In these photos taken on Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2013, near Fresno, Calif., farmworkers pick paper trays of dried raisins off the ground and heap them onto a trailer in the final step of raisin harvest. In Spanish, they say: “levantando la pasa” – lifting up the raisin. (AP Photo/Gosia Wozniacka)
AP STORY: Labor shortages, a new reality in agriculture?
I’m usually a big skeptic when it comes to labor shortages in agriculture. I put on my reporter hat and ask: are these shortages real, or are they just slogans used by the agriculture industry to advance an agenda? I say this, because for years – for decades – the U.S. had been awash in farmworkers streaming in from Mexico. …
AP STORY: Almond investors
If you spend any time driving through the San Joaquin Valley, the vast stretch of fields and orchards between Sacramento and Bakersfield, you will notice the almond trees. Hundreds of thousands of acres of almond trees, to be exact. An ocean of almond, orchards without end. Soon, in February, the trees will bloom into an immeasurable white coverlet. The Valley is where most of the world’s …
AP PHOTOS: Hmong women
In these photos taken April 22, 2012, Vicky Xiong, left, teaches her daughter Rachel Lor how to do Hmong embroidery called Paj ntaub at their home in Fresno, Calif. (AP/Gosia Wozniacka) In this photo taken June 6, 2012, Misty Her, assistant superintendent with the Fresno Unified School District, talks to children about her job and encourages them to read at Cole …
AP Story: Hmong women, from refugee camp to college
I often write about immigration issues, with special emphasis on the Latino community, the largest immigrant group. But California’s Central Valley is home to many other immigrant enclaves. One of these is the Hmong, an Asian ethnic minority whose people lived in the southeast Asian countries of Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as in China. The Hmong have a …
AP STORY: Levee make-overs lead to more development, higher flood risk
Here’s an accountability story I worked on for several weeks. At the end of December, the state of California released a little-noticed document, the long-awaited flood control plan for the state’s Central Valley. The plan called for major financial investments to fix the state’s levees and other infrastructure, and mentioned that about $3 billion in voter-approved bonds was already spent …
AP STORY: Meth boom in California’s Central Valley, nation
This is a sad story my colleague and I worked on this past week, on the heels of the horrible murder-suicide that I covered in Fresno, which was meth-related. Please read our story here or here — I wish we could do a follow up on meth rehab programs, because it seems there are few of them around.
AP STORY: Cantaloupe listeria impacts
Here’s my story on the effects of the listeria outbreak on those working in the cantaloupe business… and the repercussions of outbreaks in general on the produce industry. Read story here
AP PHOTOS: Cantaloupe harvest
Today I shot photos for my AP story on how the cantaloupe listeria outbreak is affecting workers and farmers in California and Arizona, the nation’s top two cantaloupe growing states. Here are farmworkers harvesting in the fields near Firebaugh, a small town in California’s Central Valley.
STORY: Trapper saves your oranges
This week, I went on a ride-along with a California citrus pest trapper who is trying to save orange, lemon and lime trees from a deadly disease. I loved about his job: the ability to drive into solitary, far-away places and experience the beauty of mountains and fields. Here is the story and link to PDF
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