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Conveyor Currents
                     May 20, 2016
      


In This Issue
UC Davis Researcher: Don't Blame Cows For Climate Change
CGFA Career Builders Raffle
2016 IPM Achievement Awards-Call for Nominations
California Legislative Report
Administration Publishes Final Overtime Rule; 4.2 Million More Workers Eligible for Overtime Pay
OSHA Workplace Injury Reporting Rule Finalized; Agency to Post Injury, Illness Reports to Website
Senate Approps Committee Approves Ag/FDA 2017 Spending Bill
GE Labeling Compromise Evolving; NAS Study Says GE Crops Safe
NRDC Petitions EPA on Enlist Duo; Sues over Document Release
EPA Releases Proposed 2017 RFS/RVO Mandates
Value-Added Producer Grant Program Training
Upcoming Dates
 
2016
October 26, 2016:
CGFA and NGFA Joint Grain Safety Seminar
DoubleTree, Fresno, CA


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UC Davis Researcher: Don't Blame Cows For Climate Change

By Marc Albert, North State Public Radio
A UC Davis professor's  research is challenging some commonly accepted concepts about global warming and raising a few hackles.


The dispute doesn't involve denialists or outliers though. It's statistics, not skeptics.
Specifically, Frank Mitloehner, professor of animal science and an air quality specialist, recently called out some activists who he said are scapegoating cattle to promote vegetarianism and veganism.


"All of livestock combined, that's all livestock species, plus feed, assessed in a very holistic way, contribute a total of 4.2 percent," he said. "That's obviously a very different number compared to what people have been hearing recently."


CGFA Career Builders Raffle

There is still time to enter the Career Builders raffle by creating a profile on the  CGFA Careers Center! If you didn't make it to the CGFA Convention last month, you and the person responsible for recruiting at your office can still each win a $250 gift card - details below:

 




2016 IPM Achievement Awards-Call for Nominations

The Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) is now accepting nominations for its NEW 2016 IPM Achievement Award. The awards are presented to groups, organizations, schools, or companies that develop and share their IPM (integrated pest management) practices and achievements.


DPR began its IPM Innovator Award program in 1994 to recognize pioneering agricultural and urban organizations for their pest management leadership and creativity. This new award will replace the IPM Innovators going forward, expanding to include a wider range of accomplishments in areas of leadership, education and outreach, and innovation, and for participation by more diverse practitioners.


To submit a nomination online, click here for the submission form. Or, visit DPR's web site, www.cdpr.ca.gov, and type IPM Achievement or Innovators in the search box at the top of the page. Select Nominate a group for an IPM Achievement Award to access the online submission form. Nominations for 2016 awards accepted through June 30, 2016.


You can also email nominations to [email protected] by sending a message with the information requested by the online nomination form.


If you have questions, feel free to contact Melissa Plemons at (916) 445-8411 or [email protected].

California Legislative Report
By Dennis Albiani, Legislative Advocate



Water Bills Meet Different Fates in Appropriations this Week


The legislature is working through the bill process and most legislation is currently in the Appropriations Committee.  Two water bills met with opposite fates this week. 


SB 2551 (Gallagher) which authorizes alternative financing structures for large surface storage projects was heard in the Assembly this week.  Because the bill has minimal costs, it was eligible for a vote.  After testimony from supporters representing agriculture, water districts and labor, the bill was passed out of the committee and moves to the Assembly floor.  The association has joined a coalition in support of this measure. 


SB 1317 (Lois Wolk) would require a city or county overlying a high or medium priority water basin to establish a process by January 1, 2018 for issuing a groundwater extraction (groundwater well) permit. Previously the measure required a conditional use permit to be established by July 1, 2017. The legislation also requires an applicant for a new groundwater well permit to demonstrate, based on substantial evidence, that it will not contribute to or create an undesirable result.  SB 1317 was heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee and due to the potential for significant costs it was held on "Suspense."  We will find out which bills move off suspense on May 27th. 


