Oak Fire live updates: ‘Extreme’ wildfire surpasses 15,500 acres, crews race to halt spread
The massive Oak Fire has burned an estimated 15,603 acres as of 7 p.m. Sunday, an increase of 1,322 acres since morning, Cal Fire officials said during their evening briefing at the Mariposa County High School. The fire, which remains at 0% containment, has destroyed 10 structures and damaged five since it erupted Friday afternoon in the Midpines area, near Highway 140 and Carstens Road. Around 3,800 residents have been evacuated from their homes, according to Mariposa County Sheriff’s Office. No severe injuries or deaths have been reported. “The reason we’re still showing at 0% contained, there is hot ash, hot trees still throwing stuff over the line causing us concern,” said Mike van Loben Sels, Cal Fire Madera/Mariposa/Merced unit chief.
Feds suing poultry producers over unfair worker practices
The Justice Department is expected to file a lawsuit against some of the largest poultry producers in the U.S. along with a proposed settlement seeking to end what it claims have been longstanding deceptive and abusive practices for workers. The suit is being filed in federal court in Maryland naming Cargill, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms, along with a data consulting company known as Weber, Meng, Sahl and Co., according to three people familiar with the matter. The people could not publicly discuss the specific details of the suit before the filing was made public and spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. In its lawsuit, the Justice Department alleges the companies have been engaged in a multiyear conspiracy to exchange information about the wages and benefits of workers at poultry processing plants to drive down employee competition in the marketplace. The government contends the data consulting firm helped to share the information about the workers’ compensation with the companies and their executives, the people said. By carrying out the scheme, officials allege, the companies were able to compete less intensely for workers and reduce the amount of money and benefits they had to offer their employees, suppressing competition for poultry processing workers across the board.
California’s strawberry fields may not be forever. Could robots help?
In a strawberry field surrounded by strawberry fields on the outskirts of Santa Maria, a team of robots has been picking berries all summer. Each robot, made by a Colorado company called Tortuga AgTech, trundles between the elevated beds on rugged wheels, then stops in front of a plant. An articulated arm maneuvers its sensor array among the leaves; machine vision software scours the sensor data in search of ripe berries. Since hitting this field in May, the robots are on their way to picking nearly as many berries as human pickers, and with 95% accuracy, according to Tortuga. The grower paying for the work backs up that claim. Tortuga’s pitch to growers is a subscription model that charges them a flat cost per robot-picked box of strawberries at a rate comparable to human worker wages. Unlike a human, the Tortuga bot doesn’t need breaks, can’t get sick, is always ready to work, and can pick all day and into the night. For the time being, human crews still come in after the robots for a periodic cleanup pick.
Trucker blockade ends at Oakland Port, protesters see no movement on labor law
Fruit, nuts, and wine are again flowing through the Port of Oakland after truckers quietly ended a multi-day blockade over the weekend amid a crackdown on protesters by port authorities.
The protest put a choke hold on the port, delaying Central Valley agricultural exports at one of the West Coast’s largest shipping hubs and sending jitters through global supply chains. But on Monday the truckers, who are not backed by a union, largely returned to work as they now face the possibility of arrest for blockading the port and hope to recoup days of lost income. The self-employed truckers have no conflict with the port. But they successfully held the cargo flow captive for days as they called on Gov. Gavin Newsom to amend AB 5, a controversial labor law that would require about 70,000 truckers and other independent contractors to register as employees. While the blockade ended without any concessions from key lawmakers and Newsom doubled down on his commitment to enforcing AB 5, the Port of Oakland promised to act as a liaison between the independent trucking community and Sacramento.
