News From CGFA

More money for FDA to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was the focus of a letter this week from nearly two dozen farm and food company organizations to House and Senate appropriations committees.

"Our commitment to food safety is steadfast, and we need a strong FDA as our partner to fully implement FSMA and to play its proper role in ensuring the safety of the nation's food supply," the groups wrote. They also called for increased oversight of FDA's FSMA spending to "ensure these investments are implemented effectively... (and) the agency's regulatory implementation of FSMA is consistent with what the law requires and what Congress intended."

The groups, including the United Fresh Produce Assn. (UniFresh) and the Grocery Manufacturers Assn. (GMA) didn't say how much money they think FDA needs, but asked the lawmakers to "support an increase in FDA food safety funding in the FY2017 budget." The White House request this year was for $25.3 million, which most in the food industry saw as too low. In the FY2016 omnibus spending bill, FDA got an extra $104.5 million.

CDFA Drought Update: State Water Allocations Increase to 45 Percent

By Office of Public Affairs, Planting Seeds

With March storms boosting reservoir levels, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) has increased its water delivery estimate (allocation) for most recipients to 45 percent of requests for the calendar year.

DWR's initial State Water Project (SWP) allocation of 10 percent of requests, announced in December, was increased to 15 percent on January 26 and to 30 percent on February 24 after January storms increased the Sierra snowpack and brought significant rainfall to the drought-parched state.

Although February was mostly dry, rain and snow returned this month to boost the state's two largest reservoirs - Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville - to slightly above their historic levels for the date. Some key reservoirs, however, remain far below expected levels for this time of year. The drought has not ended.

[Read more]

Conference on CA Agriculture: Water, Labor, and Immigration on April 15 at UC Davis Law School

California Agriculture: Water, Labor, and Immigration

Friday, April 15, 2016

Kalmanovitz Appellate Courtroom, UC Davis Law School

This conference examines current issues in agriculture and farm labor. California agriculture and the farm workforce are changing. Scarce water, expensive land, and changing consumer preferences have increased the importance of fruits, nuts, vegetables, and horticultural specialties or FVH crops in the state's farm sales. There are fewer newcomers to the farm workforce, prompting farm employers to take steps to satisfy current workers, stretch them with mechanical aids and substitute machines for hand workers, and supplement with H-2A guest workers.

There is no charge to participate, but seating is limited. You must RSVP by April 1, 2016 here if you plan to attend. Registration is required to attend any portion of the conference.

We are grateful for the support of the UCD Ag Issues and Gifford Centers, the Giannini, Rosenberg, and WKF foundations, and the ALRB. For further information, contact Philip Martin, plmartin@ucdavis.edu

Agenda

8:15AM - Check-in and Continental Breakfast

8:45AM - Welcome, Philip Martin, UC Davis and Colin Carter, UC Davis

9:00AM - Water, Climate and California Agriculture

Chair: Dan Sumner, UC Davis

Louise Jackson, UC Davis

Paul Wenger, CA Farm Bureau Federation

Discussants: Dan Dooley, New Current Water,

Dan Sumner, UC Davis

10:30AM - Break

10:45AM - Farm Labor in 2016

Chair: William Gould, ALRB

Farm production and employment changes, Philip Martin, UC Davis

Changing farm worker characteristics, Daniel Carroll, DOL

Discussants: Nathan Dorn, Food Origins, Muhammad Akhtar, EDD-LMID, Don Villarejo, Davis

12:15PM - Lunch

1:15PM - Immigration Reform and Farm Workers

Chair: Kevin Johnson, UC Davis

From IRCA to AgJOBS to H-2A, Philip Martin, UC Davis

DACA and DAPA Eligible Farm Workers, Ed Kissam, JBS

Discussants: Amagda Perez, UC Davis, Cynthia Rice, CRLA

2:45PM - Break

3:00PM - ALRB Issues in 2016

Chair: Genevieve Shiroma, ALRB

ALRB activities: Past, Present, and Future, William Gould, ALRB

Remedies for Unauthorized Workers, Kati Griffith, Cornell

Discussants: Martha West, UC Davis; Tom Sobel, ALRB

4:30PM - Adjourn

Western Letter of Support for Drought Action

Below please find a letter from over 100 organizations across the Western United States, including California Grain & Feed Association urging the Senate Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee to take action on the drought. The organizations are a combination of agricultural and water districts from each of the Western states who have come together. This letter is being transmitting to not only the other ENR Committee Members but also every Western state Senate office.

