As a farmer and researcher dedicated to a healthier and more sustainable food system, we often are asked how good food can be made cheaper and more affordable. Given the staggering rates of food insecurity in wealthy areas such as San Francisco which is struggling to meet its 2020 target for eliminating hunger we understand this interest in making food cheaper.
In just over a year’s time, the nation’s rainfall fortunes have shifted suddenly and dramatically. Rainfall famine has turned to rainfall feast. Thanks to its wettest 12-month period in recorded history, the amount of U.S. real estate covered by drought has plunged to its lowest level in recent decades, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Wednesday. But at the same time, excessive rainfall and flooding plague large areas of the country.
In seeking a five-year suspension of sales taxes on diapers and menstrual products, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that it was wrong for the government to increase the cost of essentials of life and that doing so hurt families. Newsom was praised by Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, D-San Diego, who has touted legislation to end sales taxes on infant and toddler diapers
When Jerry Brown began his first governorship in 1975, he quickly set himself apart from his father, former Gov. Pat Brown. The elder Brown’s legacy had been an immense expansion of the state’s public-works infrastructure—new colleges and universities, a web of freeways and, most of all, a massive project to carry water from Northern California to the fast-growing cities of Southern California. The younger Brown echoed economist E.F. Schumacher’s aphorism that “small is beautiful,” suggested that California’s high population growth was a thing of the past and virtually shut down highway and freeway construction.
Four years ago, construction crews with huge jackhammers tore apart a 10-story concrete dam in the wooded canyons of the Carmel River, between the Big Sur hills and the beach front town of Carmel. The destruction of the San Clemente Dam, which had blocked the river since 1921, remains the largest dam removal project in California history. It’s still early, but one of the main goals of the project seems to be on track: The river is becoming wilder, and struggling fish populations are rebounding.
Two million years ago, as glaciers carved much of North America, torrential rains flooded what is now the Western United States, forming vast lakes across the region. The only remnants of that era are millions of saline ponds, some so small that over a hundred can be concentrated into a square kilometer. These lakes are now quickly shrinking. With less runoff from snowpack, and more water being diverted for agriculture, the lakes’ levels are rapidly decreasing, becoming even higher in salt content.
Nevada City, in the Sierra foothills, didn’t have the budget to clear out brush before the coming fire season, but the city staff also could not afford to wait until public funds were available. So, they created a GoFundMe campaign asking residents to lend the municipality money to rent a herd of goats to do the job.
Escalon City Council members on Monday night unanimously awarded a contract to Pace Advanced Water Engineering out of Fountain Valley for a comprehensive study at the city’s wastewater treatment plant. The goal of the study is multi-faceted, aimed primarily at finding ways to improve the efficiency at the plant and determine if its capacity can be expanded. The bid price was $72,180 and council members had several pages of detailed ‘scope of work’ information to review provided by the firm prior to making their decision.
Wildfires that increasingly plague the American West are contributing more than previously known to the deterioration of the region’s snowpack, according to newly published research. The effect of wildfires on snowmelt is more widespread and longer lasting than people thought and has ramifications across the region, where cities such as Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Reno and Salt Lake rely heavily on melting snow to replenish water supplies.
The Imperial Irrigation District board of directors voted Tuesday to allow access across its lands for critically needed state wetlands projects at the Salton Sea, designed to tamp down dangerous dust storms and give threatened wildlife a boost. In exchange, California will shoulder the maintenance and operations of the projects, and the state’s taxpayers will cover the costs of any lawsuits or regulatory penalties if the work goes awry. Tuesday’s vote clears a key hurdle to constructing 3,700 acres around the heavily polluted New River at the south end of the lake, implementing what’s known as the Species Conservation Habitat plan.
