Agriculture Daily News March 11

San Francisco school officials are looking at ways to encourage more poor students to accept government-financed meals, including the possibility of introducing cashless cafeterias where all students are offered the same food choices and use debit cards or punch in codes on a keypad so that all students check out at the cashier in the same manner. Only 37 percent of eligible high school students citywide take advantage of the subsidized meal program. But the stigma of accepting a government lunch, while others are paying for food from a different menu, is not unique to San Francisco. It is a problem many school districts across the country have been quietly confronting with mixed results, education and school nutrition officials said. NY Times 3/01/08

 

San Joaquin County's $143 million almond industry is off to a good start this year as the clear, warm weather and adequate supply of honeybees encourage successful pollination during the ongoing bloom season. CC Times 3/11/08

 

Chemists who tested drinking water from 20 utilities nationwide said they did not detect any contaminants at all at San Francisco's tap, despite news reports to the contrary. The American Waterworks Association Research Foundation tested 20 of the nation's water systems, including San Francisco's for 60 compounds found in medicines, household cleaners and cosmetics. "You guys have the best water that we tested. Period." SF Chronicle 3/11/08

 

The U.S. winter fresh-market vegetable and melon area for harvest, which covers January through March, is expected to decline by 3 percent from that of a year earlier, according to the USDA’s latest Vegetables and Melons Outlook. Southeast Farm Press 3/11/08

 

 

 

Transporation Daily News March 11

Environmentalists vowed to sue the Environmental Protection Agency on Monday after the agency found that air quality in the San Joaquin Valley met federal standards for airborne dust, smoke and soot. On Friday, the agency ruled the region's air was no longer plagued with excessive levels of PM-10 pollution, tiny airborne particles that are linked to asthma, bronchitis and heart problems. But environmental groups -- including three chapters of the Sierra Club and a group of physicians in the San Joaquin Valley -- say the EPA's data show that federal pollution standards were surpassed nine times from 2003 to 2006. CC Times 3/11/08

 

Riding a bicycle in the Bay Area is an increasingly deadly pastime. The number of bicyclists killed in collisions with motor vehicles has increased 28 percent over the past decade - from 18 to 23 deaths per year, according to a Chronicle analysis of data collected by the California Highway Patrol. That increase is despite a 22 percent drop in the number of regional bicycle accidents between 1997 and 2006, the last year for which complete statistics are available for the nine Bay Area counties. SF Chronicle 3/11/08

 

Transportation engineers say global warming will have a dire impact on the nation's roads, rails, bridges, subways and waterways. The National Research Council, in a report released today, sees heat-damaged expansion bridge joints and buckled rail tracks. The engineers also predict rising sea levels will flood coastal roadways and tunnels. AP 3/11/08

 

The agency charged with guiding the creation of a massive new transit center and tower in downtown San Francisco will hold another community meeting Monday to discuss the plans as they currently stand. The Transbay Joint Powers Authority (TJPA) will present plans currently under way for the hub, which many have compared to New York's Grand Central Station. The meeting is one in a series of community meetings being held in order to keep San Francisco residents informed about and involved with the new development. NBC11 3/11/08

 

California announced $394 million in funding for transit projects around the state, including cash for fuel cell and hybrid buses, as well as compressed natural gas buses and infrastructure. These are the first transit projects to be funded by Proposition 1B, a 2006 voter-approved $19.9 billion transportation bond pushed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cleantech 3/11/08

 

It took soaring prices and the fear of global warming to accomplish, but society may finally have started the long process of weaning itself off of oil. Within three years, the amount of ethanol blended into the gas Californians buy will rise by 66 percent. And Americans are buying less gasoline. The drop is small at the national level - just 0.9 percent in the past month - but any decline is considered rare. SF Chronicle 3/09/08

 

"On top of the shorter life expectancies are high rates of asthma, chronic lung disease and heart disease related to diesel particulate pollution. Nobody is laying all the pollution and the adverse environmental impacts at the feet of the port, but it generates an enormous amount of life-shortening pollution," said Dr. Anthony Iton, director of the Alameda County Public Health Department. During the last year, the port has been working with representatives of various community and environmental groups, and with regulatory agencies, to develop comprehensive plans on truck management and air pollution reduction. SF Chronicle 3/03/08