[Western Letter of Support for Drought Action]

Roberts Stalls on GE Labeling Bill; Industry Continues to Push for Federal Action

Whether to force companies to disclose information about genetically engineered (GE) ingredients on their food/feed product labels or allow them to voluntarily disclose such information split the Senate down the middle this week as Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Pat Roberts (R, KS) watched as his compromise legislation to provide a voluntary federal solution to the state labeling challenge failed to get the votes needed to cut off debate and move to final action.

The political and industry reaction to the vote was swift, focusing on disappointment, but also characterizing the lack of action as a vote against U.S. agriculture. The American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF) called the vote "inexcusable." Said Zippy Duvall, AFBF president, "To say we're angry with those senators who abandoned farmers and ranchers and turned their backs on rural America on this vote is an understatement."

House Agriculture Committee Chair Mike Conaway (R, TX), whose panel approved a much more comprehensive approach to GE labeling approved by the full House earlier this year, said, "My good friend Pat Roberts, along with many members of his Senate Committee...have been hampered at every step by an uncompromising and inflexible group of minority party Senators. It's not Republicans these Senators have opposed, it's the American farmer and rancher. Enough is enough."

Roberts needed 60 votes to invoke cloture, and when the dust settled the count was 48-49, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) switching to the "no" column to preserve his ability to bring the measure back to the Senate floor. Democrats, wanting to see a bipartisan bill, voted against cloture when that bipartisan aura didn't appear. Some Republicans voted against cloture because they oppose any type of "mandatory" labeling. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I, VT), Marco Rubio (R, FL) and Ted Cruz (R, TX) stayed on the campaign trail instead of voting.

The Senate is on a two-week Easter recess. Roberts and his supporters have pledged to continue to work toward a bipartisan solution so the bill can be revisited when the Senate returns. The House has signaled its willingness to go along with a Senate solution; the White House has stayed out of the fray, but Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack supports the Roberts effort.

The Coalition for Safe & Affordable Food (CFSAF), a broad industry group pushing for Roberts' approach to voluntary GE ingredient disclosure which provided Roberts a letter of support signed by over 700 state, regional and national organizations, watched votes in favor of cloture slip away early in the week. Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, MI), ranking member of the ag committee, first in a press statement and then on the Senate floor, said she wouldn't support the Roberts approach because it did not mandate specific food label disclosure mechanisms - QR codes or a GE "symbol" - which she wants to see.

Roberts, who's engaged with Stabenow over the last several weeks on a compromise bill to allow companies to provide on-label ingredient information sources, e.g. QR codes, bar codes, websites, 1-800 numbers, etc., challenged Stabenow to present her own bill language rather than simply reacting to his proposals. "Farmers who want to see this resolved better demand some action from her," said an ag committee spokesperson.

Stabenow reiterated her desire to find a bipartisan solution and said she'll continue to work with Roberts. Conaway, in his statement, said, "I call on the Senate Agriculture Committee's ranking member to fulfill her responsibility by standing up for America's farmers and ranchers. This issue cannot be resolved so long as it's viewed as a zero sum game."

For two days, opponents of the Roberts measure and champions of federally mandated GE food/feed labeling - notably Sen. Jeff Merkley (D, OR) and Sen. John Tester (D, MT), an organic farmer - repeatedly came to the Senate floor to engage in colloquies over the need for mandatory GE labeling because "the consumer has a right to know" what's in the foods they buy. However, McConnell offered Merkley, who introduced a mandatory labeling bill last week, a floor vote on his legislation prior to the cloture vote. Merkley refused to bring his measure to the floor.

The Roberts' language was a substitute for S. 2609, the Biotech Labeling Act, approved by his committee 14-6. It calls for state preemption of GE labeling laws, and creates at USDA a voluntary program by which companies could put information sources on labels for consumers who want to know about GE ingredients. If 70% of food labels didn't carry the information sources after three years, such disclosure would become mandatory.

