The value of San Luis Obispo County agricultural products exceeded $1 billion during 2021 - largely due to the success of strawberries and wine grapes. Livestock and field crops, however, failed to escape the drought and lost value last year.

Paso Robles agricultural stakeholders have been concerned for nearly two years about a revised set of county rules for the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin coming down the pike. At first, concerns centered on a proposed five-fold increase in the amount of water each basin landowner could pump from their properties without restriction, and how that could impact the aquifer.

The California Air Resources Board on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035 in a push for the state's transition to electric vehicles. "This is the most important and most transformative action that [the California Air Resources Board] has ever taken," board member Daniel Sperling said at the meeting.

There's a new proposal to keep Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant on the path to close down its reactors in 2024 and 2025. It comes in opposition to draft legislation floated by Gov. Gavin Newsom's office to keep the plant in San Luis Obispo County running another decade.

The Diablo Canyon Decommissioning Engagement Panel held a meeting on Wednesday night, discussing the possibility of continuing operation at the power plant past 2025. During the meeting, officials spoke about Gov. Gavin Newsom's workshop on the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which recommended keeping the plant operating past its 2025 decommissioning date.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- California State Senate Bill 1084 would place new restrictions on who can purchase agricultural land in the state. The goal is to prohibit foreign governments from buying California's farm land. Currently, about 2.7% of the Golden State's agricultural land is owned by people or governments in other countries.

Formerly known as the Build Back Better Act (BBBA), the budget reconciliation bill, after extensive negotiations and reworking, was finalized as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022, totaling roughly $770 billion. Since the budget reconciliation process was used, the bill only needed a simple majority in the Senate to pass, meaning it only needed 51 votes, rather that the 60 votes often needed to avoid procedural blocks.

WASHINGTON - Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced details of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) $300 million investment, including with American Rescue Plan funds, in a new Organic Transition Initiative that will help build new and better markets and streams of income for farmers and producers.

PUBLISHED ON WASHINGTON - U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA is accepting applications for $100 million in grants to increase the sale and use of biofuels derived from U.S. agricultural products. USDA is making the funding available through the Higher Blends Infrastructure Incentive Program (HBIIP).

From the Ag Information Network, I'm Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update. **California's organic tomato growers are producing an increasing share of the processing tomato crop. In 2013, organic tomatoes represented just 2.4% of the market. In 2021, that percentage, while still small, climbed to 6.2%.

Severe droughts across the Northern Hemisphere-stretching from the farms of California to waterways in Europe and China-are further snarling supply chains and driving up the prices of food and energy, adding pressure to a global trade system already under stress.

The Mojave Desert might not seem like a solution to help West Coast ports bursting at the seams from surging container volumes, but a proposed inland complex could be the answer for congestion at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall commented today on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to overturn a lower court's ruling that prohibited AFBF from defending the delisting of the gray wolf in the case Defenders of Wildlife v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday designated two "forever chemicals" used in cookware, carpets and firefighting foams as hazardous substances, clearing the way for quicker cleanup of the toxic compounds, which have been linked to cancer and other health problems.

PUBLISHED ON SHARON, Conn. - U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Deputy Secretary Dr. Jewel Bronaugh has announced USDA is investing $121 million in critical infrastructure (PDF, 541 KB) to combat climate change across rural America. The investments include $111 million for 289 projects to help people living in socially vulnerable communities.

The Spotted Lanternfly is an invasive species causing major concern in the eastern US. It favors more than 70 different plant species. Grapes, apples and stone fruit (plums, cherries, peaches, apricots) are among crops that are threatened.

Strawberries are one of California's main money-makers, and they're the Central Coast's primary crop. But they are also vulnerable to diseases that can be devastating for growers, and experts say it's even possible that one of those diseases could lead to a strawberry pandemic.

For Angelenos, much of our food gets grown locally. Farms in Ventura County cultivate a lot of the fruits and vegetables that are sold in SoCal farmers' markets and then served in LA restaurants. Take the avocado, for example. It's the primary crop at Petty Ranch in Ventura County, which grows hass and lamb hass varieties.