Firefighters slow growth of California blaze near Yosemite
Firefighters have significantly slowed the spread of a huge wildfire burning in a forest near Yosemite National Park that burned 55 homes and other buildings and forced thousands from their homes. “It was a successful day for aircraft and firefighters, resulting in minimal growth on the fire. Helicopters dropped 300,000 gallons of water on the fire. Crews continue to construct control lines and extinguish hot spots along existing lines,” said a Monday night report by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire. Thousands of residents from mountain communities were still under evacuation orders Monday while smoke from the fire drifted more than 200 miles (322 kilometers), reaching Lake Tahoe, parts of Nevada, and the San Francisco Bay Area, officials said. “It’s been just horrendous with the air quality,” said Kim Zagaris, an advisor with the Western Fire Chiefs Association, which maps wildfires across the country. More than 2,500 firefighters with aircraft support were battling the blaze, known as the Oak Fire, that erupted last Friday southwest of the park, near the town of Midpines in Mariposa County. Officials described “explosive fire behavior” on Saturday as flames made runs through bone-dry vegetation caused by the worst drought in decades.
‘That’s how people die in wildfires’: How Wine Country’s fancy new resorts could increase fire risk
In the early hours of Napa Valley’s 2020 Glass Fire, luxury resort Calistoga Ranch burned to the ground. Less than 24 hours later and 7 miles south, Napa’s most famous resort, Meadowood Napa Valley, also caught fire, leaving its three-Michelin-starred restaurant in ashes. It was the third round of devastating wildfires to hit Napa and Sonoma since 2017, and the region has been in a constant state of rebuilding. But wildfires have not slowed new development, especially when it comes to lodging. Three new Wine Country resorts opened in Napa and Sonoma after the Glass Fire’s incursion: the Montage in Healdsburg, the Four Seasons in Calistoga and Stanly Ranch on the southern end of Napa. Another upscale Healdsburg hotel, Appellation from chef Charlie Palmer, is slated to open in 2023. Environmental experts say that such development greatly increases the risk of wildfires, yet visitor demand in Wine Country is high. Some of these resorts have undertaken exhaustive and expensive fire mitigation measures to protect their properties and guests, but it might not be enough.
Trailblazing California civil rights lawyer to retire after decades fighting for farmworkers
Jose Padilla devoted his career to serving low-income and immigrant communities at California Rural Legal Assistance, a nonprofit law firm serving low-income residents of California’s rural areas. He joined the organization in 1978 and six years later, he became executive director. He remained in the position for 38 years, leading 17 offices and 75 attorneys across the state. Under Padilla, the legal aid organization pushed for the passage of the Immigration Control and Reform Act of 1986, created new programs to assist Indigenous farmworkers, and led the defense of sexually harassed farmworker women that brought multi-million-dollar settlements. Now, Padilla plans to retire in December. CRLA board members will conduct a national search to select the next executive director.
California too slow to help Valley communities with tainted drinking water, auditor says
California’s state auditor blasted the agency responsible for helping poor communities fix their tainted water systems Tuesday, saying it has tied up the process in red tape and forced nearly 1 million residents to wait months or years for help. Acting State Auditor Michael Tilden said the State Water Resources Control Board takes an average of 33 months to approve grants and loans requested by these communities to clean up water systems contaminated by excess amounts of nitrate, arsenic, and other dangerous chemicals. Four years ago, the process took half as long. Tilden’s report highlights a chronic problem afflicting hundreds of small, mostly rural communities in California, mainly in the Central Valley — a shortage of safe drinking water. The Sacramento Bee reported in 2018 that tens of thousands of Californians were stuck with contaminated, unhealthy supplies. The auditor noted that the problem gets worse with drought.
Barbara Intermill, On Nutrition: Is going meat-free the answer to climate change?
When it comes to climate change, are cows as bad as cars? Probably not, says Dr. Frank Mitloehner, University of California, Davis researcher and air quality specialist. He asserts that meat and dairy animals are not major drivers of climate change and they might well be part of the solution. People have many reasons to limit or eliminate animal foods from their diet, Mitloehner explains, “but if curbing climate change is one of them, they are being deceived by misinformation that puts undue blame on animal agriculture. In reality, it is the burning of fossil fuels that poses the biggest threat to our planet." We need to take steps to lower all greenhouse gas emissions, says Mitloehner. But by far, the most pressing is C02, which accounted for 79% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States in 2020, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Methane from livestock, landfills, and rice production accounted for 11% of total emissions during the same period. Grazing animals — domesticated or wild — add carbon back to the soil.
