Business

I've been to plenty of morning meetings at the Stanislaus County Agricultural Center, and there's usually some donuts or cookies set out for the assembled people. Last Friday was different. I attended a meeting of a coalition dealing with the links between farming, the environment and nutrition. There was not a donut or cookie in sight. Instead, the organizers provided fresh and dried fruit, including tangerines that were as sweet as anything out of a bakery. On top of that, there was a loaf of bread and jars of peanut butter and jelly. A nice touch, even if peanuts aren't a local product. My story on the coalition's work is scheduled to run Wednesday.

Table grape volume in California is approaching 100 million boxes, according to the weekly newspaper of the state Farm Bureau. We grow a lot of grapes here in the north valley, but virtually all of them go into wine. The south valley dominates table grapes because it has the right weather for assuring that they have few cosmetic defects. (Shoppers tend not to reach for shriveled grapes, unless they're in a raisin box.) It would be nice if we could get in on table grapes, which store surprisingly long and are a major export. Maybe the researchers will come up with varieties that grow here.

Hundreds of California dairy farmers will meet in Modesto this week to talk about the usual things, such as the global market for dairy products and the rules on preventing air and water pollution. It's the annual meeting of Western United Dairymen, which is based here. In a sign of the times, one of the sessions will be about how dairy people can educate the public via Twitter, YouTube and other social meeting. I shouldn't be astonished, since I write something called the Farm Beat Blog.

A couple of weeks ago, I asked readers to suggest good places to see the almond bloom. Never mind that. The real spectacle is the green grass that's flourishing on cattle ranches thanks to all the rain. This is a gift from heaven, literally, because ranchers will can get by with less purchased hay this year. Three years of drought have brought big losses for ranchers who don't have irrigation (and that's most of them). The storms, of course, could hinder the pollination by bees of all those almond blossoms. It remains to be seen whether they are getting enough mild weather between the storms to get the job done. Here's hoping that the sun comes out enough in the next few days to stir the bees from their boxes while growing the grass even taller.

Sen. Barbara Boxer will hold a news conference Wednesday on the issue of packing chicken meat with broth or other salty solutions. The California poultry industry is trying to get the USDA to stop allowing the "natural" label on chicken packed this way. The state's producers, including Foster Farms in Livingston, pride themselves on their salt-free products and do not like to see rivals elsewhere using the "natural" label. They also say consumers buying these products might not realize how much salt they are getting - bad news for someone with high blood pressure. The California producers have some salt-added products of their own, but they don't bear the "natural" label. Boxer will join with the critics of the rule at a news conference in Washington, D.C. Our reporter in the D.C. bureau will be there.