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A San Joaquin Valley lawmaker has been hoping to modernize water management in California by dissolving the state water board.

Despite rising costs for water and food safety—labor is the top challenge for farmers these days, for both availability and cost. A new event in October aims to connect specialty crop growers, agtech startups, investors and leaders in workforce development in an attempt to address this issue.

The Bureau of Reclamation only plans to allocate 50,000 acre-feet of water to Klamath Basin farmers this year, a drought-inspired move that has producers concerned about the 170,000 acres of cropland they hoped to irrigate.

AmericanHort has brought on Sara Neagu-Reed as director of advocacy and government affairs and Country Sweet Produce has promoted Prescott Leyba and Alexandra Rae Molumby.

The Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, hoping to develop and commercialize a source of natural rubber, plans to plant Taraxacum kok-saghyz in Ohio this spring.

Grocery prices rose 1.5% in March and 10% over the last 12 months, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Tuesday morning. The 12-month increase is the largest in 31 years.

The Biden administration plans to use the month of April to highlight the investments and initiatives included in the 2021 infrastructure package, including a Monday event in Colorado aimed at forest fire management and a Tuesday visit to an Iowa ethanol plant.

An early estimate from the Northern California Water Association expects a nearly $1 billion impact to Sacramento Valley farmers from fallowing land this year.

The Air Resources Board is looking closely at new products to mitigate enteric emissions, or “cow burps,” to help California meet its 2030 target of reducing livestock methane emissions by 40% under SB 1383.