- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The Sacramento Bee* reported bad news for California almond growers, but the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner, still had encouraging words for the industry.
According to the Bee story, written by Jim Downing, almond prices dropped more than 30 percent from August to December, the market for orchard real estate has gone cold, and the industry expects to be left with a 300 million pound surplus when the 2009 harvest begins in August.
Making matters still worse is a looming drought. West Side farmer John Diener told the reporter he plans to fallow 3,000 acres of land in order to concentrate what water he will have...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
The slogan for Rally's burger stand, "Ya gotta eat," is probably soothing to American farmers. As Associated Press writer James Prichard wrote in an article about agriculture in the ailing economy, "While people will put off buying houses and cars in a bad economy, they still need food."
The story said the economic downturn could even boost income for food producers who know how to take advantage of the situation.
For the article, Prichard spoke to the director of the UC Agricultural Issues Center, Dan Sumner, who pointed out that the agricultural sector isn't immune to the economic...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
Last year, agribusiness and most business sectors road an economic roller coaster. The 2009 outlook is tough to forecast, according to a Sacramento Business Journal article that used the director of the UC Agriculture Issues Center Dan Sumner as its primary source.
The bulk of the article is blocked on the Business Journal's Web site, accessible, it says, only to paid subscribers. But the Internet makes it available elsewhere, such as on the Wichita Business Journal's Web site (an example of the media's own...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
As Californians wait patiently today for the state budget vote, scheduled for 4 o'clock this afternoon, it's a good time to review the value of agriculture and agricultural research as it has been reported in the press in recent days.
Last Wednesday, Western Farm Press ran an Almond Board press release about a symposium that took place earlier this summer in Sacramento. At the symposium, UC ANR associate vice president Rick Standiford noted that there has been a 24 percent reduction in UC Agricultural Experiment Station researchers and Cooperative Extension staff since 1990.
The story said UC's academic staff is expected to shrink...
- Author: Jeannette E. Warnert
In the first paragraph of his blog entry on the Huffington Post, Michael Markarian accuses "big agribusiness" of:
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Duping the public
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Harming animals
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Polluting the environment
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Exploiting Latino workers
Ouch. The article actually focuses on Proposition 2, an initiative on California's November ballot known as the "Prevention of Farm Animal Cruelty Act." The story mercilessly takes aim at anyone who opposes its passage.
One of the new...