- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Rising cotton futures are spurring farmers to plant more cotton in California this year, according to an Associated Press report.
Commodity futures for cotton rose to $1.50 per pound in August, triple the price in 2008. Long-term cotton futures are now around $1, but extra-long-fiber Pima cotton prices are closer to $1.30.
"Those are kind of unheard of prices, and people are saying they could be conservative," Kern County farmer Jim Crettol was quoted in the story. He expanded his Pima cotton crop 60 percent to 600 acres and would plant more if he hadn't converted land to...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, on a trade mission in Asia, signed an agreement with South Korea yesterday to increase collaboration on trade and technology, according to a San Francisco Chronicle column by Andrew S. Ross. Today the governor was scheduled to call for ratification of the U.S.-South Korea Free Trade Agreement.
The state's current trade relationship with South Korea includes exports of $500 million in California agricultural products - beef, rice, nuts, oranges. UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner, told Ross South Korea is an...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
As producers and government agencies continue to investigate last month's enormous recall of Iowa-produced eggs, California egg farmers are pondering whether new rules that will govern the state's hen houses will play a role in preventing or exacerbating egg-borne illness, said an article in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Proposition 2, enacted by a wide margin of California voters in 2008, will require egg producers to provide adequate room for their hens to turn around freely, lie down, stand up and fully extend their limbs.
A Humane Society of the United States spokesperson told Chron reporter Carolyn...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Association attributes the state egg industry's safety record to the voluntary California Egg Quality Assurance Program developed in 1995. The program, implemented by 95 percent of the state's egg producers, requires:
- Chicks and pullets be purchased from hatcheries...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Egg prices will rise about 2 cents each at the farm gate when new laws go into effect in 2015 that require egg-laying hens be given more space to move around. California voters overwhelmingly passed Prop. 2 in 2008, requiring the state's producers to modify their egg production practices.
This week, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a law that requires the producers of all eggs sold in California - even if they are out of state - to follow the same guidelines.
In stories about the latest development, the media sought expert analysis from Dan Sumner, director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, who co-wrote a report...
