foster the emergence of market opportunities for trading and reducing greenhouse gas emissions on farms and ranches.
* Improving air quality: CFBF supports mandatory new funding available to growers to meet air quality standards, as described in the Eat Healthy Foods Act.
* Excluding conservation program payments from adjusted gross income limitation to expand participation of California producers.
Expand nutritional programs that encourage better nutrition and greater consumption of all U.S.-grown products:
* Provide new mandatory funding of an additional $500 million over 10 years for the purchasing of all fruits and vegetables.
* Expansion of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's fresh fruit and vegetable snack program to be expanded to 100 schools in each state.
Implement mandatory COOL:> Country of Origin Labeling (COOL) provides consumers with the tools and resources to make informed purchasing decisions about where their food is grown.
Expand energy resource opportunities that utilize agricultural byproducts:
* $1.6 billion for research and further development of cellulosic biofuels and biomethane, focusing on regional feedstock supplies.
Strengthen pest and disease exclusion programs: The authority for pest and disease exclusion and detection programs at U.S. points of entry should be restored to USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, instead of maintaining it under the Department of Homeland Security. In addition, authority should be given to the secretary of food and agriculture to access Community Credit Corporation funds for emergency eradication programs.
Increase trade promotion and development: Increase funding for the Market Access Program to $325 million and programs that allow California producers to tackle unfair non-tariff trade barriers.
Maintain the current planting prohibition: CFBF supports this long-standing Farm Bill provision as a fundamental matter of equity among farmers. As long as some farmers receive federal payments, they should not be allowed to plant fruits and vegetables on that program acreage.
Maintain the current level of payment limits: California farmers are often targeted with restrictive payment limits, but with higher land values, greater economies of scale and higher production costs, California should not be penalized when arbitrary limits are set.
Increase research funding to focus on new technologies and mechanization for crops:
* Creation of the Specialty Crops and Policy Research Institute.
* Mandatory funding of $2.3 million for four USDA-Agricultural Research Service scientists in California to specialize in water/air quality issues as they relate to dairy and forage production.
Other California Farm Bureau commentary on the Farm Bill
I am pleasantly surprised by this list, which happens to align better with the interest of consumers than past farm bills. In particular, the issue of Country of Origin Labelling (COOL), which Congress has fought, gains special importance with the latest revelations of food ingredients from China containing melamine and other contaminants.
I hope you have enjoyed this snippet of farm news. I find reading Ag Alert to give me a useful perspective on news of our food supply before it reaches us, and I think it's valuable for all of us to understand both the issues and propaganda in front of farmers on a daily basis.