CORRECTION: A spokesperson for Gov. Gavin Newsom says he can't support a United Farm Workers-backed union voting bill in its current form, but is open to negotiation. The original version of the story incorrectly reported that he wouldn't support the bill. Gov.

By late morning it was already hot, but not nearly as scorching as it would be in just a few hours. Lourdes Cardenas, 59, had already walked nearly eight dusty, sun-blasted miles from Turlock, with about that many more to go to the day's destination in downtown Modesto.

Tuesday marked Day 21 for farm workers and supporters marching toward the state Capitol to raise awareness for their voting rights. Marchers began Day 21 in Galt and left at 7 a.m. for their next stop, Walnut Grove. Nearly 20 farmworkers have taken the journey from Delano to Sacramento to make way for change.

Forest fires are burning nearly twice as many trees as they did just two decades ago, according to a study from the University of Maryland's Global Land Analysis and Discovery (UMD's GLAD) laboratory. Researchers found that a typical forest fire season burns 3 million more hectares (7.4 million acres) than in 2001.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors approved a $25 million contract to construct a facility that will bring the dispatch units of the sheriff's office and Cal Fire/ San Luis Obispo County Fire under one roof.

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - Ohio hog farmer Joe Brandt changed his operation a few years ago to give his pigs more room and keep pregnant sows out of the narrow crates used by most farms. Brandt said he wanted to treat his pigs more humanely, but in doing so he also created a niche for his family business amid heightened concerns about the treatment of animals, and that enabled him to charge higher prices for the pigs.

Supporters of Proposition 12 say states could lose the ability to regulate sales of products based on climate impacts and other concerns, if the Supreme Court strikes down the California law that prescribes sow-housing standards for pork sold in the state.

PUBLISHED ON WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Purdue University's Center for Food Demand Analysis and Sustainability has added a meat sentiment dashboard to its roster of free-access food system dashboards. The new dashboard, updated weekly, shows the sentiment and volume of meat and meat alternative mentions in social media and online news.

The first case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in California in 2022 was confirmed on August 22. The affected flock was a commercial broiler breeder flock, located in Fresno County. There were 33,900 chickens in that flock, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

VENTURA CO., Calif. - UC Cooperative Extension Ventura County recently hosted a Pierce's disease grapevine demonstration meeting at Ojai Vineyard, in collaboration with owner and long-time winemaker Adam Tolmach. Participants were invited to taste wines made from the new varieties as well as examine the vines.

Drones hovering over grape vines-that's the sight you may see when you visit Gamble Family Vineyards in the Oakville region of Napa Valley, California. There, proprietor Tom Gamble and his team send up drones regularly to collect data on the vineyards, health of the vines, and the effect of recent weather.

OPINION AND COMMENTARY The drought conditions in California are putting a severe strain on families and critical workers throughout our state. Many water districts have already imposed restrictions on personal water use, and there are likely mandatory statewide cuts in the near future.

This story was updated on Aug. 16 with news announced by the US Bureau of Reclamation Arizona and Nevada will face steeper cuts to Colorado River water in 2023 as drought continues to deepen, but California will once again be spared - at least for now.

As climate change increases the number of extreme weather events, such as megadroughts, groundwater management is key for sustaining water supply. But current groundwater monitoring tools are either costly or insufficient for deeper aquifers, limiting our ability to monitor and practice sustainable management in populated areas.

Two San Luis Obispo County water recycling projects are getting big boosts in funding from the federal government. Morro Bay's water reclamation facility project was allocated more than $9.3 million and Pismo Beach was allocated $14.1 million for the Central Coast Blue project from the U.S. Department of the Interior on Thursday.

California has seen a significant increase in the amount of farmland left unplanted, mostly due to the drought, according to a recent report. U.S. Department of Agriculture data shows there are more than 531,000 acres of unplanted land in the state, an increase of about 36% from a year ago.

As part of ongoing efforts to help small communities address water supply challenges amid extreme drought and build water resilience for the future, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced its eighth round of funding through the Small Community Drought Relief Program.