Agriculture Daily News March 10

A key federal advisory panel this week is expected to begin considering an unprecedented ban on salmon fishing in California in response to an alarming collapse of a signature fishery. McIsaac cautioned that the cause of the salmon collapse remains a mystery and that researchers have a list of 46 potential factors to investigate. That list includes everything from disease, hatchery problems and an increase in predators to water diversions and a possible connection between the salmon collapse and the Delta's ongoing ecological crisis. The fishery management council, which meets through Friday in Sacramento, is expected to discuss the California salmon collapse on Tuesday with the goal of proposing three options for the fishing season by the end of the week. CC Times 3/09/08

 

Less than two months after a mandatory 30 percent cutback in agricultural water deliveries, some Southern California growers have begun "stumping" hundreds of healthy, well-nurtured avocado trees, putting them out of production for the next one to three years to leave more water for the rest of their trees. Their actions represent the downside of a water deal between area farmers and the region's water wholesaler, the Metropolitan Water District. Over the years, thousands of farmers signed up for a program that gave them discounted water in return for their willingness to be first in line for a water cutback. CC Times 3/09/08

 

A five-month Associated Press investigation has determined that trace amounts of many of the pharmaceuticals we take to stay healthy are seeping into drinking water supplies, and a growing body of research indicates that this could harm humans. But people aren't the only ones who consume that water. There is more and more evidence that some animals that live in or drink from streams and lakes are seriously affected. Pharmaceuticals in the water are being blamed for severe reproductive problems in many types of fish. AP 3/10/08

 

Other findings in the report show water providers rarely disclose results of pharmaceutical screenings, unless pressed, the AP found. For example, the head of a group representing major California suppliers said the public "doesn't know how to interpret the information" and might be unduly alarmed. Also, anti-epileptic and anti-anxiety medications were detected in a portion of the treated drinking water for 18.5 million people in Southern California and a sex hormone was detected in the drinking water of San Francisco, California. CNN   3/10/08

 

Marin's six sewage-treatment agencies have been fined $681,000 for violations since 2000, with the biggest offenders being the Novato Sanitary District, fined $330,000 for 120 violations, and the Sausalito-Marin City Sanitary District, fined $237,000 for 78 violations. But whether merger of the 10 sewer agencies lining Richardson Bay is needed, or ballot measures to repair miles of aging, leaky pipes are necessary, officials agree more communication is imperative. Marin Independent Journal  3/10/08

 

At UC's honey bee research center, scientists are seeking to breed new strains of the immensely valuable insects , while others are probing the recently sequenced bee genome to understand the most important qualities conferred upon each tribe by its unique genetic heritage. The researchers are bent on improving the ability of the bees to pollinate the flowering fruit trees and vegetables that account for more than $35 billion a year in crop value for California, and right now they hope to understand and perhaps halt the spread of the disease called Colony Collapse Disorder that has devastated the hives of many professional beekeepers in California and across the country. SF Chronicle 3/10/08

 

Everywhere, the cost of food is rising sharply. Whether the world is in for a long period of continued increases has become one of the most urgent issues in economics. Many factors are contributing to the rise, but the biggest is runaway demand. The high growth rate means hundreds of millions of people are, for the first time, getting access to the basics of life, including a better diet. That jump in demand is helping to drive up the prices of agricultural commodities. American agricultural exports are expected to increase 23 percent this year to $101 billion, a record. The world’s grain stockpiles have fallen to the lowest levels in decades. NY Times 3/09/08

 

While the real estate meltdown is draining billions of dollars from the capital region's urban economy, area fields and orchards are yielding some of the richest harvests in decades. It's the flip side of the rising cost of food: As global trends ranging from the weak dollar to the modernization of Asia drive up prices in supermarkets, they also boost the value of each pound of walnuts and sack of rice harvested in the Sacramento Valley. Sacramento Bee 3/09/08

 

The company that makes one of the pesticides state officials are considering spraying over the Bay Area to fight the light brown apple moth is owned by a wealthy California agribusinessman who has been a generous contributor to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and other state officials. SF Chronicle 3/08/08

 

 

 

 

 

 

Transporation Daily News March 10

California is awarding $24 million to BART for earthquake retrofits and $15.6 million to AC Transit for 50 new buses in the first big payout for public transit from a 2006 state transportation ballot measure, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced Friday. Also, the Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will get $12.1 million to help create dedicated lanes for rapid transit buses along 4.3 miles of streets through downtown San Jose. CC Times 3/08/08

 

