Environmental Information for the
California Almond Industry

Almond Industry Headline Environmental News

   Air Quality

  • Regulator tells crowd air laws benefit farmers -— Farmers face a challenge with new air pollution rules, but the rules can also be beneficial, a state regulator said Thursday night. For example, planting crops with minimal tilling of the soil can save tractor fuel while reducing dust, said Dorene D'Adamo, who serves on the California Air Resources Board. <more> April 15, 2005 Modesto Bee

Crop Protection

  • New Test on Tap for Detecting Pesticide-Resistant Mites - - Commercial apiarists and state bee inspectors now have a fast new way to check Varroa mites for this honeybee parasite's resistance to the pesticides coumaphos and fluvalinate. <more> April 15, 2005 USDA Agriculture Research Service
     
  • Gag order expanded to cover all. Ripon nut company is told to keep quiet - - A judge on Wednesday modified the gag order in a criminal case against two Golden West Nuts Inc. managers accused of exposing an employee to a hazardous dose of methyl bromide. <more> April 14, 2005 Modesto Bee
     

  • Pesticide battles on the rise in USA - - Americans are finding themselves in the path of airborne pesticides drifting from farm spraying as rapidly growing suburbs expand into cropland. Battles over exposure to agricultural pesticides are escalating across the USA, sparking efforts by environmental groups to reduce the dangers of dozens of chemicals linked to cancer, birth defects, infertility and neurological illnesses. "This has moved from a farm-worker fight in the past to middle-class America taking up the battle cry — everyday people living in suburban parts of agricultural areas," says California state Sen. Dean Florez, whose state is by far the nation's biggest food producer and pesticide user. <more> April 12, 2004 USA Today
     

  • In California's Central Valley, pesticide fight heats up - -From an airstrip a quarter-mile away, planes come and go with their toxic loads, spraying pesticides on blossoming almond trees that surround this tiny farm town's elementary school. A fungicide wards off mildew at a crucial time for making a good nut crop. But parents of the school's 140 children worry that the chemical drifts across the playground and makes kids sick. "You can smell it. You can see it. When you drive, it gets on your windshield," says neighborhood activist Rosinda Mataka. "People think it's a price they have to pay for living where they live." <more> April 12, 2005 USA Today

Endangered Species

Valley Elderberry Beetle

 

 

Water Quality
 

  • Friant water court date set. Judge rejects an appeal from farmers battling with environmentalists. - -  A federal judge says he will decide next year how much water the San Joaquin River needs to restore long-dead salmon runs. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Karlton this week rejected both an appeal from farmers and the notion that the state should determine how much restoration water is needed. <more> April 16, 2005 Fresno Bee
     

  • Valley lawmakers float dam proposals. Radanovich: Water needs can't be met without more storage  - - Central Valley lawmakers want to build dams, but first they must build more political momentum. So on Wednesday, Mariposa Republican George Radanovich used his chairmanship of the House water and power subcommittee to emphasize one side of the California water debate. The message: Dams are good. <more> April 14, 2005 Modesto Bee
     

  • S.J. River bill passes first test - - A controversial proposal to restore the San Joaquin River passed its first test Tuesday. The Senate Natural Resources Committee approved a bill sponsored by state Sen. Michael Machado, D-Linden, that would help Delta farmers, migratory fish and Stockton-area taxpayers by releasing water from behind Friant Dam, partially restoring the flow of the often-stagnant river. The flushing would leave the San Joaquin cleaner and could encourage salmon, shad and other fish to return. It would also reduce exorbitant environmental cleanup costs faced by city water plants in Stockton, Tracy and Manteca. <more> April 13, 2005 Stockton Record

General Industry News
 

  • Gold Hills is unique in the almond field. Ballico company one of only a handful of organic handlers - - Founded in 1986 as a two-person team that operated out of a dairy barn in Snelling, Gold Hills now grows 1,000 acres of almonds and has an 85,000-square-foot building in Ballico. It employs 80 people in the off season, and up to 140 during the harvesting season. Most recently, the company was certified to manufacture -- slice, dice, blanch, roast and sliver -- organic almonds. It has been processing almonds whole and with the brown skins on since 2002. It's a big step for the company, as President Catherine Phipps points out, because while there are 110 handlers in California who can process, package and ship almonds, fewer than 10 manufacture them. <more> April 20, 2005 Merced Sun-Star
     

  • Stanislaus, 3 neighbors in top eight fastest growing counties - - Stanislaus County and three of its neighbors were among the eight fastest-growing counties in California from 2000 to 2004, the Census Bureau reported Thursday. The numbers reflect the influx of people to the Northern San Joaquin Valley from the Bay Area, where several counties lost population over the four years. <more> April 15, 2005 Modesto Bee
     

  • Tending to the Farm. Day in the life of Stanislaus County almond grower - - Tim Sanders starts his day at 6:30 a.m. - late by farming standards, he admits. But that's one of the things he likes about being a small farmer: he can set his own hours. On this day, Sanders will be away from his 46-acre almond farm, working land for others. That's the reality for small farmers in the Northern San Joaquin Valley: They have to have other sources of income to make ends meet. Increasingly pressed with urban conflicts, new environmental regulations and global competition for commodities, small farmers like Sanders are finding it harder to survive. <more> April 11, 2005 Modesto Bee

 

 

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