Organics Recycling Bill Amended - Could Have Significant Impacts


A measure aimed to further define the parameters of organic recycling was amended this week with language that could dramatically impact food processors, livestock feed suppliers, nut hullers and rendering operations.  AB 1103 (Dodd) was amended with ambiguous language that would prohibit any operator from hauling "solid waste" within a jurisdiction unless they are duly authorized by a city or county.  The concern is that this could prohibit hauling of materials such as food processing material, byproducts, almond hulls, inedible kitchen grease and other valuable materials unless one has a jurisdictional contract with the local agency.  The bill also provides a private hauler the ability to sue anyone who violates the above prohibition and recover treble damages (three times the amount proven) plus attorney fees, witness fees and court costs.  The association will be seeking clarifying amendments to ensure that agriculture byproducts can still be hauled without any impediments.


Administration Publishes Final Overtime Rule; 4.2 Million More Workers Eligible for Overtime Pay
Saying it's a shot in the arm to middle class incomes, the Obama Administration this week published its final rule on overtime pay, more than doubling the exempt salary threshold and potentially making up to 4.2 million additional workers eligible for time-and-a-half overtime compensation.  The final rule is effective December 1, 2016.


The new overtime pay standard, last updated in 2004, raises from $23,660 to $47,476 the exempt annual salary threshold over which overtime need not be paid.  At the same time, the rule increases by 34% the total annual compensation needed to exempt "highly compensated" workers, hiking it to $134,004 per year. 


Department of Labor (DOL) Secretary Tom Perez said the new rule is designed to increase wages for middle and lower-income workers, wages which he said have been "stagnant since the late 1990s."  Overall, Perez said the new rules could increase overall wages paid by $1.2 billion over 10 years, adding the new standard will increase from the current 7% to 35% the number of full-time salaried workers who qualify for overtime.


Business groups said some companies will get creative to avoid paying overtime, and some options may erode schedule flexibility and employee morale.  Some firms will switch salaried employees to hourly worker status, holding those workers to a strict 40-hour work weeks, and bringing on part-time employees to cover additional hours.  Alternatively, some employers will cut base salaries to avoid paying overtime, and still others will maintain their salaried employees, closely monitor hours worked and adjust salaries to account for overtime, reducing benefits and the total number of full-time employees to control personnel costs.


At the same time, federal legislation - S. 2707/HR 4773, the "Protecting Workplace Advancement & Opportunity Act" - has been introduced.  The bills would send the overtime rule back to DOL for a more comprehensive economic analysis before implementation of the new rules can begin. 


The American Feed Industry Assn. (AFIA) said highly anticipated overtime rule is "more hurtful than helpful," a one-size-fits-all approach that doesn't work for the animal food industry because it doesn't recognizes regional differences in median incomes. 


"This is particularly concerning as a majority of AFIA members are located in rural areas where competitive salaries cannot be compared to metropolitan wages," AFIA said.


The National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which represents primarily small business owners, said the new rules come at a time when small business can't absorb added personnel costs.


Changes from the proposed version of the rule allow employers to apply bonuses and incentive payments to up to 10% of the new salary threshold when calculating total compensation, and from now on, the overtime standard will be updated every three years rising to $51,000 by 2020, DOL said.  Also, new thresholds will be pegged to the 40th percentile of full-time workers in the lowest wage region of the U.S., currently the Southeast.

OSHA Workplace Injury Reporting Rule Finalized; Agency to Post Injury, Illness Reports to Website

A final rule on how workplace injuries and illnesses are reported to the federal government - and the posting of that data to the federal agency website - was published this week by OSHA, a move to "nudge" industry to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses.  The new rule goes into effect in August.


"With this new rule, OSHA is applying the insights of behavioral economics to improve workplace safety and prevent injuries and illnesses," the agency said.  The collection and posting of the data, OSHA said, will "enable researchers to better study injury causation, identify new workplace safety hazards before they become widespread and evaluate the effectiveness of injury and illness prevention activities."


Under the new rule, employers with 250 or more employees in industries covered by recordkeeping regulations must electronically submit to OSHA injury and illness information from Forms 300, 300A and 301, the agency said.  Employers with 20-249 workers in certain industries must electronically submit information to the agency on Form 300A only. 


The rule, designed to "modernize injury data collection to better inform workers, employers, the public and OSHA about workplace hazards," will overcome a major shortcoming in the current injury reporting system, namely that while employers may be required to keep and file records of injuries and illnesses, OSHA has little access to individual workplace injury/illness information. 