Leading academics and policy-makers gathered in Sacramento yesterday to discuss solutions to one of California's most pressing and controversial problems: how to meet infrastructure investment needs. The event, titled "Paying for Tomorrow's Infrastructure: Options and Strategies for Sustainable Financing," was hosted by The Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policy, which is based at the University of Southern California. Business Wire 3/07/08

 

A project expected to provide ferry service to more than 24,000 employees within a three-mile radius of Oyster Point Marina/Park is in limbo. The plan's progress hinges on the appointment of a five-member advisory board to the San Francisco Bay Area Water Emergency Transportation Authority, and that hasn't happened yet. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is expected to choose three people, while Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez are each expected to appoint a member, said Peter Grenell, general manager of the San Mateo County Harbor District. Inside Bay Area 3/10/08

 

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wants California to implement its own vehicle emission standards to fight global warming. At first glance, Congress might seem a likely ally in his efforts to overturn the Bush administration's refusal to let the state do so. But legislation to clear the way may fail for a reason that is close to home for Schwarzenegger -- his fellow California Republicans. Most GOP members of the state's congressional delegation are siding with the Bush administration in trying to keep states from imposing stricter regulations on greenhouse gas emissions than the federal government. Without bipartisan support from the state's representatives, the bill's proponents say, the measure's prospects are dim. LA Times 3/09/08

 

Despite decades of efforts to widen highways and move people from cars to transit, the Bay Area continues to strangle itself in congestion. An economic slowdown and rising gas prices might temporarily loosen the flow on the roads. But the trends are in the wrong direction:

-Bay Area residents drove an average 18 miles a day in 1990. Today, it's 21

-commutes take longer

-San Francisco's Muni and the East Bay's AC Transit both report less patronage

CC Times 3/09/08

 

The nation's busiest seaport could lose at least 3% of its cargo container business if it adopts a controversial proposal requiring shipping companies to employ the thousands of short-haul truck drivers who work on a contractual basis, a new study says. The analysis, conducted by Boston Consulting Group, said that "substantial diversions" of the Los Angeles port's business probably would shift to the neighboring port of Long Beach or to other harbors. LA Times 3/08/08

 

 

 

Transporation Daily News March 1-7

California's states rights battle against the Bush administration over global warming was free to move forward in federal court Friday, after the Environmental Protection Agency issued its long delayed justification for blocking the state's 2002 law curbing greenhouse emissions from cars and trucks. Stephen Johnson, administrator of the federal EPA, had written to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in December that he would refuse to grant a waiver of the Clean Air Act, normally a routine action, allowing the state to enact its own curbs on carbon dioxide and other planet-warming gases. But the agency had postponed publishing its written justification in the federal register, thus stalling the court case brought by 19 states and seven environmental groups. CC Times 3/01/08

 

Some "first steps" in cleaning the air wafting from the Port of Oakland into West Oakland were announced Monday when the Bay Area Air Quality District awarded $3.4 million to two programs that reduce diesel fumes at the port. One program involves installing electric power hookups at two berths at the port so that ships can turn off their diesel engines while unloading cargo. The second involves retrofitting 75 trucks that regularly drive in and out of the port with filters to collect diesel particulates from exhaust pipes. CC Times 3/04/08

 

Feinstein, who heads the Appropriations subcommittee that handles the EPA budget, held a hearing on the proposed budget Tuesday that quickly became a debate about California's bid to enforce tough emissions standards on vehicles. Johnson announced in December he would turn down the state's request for a waiver from the Clean Air Act to enforce its own standards -- which 16 other states want to adopt -- and on Friday he released a 47-page rationale for his decision. CC Times 3/05/08

The Environmental Protection Agency justified blocking California from cracking down on auto emissions by saying Friday that global warming is not unique to the state. The long-awaited analysis drew angry ridicule from environmentalists and officials in California and some of the dozen-plus other states that also want to implement the greenhouse gas emissions reductions sought by California. SF Chronicle 3/01/08

 

Traffic accidents cost Americans more than $164 billion a year, which is between two and three times as much as traffic congestion, according to a report released Wednesday by AAA. While many motorists tend to focus on fuel prices, commute times and delays, collisions are much more expensive than the $67.6 billion cost of congestion, the report said. CC Times 3/06/08

 

A crackdown on cheats who evade tolls by illegally using FasTrak lanes on Bay Area bridges is coming soon to your local toll booth. A regional bridge toll agency approved plans Wednesday for traffic officers to ticket drivers who use FasTrak lanes without transponders, collection agencies to hound them and agreements with other states to help penalize those with out-of-state license plates. CC Times 3/06/08