Chemicals giant to cut production of key fertilizer ingredient Amid Russian gas crisis
BASF SE, BASFY -1.04%▼ one of the world’s largest chemicals companies, said it would reduce the production of fertilizer ingredient ammonia, as it seeks to curb its natural gas use after Russia throttled flows to Europe. Moscow began Wednesday reducing supplies via the Nord Stream pipeline, the largest Russian gas link to Europe, to around 20% of capacity. The reductions complicate the continent’s efforts to store enough gas ahead of winter, raising the specter for the industry of costly rationing. European Union members this week agreed to sweeping cuts to natural-gas consumption, calling for countries to voluntarily reduce their gas use by 15% from August. While BASF said that the ammonia output cuts won’t affect farmers this year, as they have bought enough fertilizer and the harvest is already taking place, issues might arise next year.
After decades of failure, California dusts off controversial Delta tunnel water project
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration revived the Delta tunnel project Wednesday, unveiling a downsized version of the controversial, multibillion-dollar plan to re-engineer the fragile estuary on Sacramento’s doorstep that serves as the hub of California’s over-stressed water-delivery network. After three years with little to no public activity, the state released an environmental blueprint for what’s now called the Delta Conveyance — a 45-mile tunnel that would divert water from the Sacramento River and route it under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta so that it can be shipped to farms and cities hundreds of miles away. Officials said the single-tunnel proposal, running roughly parallel to Interstate 5, is simpler and creates fewer disruptions than the twin-tunnel plan championed by former Gov. Jerry Brown. Newsom scrapped that plan within weeks of taking office in early 2019 and directed his administration to begin developing a Delta project with a smaller footprint. But the pitch Newsom’s team is making is much the same as the one Brown made: The project is needed to make the Bay Area and Southern California’s water supply more reliable while reducing the harm the current system inflicts on the estuary’s troubled ecosystem.
California farmers to get boost under federal-state plan to buy $43 million worth of food
The federal government will channel $43 million into efforts to purchase and distribute locally grown food from California’s underserved farmers and producers, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Wednesday in Woodland. Funds will be distributed through the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which was established this year to stabilize agricultural supply chains throughout the country. Through the new partnership between the USDA and California, a handful of state agencies will partner to buy food from local and underserved farms. Food will then be distributed to sources including schools and food banks. Vilsack introduced the partnership to members of the agricultural community and media on Wednesday at the Yolo Food Bank, which stores more than 10 million pounds of food annually from a network of grocers, farmers, and distributors
Water woes are biggest worry for Californians as drought drags on
As the drought punishing California drags on, water is a top — and growing — worry for residents of our parched state, outpacing wildfires and climate change, according to a new poll about environmental issues. With reservoirs and snowpack shrinking, Californians listed the state’s water supply as their number one environmental worry, with 68% of adults saying it’s a big problem — up from 63% a year ago. But while most have water on their minds, fewer than half said they have done a lot to reduce their water use, and 16% say they have done nothing. At the same time, people are pointing fingers at their neighbors — 69% of Californians said people in their area are not doing enough to conserve. “This is maybe one of the reasons they are so concerned about it,” said Mark Baldassare, president, and survey director for the Public Policy Institute of California, which conducted the poll earlier this month. “Because they know they’re going to be asked to do a lot more, and there are a lot of people who haven’t done a lot.”
California drought official quits, blasting Newsom for ‘gut wrenching’ inaction
In his time at the California State Water Resources Control Board, Max Gomberg has witnessed the state grapple with two devastating droughts and the accelerating effects of climate change. Now, after 10 years of recommending strategies for making California more water resilient, the board’s climate and conservation manager is calling it quits. The reason: He no longer believes Gov. Gavin Newsom and his administration are willing to pursue the sorts of transformational changes necessary in an age of growing aridification. In a resignation note posted online this month, Gomberg accused the governor of siding with defenders of the status quo and also faulted those in his agency who failed to push back. “Witnessing the agency’s ability to tackle big challenges nearly eviscerated by this Administration has been gut-wrenching,” Gomberg wrote.