"Under the new rule, employers in high-hazard industries will send OSHA injury and illness data...for posting on the agency's website," OSHA said.  The agency said it expects that public disclosure of workplace injury data will encourage employers to increase their efforts to prevent workplace injuries, and allow prospective workers to "identify workplaces where their risk of injury is lowest." As employers compete for workers, the company's priority on workplace safety goes up, OSHA reasoned.


Further, "to ensure the injury data on OSHA logs are accurate and complete," the rule also allows employees to separately post to OSHA injury and illnesses without "fear of retaliation," and clarifies that an employer has to have a reasonable procedure for reporting work-related injuries that doesn't discourage workers from reporting.


The new rule can be found here.

Senate Appropriations Committee Approves Ag/FDA 2017 Spending Bill
The full Senate Appropriations Committee, following swift action by its agriculture/FDA subcommittee, approved a $2.8-billion discretionary spending bill for FY2017, slightly more than the House panel approved last month.


It's unclear if the Senate bill will get a floor vote or simply be held until the fall when a FY2017 omnibus spending package will be worked out and likely voted on in the post-election lame duck session.  


The Senate bill includes $103 million more for FDA and food safety, with most of the increase going to implementation of the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), an amount greater than requested by President Obama. 


The bill also includes $105 million for USDA to set up a market development office in Havana, Cuba, money the administration and industry pushed hard to get. 


The package, which closely parallels the House version approved last month, includes amendments accepted in committee prohibiting USDA from spending money to certify horses for federal slaughter, and mandates that FDA-approved genetically modified Atlantic salmon eggs - and the fish grown therefrom - carry labeling identifying the GM status of the fish.  The salmon amendment was brought by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R, AK) who fears the GM Atlantic salmon, which grows to market weight twice as fast as conventional salmon, will somehow pose market competition to wild caught Pacific salmon.


The Senate bill does not carry language that would curb organic livestock and poultry animal welfare standards.  Egg producers particularly say the standards are burdensome and unrealistic.

GE Labeling Compromise Evolving; NAS Study Says GE Crops Safe

Negotiations between Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Pat Roberts (R, KS) and committee ranking member Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, MI) over how best to inform consumers their food products may contain genetically engineered (GE) ingredients continued this week with one source close to the negotiations calling them "very productive." 


Stabenow provided Roberts with her version of legislative language earlier in the week, and a face-to-face session between the two senior lawmakers was also held this week.  Both agree on the need for a federal solution to the potential for a patchwork of state GE food labeling laws, but have different approaches on how best to disclose GE ingredients to consumers if they wish to know.  Roberts has favored a voluntary system created by USDA that would put QR codes, website addresses, etc. on nutrition panels, while Stabenow wants such disclosures to be mandatory and only dedicated information sources to be included on labels. 


In a related development, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) this week released a major first-time study on the safety of foods from GE crops, concluding food produced from GE crops are safe - no link to various diseases as alleged by critics - and farmers benefit from generally improved yields through weed and pest control.  And while the 20 scientists who authored the 408-page study said there is no need to label GE foods from a food safety standpoint, there are reasons to consider "value" and "societal" issues in considering labels, and that a voluntary labeling regime makes the most sense.


However, NAS, which considered over 900 studies in its review as well as series of public meetings, said there are long-term costs to the food industry from mandatory GE labeling, mainly a move by food companies to reformulate products to avoid the use of GE ingredients and the need to label.  USDA this week reported increased imports of non-GE sugar cane to offset the use of GE sugar beets, and food companies are investigating sources of non-GE corn-based ingredients as well.


The NAS study said the current federal approval process is not able to review and approve the newest iterations of biotechnology, and said there should be new approaches to determine if a new plant variety can be deemed safe based on traits likely cause harm to human health or the environment.  It also said there should be greater "strategic public investment" in biotechnology as it evolves to address other challenges, including food security.


Roberts said he's optimistic he'll reach agreement with Stabenow on label disclosure, saying "Reformulation is happening, which is what I've been saying for a long time."

NRDC Petitions EPA on Enlist Duo; Sues over Document Release
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) this week petitioned EPA to cancel the registration of Enlist Duo, a 2, 4-D/glyphosate combination weed killer from Dow AgroSciences, claiming the agency broke the law in approving it to begin with.  The environmental group also sued the agency for its failure to provide documents related to the approval of the product under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).