 

Nevada companies shipped 4 percent more goods out of the country in 2007 from a year earlier, totaling a record $5.7 billion in exports, a federal report released this week shows. While Nevada's exports pale in comparison with other states including California and New York, it marks the fifth straight year of increases, officials said, with Switzerland continuing as the leading destination primarily for gold mined in Nevada. Reno Gazette Journal 3/07/08

 

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) is formulating regulations that could affect the more than 1.5 million trucks and buses in use on California's roads, highways and farms. Given the millions of consumer and industrial goods and products delivered via truck each day in the state, these regulations threaten to have a profound, negative impact on the business community. What CARB is proposing to adopt are the nation's most stringent new emissions regulations that could also be the most costly and far-reaching rule that business has yet to face. CalChamber 3/07/08

 

Mayor Gavin Newsom signed into law Thursday a measure that he said will guarantee San Francisco's taxi fleet is converted to low-emission vehicles by 2011. SF Chronicle 3/07/08

 

The Bay Area's top seven transit agencies help prevent more than 2 million metric tons of greenhouse gases and save 251 million gallons of oil each year, according to a new report by a consumer-rights group. The California Public Interest Research Group, or CalPIRG, said its report - along with news Thursday that the cost of oil hit a record high of nearly $106 a barrel - should encourage more people to park their cars and hop on a bus or train. SF Chronicle 3/07/08

 

 

With the economy tumbling and ridership flattening, BART is facing a bleak financial picture next year, officials with the regional transit system warned Thursday. SF Chronicle 2/28/08

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agriculture Daily News March 1-7

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger laid out a sweeping plan to address statewide water problems and the environmental decline in the Delta in response to charges this week from incensed lawmakers who said he was moving unilaterally to build a controversial aqueduct. His letter to leading senators comes as state water officials plan in the coming weeks to take the first steps toward developing an environmental study of the aqueduct, a canal that would divert water around the Delta to large pumps that supply farms in the San Joaquin Valley and cities in the East Bay and Southern California. CC Times 3/01/08

 

The Navy must abide by limits on its sonar training off the Southern California coast because the exercises could harm dozens of species of whales and dolphins, a federal appeals court ruled. he 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a 108-page ruling rejecting the Navy's appeal of a preliminary injunction from a lower court that barred the use of high-powered sonar within 12 miles of the coast. The injunction also set other limits that could affect Navy training exercises scheduled to begin this month. CC Times 3/02/08

 

A sharp jump in prices for wheat -- now at record highs -- and flour has chewed up the profit at pizza parlors and bakeries in the East Bay and elsewhere. In January, Rocco Biale, principal owner of Rocco's Ristorante & Pizzeria, was paying about $14 for each 50-pound bag of flour his Walnut Creek restaurant uses to make pizza. This week, prices are up to about $28 a bag. CC Times 3/01/08

 

When California's raw milk dairies learned about new legislation tightening safety standards for their unpasteurized milk and cream, they -- alongside passionate raw milk devotees -- bitterly lobbied against mandates they thought would destroy their business. Now their fears are starting to be realized. State agriculture officials have temporarily banned the sale of raw cream from the Organic Pastures dairy in Fresno, citing bacteria levels of as much as 150 times the legal limit. CC Times 3/06/08

 

A review of Zabu Zabu, a new shabu shabu restaurant in Berkeley. CC Times 3/06/08

 

Federal lawmakers Thursday insisted that USDA food inspectors reveal the names of distributors, restaurants and school lunch programs that received 143 million pounds of beef recalled by a Chino meat-packing company. PE 3/07/08

 

he City Council this week gave City Attorney John Russo the go-ahead to work on a possible legal challenge to the state's plans for aerial spraying to eradicate the invasive light brown apple moth. The council's decision in Oakland came one week after Berkeley took similar action, and Russo said other Bay Area cities will be brought into the mix too.  Inside Bay Area 3/07/08

 

The light brown apple moth may not be the voracious crop threat portrayed by state and federal agricultural officials, according to some scientists who also warn that the aerial spraying of a pesticide over California's cities may turn out to be an expensive, unnecessary public relations nightmare doomed to fail. SF Chronicle 3/06/08

 