Opinion: How environmental activists and reviews can worsen wildfires
Jonathan Wood: With more than three million acres already burned or burning, 2022 is shaping up to be another devastating year for wildfires in the U.S. America’s forests need to be managed more actively, a task the Biden administration took up earlier this year when it announced a 10-year strategy to reduce excess fire fuels, like downed trees and underbrush, on up to 20 million acres of national forest and 30 million acres of other land. This plan is a step in the right direction, but it’s unlikely to come to fruition if the administration doesn’t first tackle two major obstacles to forest restoration: environmental red tape and litigation. Projects to clear out fire fuel often face substantial delays. New research from the think tank where I work, the Property and Environment Research Center, found that it takes an average of 3.6 years for efforts to clear down, unhealthy, and too densely grown trees to move from the required environmental review to on-the-ground work. For prescribed burns, the delay is even longer, 4.7 years.
Joe Del Bosque: A farmer’s plea for more water
As I drive across my family’s farm in the San Joaquin Valley, it feels as if I’m traveling on a chessboard. I cross one square with crops and then another without crops — our fields that must lay fallow. Our farm’s crops have been decimated by the drought. On my 2,000-acre farm, we used to produce organic fruit and vegetables — melons, asparagus and sweet corn — in addition to cherries and almonds. Three years of unprecedented drought have altered our landscape. Last year we said goodbye to the asparagus and sweet corn. This year, we cut back on cherries. Next, we’ll reduce our almond acreage. Again and again, my wife and I have been forced to make a Sophie’s choice. She has the more difficult and wrenching task. I must choose which crops to cut back or eliminate. My wife, who manages our harvest teams, must decide which of the people who work for us will lose their jobs.
California drought is causing ranchers to sell off cattle which will have a lasting impact
California is on year three of one of the worst droughts in state history, and it’s hurting our farmers and ranchers. Jim Rickert owns Prather Ranch and has been ranching in the Northstate for more than five decades. He said this could be one of the worst droughts in his lifetime. “It’s been a cause of the significant problem for us,” Rickert said. “In some areas, we have an irrigation district there and our allotment from the state water district is zero. So zero is pretty hard to work with.” He said when people think about the drought they need to remember it goes beyond a lack of water. “We’re trying to preserve the herds, and the price of hay has doubled, so the feedstuff has really gone up,” Rickert. “And we don’t have as much hay being produced because we have all the drought ” Rickert said this has meant making some tough and emotional choices like the decision to sell off part of their herd.
Co-founders sue each other over future of local table grape breeder
An escalating legal battle among co-founders of a Bakersfield table-grape breeding company could have lasting implications for growers of Kern County's top crop. International Fruit Genetics LLC filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing co-founder Jack Pandol and his company, Shafter-based Grapery, of appropriating trade secrets to plan a competing operation with an unfair market advantage. Grapery's CEO denied the company used IFG's proprietary information as part of ongoing efforts to improve its market position. He called the suit retaliation for Grapery's success getting a July 15 injunction in Kern County Superior Court that temporarily halts IFG from selling its assets to a Spanish-owned food innovation company. At stake is more than how soon IFG sells. Pandol, as 25-percent owner of IFG and exclusive grower and marketer of its popular Cotton Candy variety of table grapes, says he is in danger of being unfairly cut out of his contractual, one-quarter share of the company's new product innovations. But IFG, which also breeds cherries, says Grapery has improperly leveraged Pandol's long influence at IFG, and his company's access to IFG's proprietary data, to kick off a new division that could take away the Bakersfield breeder's customers.
Editorial: Marin voters showed support for local agriculture
Marin voters overwhelmingly supported the continuation of the countywide parks and open space tax on the June 7 ballot. The 74.3% majority the county-sponsored measure received was a clear answer to critics, who focused their opposition on using public funds to further the good and important works of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust. The opposition ranged from some environmentalists calling for phasing out Marin’s dairies and ranches to those opposing taxpayer funding for land-rich property owners. For years, MALT has been a national model for the protection and preservation of agricultural lands. It has provided a template for supporting not only an important part of a community’s economy and landscape, but also a local source of food. By acquiring conservation easements, farmland is protected from the forces of market-driven development. Families can afford to continue farming and ranching. In some cases, ranchers are able to add to local grazing lands needed to support their businesses.
