Agriculture

The state's farmers are divided over a bill that would loosen rules protecting agricultural land. The goal of a bill proposed by Assembly Democrat Buffy Wicks is to seed solar farms on fallowed fields.

Gov. Gavin Newsom failed to fast-track the Delta tunnel proposal in the June budget bill. Now he hopes lawmakers approve it before the legislative session ends.

A conflict in the Imperial Valley offers a window into an increasingly sharp debate within California's $60 billion agricultural sector over what should happen as acreage devoted to crops and livestock shrinks.

California is still No. 1 in agriculture, generating $60 billion a year, but other industries have more clout. The state plans to double subsidies to films, which amount to half that.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s fellow Democrats in the Legislature usually let him use the budget process to push his priority bills and minimize debate. Not this time.

The Delta faces a funding crisis to repair and maintain an aging network of 1,100 miles of levees. These earthen berms, mostly on private land, could rupture and endanger half a million people and flood thousands of acres of farmland.

Food aid is one of numerous competing priorities California lawmakers will have to juggle in the face of steep potential federal cuts.

Long Beach residents near companies that use methyl bromide are angry that air quality officials didn’t notify them for years and haven’t assessed their health risks. Now officials say more facilities are operating in San Pedro and Compton.

President Trump's wild verbal justifications for his fire-related executive order, calling for a complete overhaul of Delta water delivery to California farms, provides the illusion that problems are being solved when, in fact, they are festering.

Citing the LA fires, Trump directed federal agencies to "immediately take actions to override" water operations and environmental rules. But the water mostly serves Central Valley farms.