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An infectious pathogen inside California’s pot farms is attacking cannabis plants and growing invisibly for months only to spoil a crop just as a farmer is ready to harvest. Scientists believe that it’s in nearly every pot farm in the state and could be causing billions of dollars in damages to the national weed economy. Hop-latent viroid, or HLVd, shrivels pot plants and reduce how much weight they produce by as much as 30%. It also destroys the amount of THC, pot’s most common active compound, that a plant produces, greatly reducing the value of affected plants. Advertisement HLVd was...

OLYMPIA — Washington dairy farmers and fruit growers would have to report to retailers whether they use slaves under a bill endorsed Thursday by Democrats on the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee. Farm groups, for the record, say they oppose slavery, as well as human trafficking and peonage — two other forms of servitude producers would have to report. At a hearing last week, farm lobbyists said the bill was offensive and asked the committee to kill it. The committee excluded some commodities, but kept in dairy and fruit. By a party line vote, the Democratic majority recommended the bill...

San Joaquin Valley growers Wednesday filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, hoping to reverse an appellate court’s rejection of their claim that flawed science was used to cut back water pumping in Northern California. The case already has been through U.S. District Court in Fresno, which sided with growers in a decision that would have forced federal leaders to rewrite 2008 protections for the threatened delta smelt. The dwindling fish population lives in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta where pumps divert water for Valley farms and Southern California cities. Federal wildlife agencies say water pumping is harming the...

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - As California faces a historic drought, a U.S. appeals court on Thursday sided with federal wildlife regulators who had recommended that the state reduce exports of water from north to south California in order to protect a finger-sized fish, the threatened Delta smelt. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against growers and California water districts in the case and said a lower court had erred in describing the regulators' determination as arbitrary and capricious. Reaction from growers was swift. In a blog post, Damien Schiff, an attorney for growers, said the ruling "is terribly...

That's the reaction of the USA Dry Pea & Lentil Council to the president's urging of budget negotiators to make the difficult choices necessary to reach a "grand bargain" to raise the nation's debt limit. "It's not going to get easier, it's going to get harder. So we might as well do it now; pull off the Band-aid, eat our peas," Obama said at a White House news conference. A spokesman for the pea council said it wasn't interpreting the remarks in a negative context. "We take President Obama's comment on the need to 'eat our peas' as a reference...

Shasta-Trinity National Forest - -- Mexican drug traffickers have expanded their marijuana-growing operations in California parks as state and local governments have tightened spending and slashed jobs and services. Law enforcement officials say the traffickers, taking advantage of the fact that there are fewer sheriff's deputies and rangers monitoring parks, are cultivating more pot than ever before. This year's multibillion-dollar crop is on pace to be the largest in history, said state officials. "It's a huge problem," said Gordon Taylor, the assistant special agent in charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. "California is ground zero for domestic marijuana cultivation...

French wine growers in crisis By Henry Samuel in Olonzac Last Updated: 2:25am BST 05/07/2007 As Richard Bourchet gazed across a dusty mass of gnarled, upturned vines in Olonzac, in the Corbières, south-western France, the European wine reform announced yesterday was far from his mind. Unable to pay his bills, 'vigneron' Richard Bourchet has been forced to destroy his vines in Olonzac, south-west France Only a few hours before these vines were neatly aligned and bearing the local carignan grapes but, unable to pay his bills, Mr Bourchet has uprooted several hectares that he has carefully tended for 25 years....

A lawsuit has been filed in U.S. District Court here by three migrant farmworkers from Thailand against two local growers and a Los Angeles-based labor contractor, alleging that the workers were underpaid and housed in substandard conditions. In the suit filed on Monday, some of the workers said they were forced to go into personal debt in order to get a job in the United States. They said they were promised work that didn't materialize. A number of alleged violations of state and federal law were outlined in the suit. It seeks class action status for all Thai workers brought...

WASHINGTON — Maryland Christmas tree farmers are combining savvy marketing with a bit of holiday cheer this year by donating some of their Christmas trees to U.S. military bases.----

Uncertain labor market, shortages increase some growers’ worries Cookson BeecherWashington State Staff Writer Southwest Washington berry growers experienced labor shortages so severe this year that some of them were forced to leave thousands of dollars of fruit in the field. They warn that labor shortages will likely intensify across the state in the coming years if Congress doesn’t pass some form of immigration reform that gives agriculture a legal work force. According to government statistics, more than half of all farmworkers are in the United States illegally. Jerry Dobbins, whose farm is near Vancouver, Wash., said that though he’s experienced...