May 20, 2020

Liz Writes Life

Garden

Those rains Saturday and Sunday evenings were wonderful! I didn’t do much in the garden early in the week, but did use the new weed eater on the rye grasses and weeds that are in the perennial flower area and around the house. Also used the hand-shears to cut-down Marlahan mustard out by the entrance of the driveway. Both made my wimpy arms and hands ache. Of course, there’s lots more to do, so I better buck-up!

On Friday, I finally started doing more in the garden and decided where to plant what. Yep, I lost three of the tomatoes, so in two holes I dug out two shovels of the soil (I think I added too much manure) and mixed in regular garden soil. The third hole, on the end of the row, I just made bigger adding the surrounding garden soil and will plant cucumbers there.

My neighbors had called and asked if I wanted any Roma tomato plants. They are not my favorite, but make a great addition to the Early Girls for canning. Romas are so meaty, they thicken-up the canned tomatoes. So, I went for a visit and was pleased with my willpower by only taking two of their 60 or so plants! They did talk me into seven Hale’s Best cantaloupe plants. I typically don’t have good luck transplanting plants like cantaloupe, but with this batch of rain and moderate temps I did plant four of the bigger five-inch ones. The other three need to grow a bit more.

Since I was on a roll, I also planted the two Roma tomatoes, six bell peppers, parsley, zucchini seeds, purple onion seeds and some apple (lemon) cucumber seeds. Finished-up around 8:30 p.m. It sure felt good to get so much done, but I knew I would be sore and tired Saturday morning. Yep, I was!

Because I didn’t trust that we would actually get a rain, figuring it might be a light shower, I irrigated the garlic, lettuce, spinach, peas, onions, potatoes and rhubarb. Did some weeding, but will have lots more after these good rains.

Then, in looking at my ambitious plans, I started wondering about water supply -- throughout the summer? 

The snowpack on May 1^st only measured eight percent of average; and I have heard some wells are already going dry. Hum, I haven’t had problems recently, but in several past years we had to ration irrigation. 

During the night I mulled it over and by Sunday decided I could reduce everything I wanted into two rows utilizing the soaker hoses. The third row has the lettuce, spinach, garlic and onions growing -- most of which will be done by July. So, I decided not to plant carrots or cosmo flowers in this row, or the small patch of corn, and just hand water the potatoes, onions and peas until they are mature. That should be sometime in July.

What I am suggesting is that many of us may have to ration our water, because of lack of supply or by city edict. Good luck to all of us. But, we may feel the pain that most farmers are facing right now.

Food supply chain

With this Covid-19 virus, we have quickly learned about shelves going empty. Last week I discussed the food supply chain and how losing one link creates problems. Although it took a while, agriculture is getting hit hard, especially when slaughter and processing plants are closing because of ill employees or employees that are protesting poor working conditions.

For years, small farmers and ranchers have complained the meat packing industry was becoming too consolidated, controlling and powerful. During the last 60 years, 90 percent of American meat plants have closed or consolidated into three or four major conglomerates. Much blame is put on the lack of antitrust enforcement for the situation we currently find our supply chain.

This is not new. About 100 years ago, five major meat packers controlled the U.S. meat industry. Congress passed the Packers and Stockyards Act to “assure fair competition and fair trade practices,” which had become deceptive, discriminatory and monopolistic.

In several recent news articles, the writers have reported the Packers and Stockyards Act must be enforced. Last month, U.S. President Donald Trump asked the Dept. of Justice to look into this antitrust enforcement problem and issued a critical infrastructure stay-open order for processing plants. What is also being expressed is the need to bring back regional and local meat packers. I truly hope this will happen.

Back to this current virus upheaval, dreaded drought year and a needed consistent food supply: There is a battle between Pres. Trump and CA. Gov. Gavin Newsom regarding the irrigation water needed by agriculture to grow food and rationing that water in favor of salmon or smelt populations. Unfortunately, a U.S. District Court recently granted a preliminary injunction to Gov. Newsom’s lawsuit against Trump’s administration. This blocks the newest (updated) biological opinions on species listed with the Endangered Species Act.

Our CA. Dist. 1 Congressman, Doug LaMalfa, was pretty upset over Newsom’s lawsuit and the court’s decision to put agriculture at the bottom of the totem pole. I agree. The ESA has been hijacked – for decades. Listed-species are used as a way to put government controls on private lands and, most of the time, shows little improvement in any increased populations of ESA-species.

LaMalfa said: “This ruling is an attack on farmers, whose essential work keeps domestically grown food on America’s table. Despite the State’s claim, the previous Federal rule will cause fish populations, including salmon and delta smelt, to continue to decline. For the State to side with the extreme environmental positions shows they have little understanding about our constituents’ livelihoods and sustaining our Ag economy.”

During this Covin-19 lockdown, we have quickly learned that we do have basic needs – shelter and food (including hand sanitizer and toilet paper) are at the top of this list. These are produced from our natural resources and amazing tech knowhow of our agricultural growers and businesses. 

Agriculture must be protected, encouraged and appreciated. If the ESA-regulations were improving the populations of listed species, most of those species should be un-listed – because their populations would be sufficient. Wasn’t that the goal of the ESA?

Since my teen years, I have watched agriculture with its innovative and dependable growers thrown to the bottom of the heap -- and scorned. It is time to truly appreciate agriculture and the incredible amount of food American farmers produce, not only for our country, but for the world. Yes, the supply chain must also be fixed and monopolies deposed. True capitalism is the key to a dependable food supply.

Liz Bowen began writing ranch and farm news, published in newspapers, in 1976. She is a native of Siskiyou County and lives near Callahan. Columns from the past year can be found at: lizwriteslife.blogspot.com. Call her at 530-467-3515.

 # # #