Sen. Joe Donnelly (D, IN) is emerging as the new go-to Democrat in the labeling battle. During committee consideration of S. 2609, he referenced changes he'd like to see in the Roberts proposal, but voted to approve the language. During floor consideration this week, Donnelly, along with Sen. Tom Carper (D, DE), talked about an amendment they've developed that would preempt the states and set up an initially voluntary labeling regime at USDA, but go beyond the Roberts approach by requiring 80% of labels to carry information within two years of enactment, while calling for dedicated 1-800 numbers linking only to GE ingredient information, and new language ensuring the GE labeling legislation did not impact other USDA programs, including the National Organic Program (NOP) and would preserve legal right of action to sue in state courts.

In a related development, a Washington State Superior Court judge ruled this week that the Grocery Manufacturers Assn. (GMA) violated state campaign finance laws in 2013 when it failed to disclose the names of food companies financing an $11-million GMA campaign to a defeat a state GE labeling ballot initiative. The judge, in granting a summary judgment sought by the state, said a trial is still needed to determine if GMA intentionally violated the law and needs to pay a penalty.

FDA Publishes Final BSE Rules

Nearly 13 years after the U.S. had its single case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), FDA this week published final rules on protecting the food supply from possible BSE contamination. The action takes three interim final rules and makes them final.

The final rule defines "prohibited cattle materials," barring their use in human food, dietary supplements and cosmetics. Specifically, the rule prohibits the following:

"Specified risk materials (SRM)" include brain, skull, eyes, trigeminal ganglia, spinal cord, vertebral column (excluding the vertebrae of the tail, the transverse processes of the thoracic and lumber vertebrae and the wings of the sacrum), and dorsal root ganglia (DRG) of cattle 30 months of age or older, and the tonsils and distal ileum of all cattle;
The small intestine from all cattle unless the distal ileum has been properly removed;
Material from nonambulatory cattle, and
Material from cattle not inspected and passed, or mechanically separated (MS) beef.

At the same time, the final rule confirms milk and milk products, hides and hide-derived products, tallow that contains no more than 0.15% insoluble impurities and tallow derivatives are not prohibited materials. Also finalized is the process by which FDA designates a country as not subject to BSE-related restrictions when it comes to human food and cosmetics.

The rule also provides a first-time definition of gelatin and clarifies gelatin is not considered a prohibited cattle material if it's manufactured using the customary industry processes recognized by the agency. Gelatin has never been considered by FDA to be a prohibited cattle material, but the agency previously did not define gelatin in the interim final rules.

Ag Groups Want Fertilizer Storage Rules Dumped

Agriculture groups, including the Agriculture Retailers Assn. (ARA) and the American Farm Bureau Federation (AFBF), are pushing Capitol Hill lawmakers to tell OSHA and the Department of Labor (DOL) they can't spend federal dollars to impose on retailers new rules on chemical management/fertilizer storage.

Joined by the Fertilizer Institute (TFI), the action before House and Senate appropriators is designed to either get OSHA to walk back a decision that the new fertilizer storage rules apply to the nation's roughly 3,800 ag retailers selling anhydrous ammonia, or force the agency to go through formal rulemaking to expand the new safety program. The groups estimate the cost of the new rule on ag retailers hits $30,000 per facility.

The new fertilizer storage rules come in the wake of congressional attention paid to the West Fertilizer Co. explosion in West, Texas in 2013, which killed 15. The ag groups argue the explosion was caused by ammonium nitrate, not anhydrous ammonia, which was also stored at the site.

OSHA says ag retailers already comply with EPA emergency management rules and that the OSHA program isn't that much more for them to do. Compliance costs estimated by OSHA are closer to $2,100 per facility. DOL said it expected "some push back, but didn't expect quite this level."

In the FY2016 omnibus spending bill language was added delaying the storage safety rules until October this year. The new action seeks to define retailers as permanently exempt from the rule which proscribes how anhydrous ammonia and other fertilizer ingredients are stored and handled.

In a related development, on May 16, a U.S. Court of Appeals panel will hear arguments by ARA and TFI in court action the groups brought against DOL for failing to go through rulemaking on the extension of the program, instead extending the program to retailers administratively.