State wildlife officials warned fishermen Wednesday that salmon fishing will likely be severely restricted this year because of a precipitous decline in the number of wild chinook returning to spawn in the Central Valley. Officials with the California Department of Fish and Game met with fishermen to share the latest data on chinook salmon populations and solicit their views on possible restrictions this year—if any fishing is allowed at all. SJ Mercury 3/05/08

 

One of California's most precious natural resources -- its highly productive farmland – is being lost at an alarming rate. And, a new report from the American Farmland Trust says unless a different approach to land-use planning and development is adopted, another 2 million acres could be gone by midcentury. Central Valley Business Times 3/05/08

 

California wineries tallied record export revenue last year even as they shifted to lower-priced offerings, a sign that the state's industry is well-positioned in an increasingly competitive global market, analysts said. Total U.S. wine exports rose 8.6 percent, to $951 million, according to trade data released Friday by the Wine Institute, an industry group. Sales were strongest in Canada and several East Asian countries, where revenue jumped 20 percent or more. Sacramento Bee 3/01/08

 

 

 

 

 

 

Agriculture Daily News 2/29

Alameda County residents will soon be voting by mail on a request to increase the amount they shell out to battle mosquitoes. A March ballot measure will ask voters to raise an Alameda County Mosquito Abatement District special tax, which currently costs homeowners $1.74 per year, to a maximum of $5 per year. The Hayward-based agency and its 13 employees seek and eliminate mosquitoes from breeding sites. They test and monitor for diseases carried by mosquitoes, including West Nile virus. CC Times 2/29/08

 

A coalition of business and farming groups said Thursday it is dropping plans to put a water bond initiative before voters on the November ballot. The group said it instead will work with Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein to negotiate a compromise that can be passed this year by the state Legislature. CC Times 2/29/08

 

The Humane Society of the United States says caged chickens suffer – and it's gathering signatures to put a measure on the November 2008 ballot that would make California the first state to ban barns outfitted like this one. The proposal, which would take effect in 2015, rides an international wave of opposition to farm-animal confinement. The European Union is already in the process of phasing cages out altogether by 2012, and in the past two years dozens of food-industry trendsetters, from Ben & Jerry's to Burger King, have pledged to buy some or even all of their eggs from hens raised cage-free. Sacramento Bee 2/29/08

 

The agriculture secretary on Thursday resisted calls from Democratic senators for a complete ban on so-called downer cattle -- those unable to walk -- from entering the food supply. In the wake of the largest beef recall in U.S. history, Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer announced new steps to ensure the safety of the country's meat supply, including more random inspections of slaughterhouses and immediate audits of the 23 plants that supply meat for federal programs, primarily school lunches. CC Times 2/29/08

 

Tourists sipping their way up the 30-mile valley from the city of Napa to Calistoga may never see this other Napa Valley. But the celebrated Wine Country is proof that there are few places in the nation left unsmacked by the housing crisis. Beautiful Napa is experiencing foreclosures, plunging housing prices, unheard of drops in home sales and the nervous sense of foreboding that has spread across the country. CC Times 2/29/08

 

Despite stalled negotiations with Democrats on a comprehensive water plan, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger intends to move forward on studies of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, including a controversial canal, as well as call for a 20 percent per capita reduction in statewide water use, according to a letter he sent Thursday to Senate Democrats. Sacramento Bee 2/29/08

 

San Francisco diners are renowned for their discerning culinary tastes. Now people in the city could get to know their food even better. A Board of Supervisors committee has forwarded to the full board an ordinance that would require chain restaurants to post nutritional information in their menus and on menu boards. The board is expected to pass the proposal. SF Chronicle 2/29/08

 

Officials warned Thursday that a total closure of commercial and recreational salmon fishing may be needed this year to protect dwindling Sacramento River fall-run chinook populations. In a preseason report, the Pacific Fishery Management Council offered data showing the 2007 Sacramento fall run reached its lowest level in 37 years of recordkeeping. The report largely confirms data leaked to the media last month. Sacramento Bee 2/29/08

 

Recent storms have boosted southern Sierra Nevada snowpacks, raising hopes for many farmers who saw their water deliveries slashed last year. Fresno Bee 2/29/08

 

California sued the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday over plans that would open more than 500,000 acres to roads and oil drilling in the state's largest national forests. The four Southern California forests -- Los Padres, Angeles, San Bernardino and Cleveland -- comprise more than 3.5 million acres that stretch from Big Sur to the Mexican border. LA Times 2/29/08