NRDC said EPA has admitted Enlist Duo doesn't meet minimum federal safety standards, but is failing to protect people and the environment.  "It's not complicated; EPA should get Enlist Duo off the market before more people, plants or pollinators are harmed by its poisonous brew," the group said in a statement.


Used on genetically engineered (GE) weed-resistant corn and soybeans, Enlist Duo was approved in 2014.  NRDC, the Center for Food Safety and other groups immediately took legal action to halt the herbicide's use arguing EPA didn't fully consider the impact of the chemical combination on endangered species, bees and other wildlife.  In 2015, EPA asked a federal appeals court to vacate the approval citing inadequate information on the product's safety, but the court rejected the petition in January this year.

EPA Releases Proposed 2017 RFS/RVO Mandates

True to its word, EPA is on track to finalize the 2017 Renewable Fuel Standard/renewable volume obligations (RVO) for all biofuels by November 30, proposing this week that overall, 18.8 billion gallons of renewable biofuels be blended with the nation's fuel supply next year, a 700-million-gallon hike.


Comments on the proposal will be taken through July 11, and the agency said it will hold a public meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 9. 


The corn ethanol industry was again disappointed with the roughly 14.8 billion gallons of the total that can be met by blending ethanol, contending the 2007 authorizing law for the RFS/RVO sets 2017 levels at 24 billion gallons overall, with ethanol eligible to meet up to 15 billion gallons of the mandate. 


For the advanced biofuels component of the alternative fuel industry, the proposal is generally good news, with an RFS of 4 billion gallons in 2017, up from 3.61 billion gallons this year. The biodiesel RFS was set at 2 billion gallons next year, up from 1.9 in 2016, and will rise to 2.1 billion gallons in 2018.  Cellulosic biofuels is set at 312 million gallons in 2017, 35% more than the year before, EPA said.


Anne Steckel, vice president of the National Biodiesel Board (NBB), said the 2.1-billion RFS for 2018 "understates the amount of biodiesel this industry can sustainably deliver to the market," explaining the industry can easily do 2.5 billion gallons a year today, and could produce even more in 2018.  Her sentiments were echoed by the National Renderers Assn. (NRA) and the American Soybean Assn. (ASA), groups whose members produce feedstocks for and refine biodiesel and renewable diesel. 


"It's frustrating. It's also baffling. I don't understand why EPA is reluctant to allow the RFS to drive changes in the marketplace," said Bob Dineen, president & CEO of the Renewable Fuels Assn. (RFA), which hopes the final November RFS for ethanol will exceed 15 billion gallons.  He said the announcement this week belies EPA's pledge to get the RFS program "back on track."  EPA argued its proposed RFS/RVO levels for ethanol hit "99% of the congressional target."


The National Chicken Council (NCC), which wants to see the RFS repealed alleging it distorts corn markets, said of the agency announcement, "If the EPA proposal stays put, consumers will see higher prices at the pump and on the plate.  The unrealistic volume for ethanol proposed today...ensures that the chicken industry, as well as all of animal agriculture, remains only one flood, freeze or drought away from another crisis."


Ethanol groups and companies are suing EPA over last year's RFS announcement for not only failing to follow statutory RFS levels, but for alleged misuse of its waiver authority.  That suit isn't expected to be resolved until at least the first part of 2017.

Value-Added Producer Grant Program Training



A recorded webinar training on USDA Rural Development's Value-Added Producer Grant program is now available for California applicants and other interested parties.  The Value-Added Producer Grant (VAPG) funds planning and working capital expenses to help agricultural producers process and market new products, expand into new markets, and strengthen the rural economy.


The VAPG program is now accepting applications for the FY 2016 cycle. Applications are due by mail to the Rural Development California State Office by July 1, 2016. 


Topics Covered:
  • Applicant Eligibility
  • Project Eligibility
  • Purpose Eligibility
  • Other Requirements
  • Evaluation Criteria
  • Tools for Applicants
Webinar Information:
For more information about the Value-Added Producer Grant, visit our website. Questions? Please contact our VAPG Coordinator, Martin Zone, at [email protected] or (530) 792-5829. 


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