Subject: Agriculture Sector

• Cesar Chavez Legacy, Half-Off!

  As if the once-proud United Farm Workers couldn't get any lamer (see tiny-ass picture below), along comes a UFW spring sale. "Sooner or later the march ends and you have to go home," goes their breathless pitch. "Bummer...but don't just sit there! You can still remember Cesar Chavez and support the farm workers' cause with 20% off on books, posters, audio/video and other goodies to brighten your décor and outook on life." Amongst the crap offered are coffee mugs, mouse pads ("Re-installin

  April 12, 2006

• Unfortunate Acronym of the Day

  Earlier today, representatives from the Arizona Interfaith Network, Irish Lobby for Immigration Reform, Kansas City's El Centro and the United Farm Workers set up a teleconference call to argue why comprehensive immigration reform is necessary. They met under the name Coalition for Comprehensive Immigration Reform, or CCIR for short. Of course, the famous CCIR 'round these parts is the Mexican-hating California Coalition for Immigration Reform. Given that CCIR head witch Barbara Coe was recently

  May 23, 2007

• Catching Mitt

  Hey parents! Want to pay a couple hundred smackers to bring the family out to meet a guy who has no hope of becoming president? And never mind that -- could anything be more appealing than a barbecue hosted by a guy who not only won't touch alcohol, but doesn't even approve of caffeine? That's right, Mitt Romney's coming to town to cook up some pulled pork (actual, not budgetary) for people who want to give him even more money than he already has. It's at 5 p.m. today at the Strawberry Farms Go

  August 13, 2007

• Orange County's Bad Sheriffs: A Brief History

  With the world going ga-ga about our federally indicted sheriff Mike Carona, what better time to take a trip back and revisit the county's more-jerkish sheriffs? Just a brief history, ma'am: THEO LACY (1891-1895; 1899-1911): Presided over the last lynching in Orange County history. LOGAN JACKSON (1931-1939): The orange grower who colluded with the District Attorney's office and other orange growers to brutally suppress the 1936 Citrus War. Issued the threat heard 'round Depression -era America

  October 30, 2007

• Funny Historical Quote of the Day...

  ...comes from Adelina Pleasants, author of 1931's History of Orange County California. In her entry on the county's citrus industry, Pleasants wondered whether "it is going to pay to replace all our fine walnut orchards with oranges." And you wonder why Orange Count historians are usually as respected as Tan Nguyen...

  May 16, 2008

• Foods to Show Country of Origin

  According to various news reports and this one from ABC News, beginning this week, the USDA is requiring that all food retailers label some foods with their country of origin. The law, called COOL (Country of Origin Labeling) will mandate that the consumer is informed where all "raw beef, veal, lamb, pork, chicken, goat, wild and farm-raised fish and shellfish, fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables, peanuts, pecans, macadamia nuts and whole ginseng" are from. Amid the widening Chinese milk sca

  September 30, 2008

• Massacre at Agua Caliente

  April 15, 2004

• Letters From OC Weekly Readers

  March 19, 2009

• Letters From OC Weekly Readers

  March 5, 2009

• Playing Hive and Seek With the Backyard Beekeepers

  February 26, 2009

• This Valentine's Weekend May Be Your Best Chance to Eat Oysters for Years to Come

  February 12, 2009

• Plow Boys (and Girls)

  June 5, 2008

• Bee Gone

  May 8, 2008

• Sisterly Concern

  UFW legend Dolores Huerta wonders why her old friends who run the St. Joseph's hospitals have turned on their own workers

  December 20, 2007

• Donna Buonos 7 Favorite Things

  Morning Song Farmer

  September 20, 2007

• The Spoils of War

  October 17, 2002

• Sty Life

  South Coast Repertory plays in the mud with Pig Farm

  January 18, 2007

• Scary Shit

  Our sick world frightens Greg Kotis, so he writes impossibly funny plays

  January 4, 2007

• Gunkist Oranges

  June 8, 2006

• Agrans Tree People

  September 2, 2004

• I Agronomist, Journalist, Gadfly

  April 22, 2004

• Like,Gross!

  January 15, 2004

• Fish-Free Sea

  November 27, 2003

• Art of the Fields

  September 25, 2003

• La Palma

  September 27, 2001

• Ringing the Taco Bell

  September 13, 2001

• Don't Panic, Drink Organic

  May 20, 1999

• Great Park, Nearby Farms Produce 100 Tons of Food for Poor

  Anyone else have a craving for a fresh orange?The Orange County Great Park at the old El Toro Marine Corps Air Station is just getting started providing thrills, chills and paid-parking revenues, but farming has been continuing out there through it all--much to the benefit of the Orange County Food Bank. One hundred tons of fresh fruits and vegetables from the park's community farm and neighboring farms ringing it have been produced for the hunger relief nonprofit so far, reports Mark Lowry, the

  July 16, 2009

• UPDATE: Organic Food "No Better Than Conventional," Study Finds

  ​As reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition yesterday, the British-commissioned survey, which took its findings from 55 studies made in the past 50 years, claims that eating organic food "will make no important difference to a person's overall health".According to Alan Dangour, one of the report's authors, "A small number of differences in nutrient content were found to exist between organically and conventionally produced foodstuffs, but these are unlikely to be of any public h

  July 30, 2009