Opposing the action is the United Steelworkers, who say new Process Safety Management standards (PSMs) are now in place for workers, and these protections will be lost if the ag groups prevail. At the same time, the union argues not all of the nation's ag retailers are "small entities" by federal definition, and that anhydrous storage still poses risks to workers no matter the size of the location where it is stored.

EPA Told to Assess if Pesticide Mixes Harm Bees

EPA should formally assess when common mixtures of pesticides can potentially harm bees, and should keep Congress apprised of its progress, said a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. The agency agreed with the recommendations, but said it's taking major actions to protect "pollinators" after a 2015 White House task force report.

GAO says EPA needs to do a better job to determine if combinations of pesticides commonly used in agriculture pose a greater risk to pollinators than do individual chemicals, along with a closer look at chemical effects on native and wile bees. It needs also to let Congress know when it expects to complete the evaluations.

The agency said its review of neonicotinoid pesticides, bee-specific risk assessments, efforts to reduce exposure to treated seeds and an emphasis on state pollinator management plans are also examples of how seriously the agency takes the bee threat.

GAO also called out USDA for "falling short" in monitoring wild and native bee populations, as well as tracking restoration and reclamation of "bee-friendly" habitats, recommending the department better coordinate its actions with those of other agencies. USDA agreed with GAO, but said it needs more money to make the program more efficient.

House Bill to Slow EPA Ozone Rule Introduced

Six bipartisan House members, including Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R, CA) and Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R, LA), announced introduction this week of a bill designed to give states more time and flexibility in complying with EPA's new ground-level ozone standards.

The Energy & Commerce Committee announced the bill, explaining states and communities had only just begun to implement EPA's 2008 ozone standard - for which the agency did not provide implementing rules until March, 2015 - when last October, EPA published revised standards and set new compliance and planning requirements for the states and local communities.

The bill is designed to give states more time and flexibility in how they come into compliance with the new ozone rule - an "efficient and realistic timeline" is how the committee described the bill's language - and at the same time, addresses technical implementation issues under the National Ambient Air Quality Standards Program.

The other authors of the legislation are Rep. Pete Olson (R, TX), vice chair of the committee's subcommittee on energy and power; committee member Rep. Bill Flores (R, TX); committee member Rep. Bob Latta (R, OH), and Rep. Henry Cuellar (D, TX).

House Files Brief in High Court Immigration Case

The House this week approved a resolution giving Speaker Paul Ryan (R, WI) instructions to file an amicus brief on behalf of the chamber in a U.S. Supreme Court case challenging President Obama's executive orders deferring deportation for certain classes of undocumented immigrants. The party line vote approving the resolution was 234-186, with five GOP members jumping ship.

And in this political season, critics said the GOP is using federal dollars to advance a political agenda. However, a bipartisan group of more than 200 House members filed a separate amicus brief in support of the President's actions, stressing they did so as a group of private citizens.

Ryan, speaking on the floor, told lawmakers "this comes down to a much more fundamental question" than policy or program disagreement. "This is about the integrity of the Constitution," the Speaker said.

The original action was filed by the House general counsel when it was alleged the President was exceeding his authority by not allowing the Department of Homeland Security to deport undocumented immigrants when arrested. Obama's executive orders deferred such action on the children of undocumented immigrants born in the U.S., as well as the parents of legal U.S. citizens if those parents arrived in the U.S. illegally. A Texas federal court judge stayed implementation of the orders until the high court hears the case.

At House Hearing on Flint, Michigan Water Crisis, Governor, EPA's McCarthy Urged to Resign

At a House Oversight Committee hearing this week on the ongoing water crisis in Flint, Michigan - the third held by the panel so far - the partisan divide was clear, the finger-pointing active, and in the end, both Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy were urged to resign from their jobs.

The testimony centered on which government - state or federal - is ultimately to blame for allowing Flint's corroded lead-pipe water system to continue to operate, endangering public health. McCarthy said "intransigent, misleading and contentious" state employees bear the responsibility. Snyder said "inefficient, ineffective and unaccountable bureaucrats" in Washington, DC, allowed "this disaster to continue unnecessarily."

Committee Chair Jason Chaffetz (R, UT) told McCarthy to do "the courageous thing" and resign over EPA's failure to respond to the Flint crisis. Rep. Matt Cartwright (D, PA) told Snyder, "Plausible deniability only works if it's plausible," calling on Snyder to quit.