Farm Workforce Modernization Act Reintroduced and New Strain of African Swine Fever
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**Local agencies have learned more about next steps for six San Joaquin Valley subbasins facing possible state intervention after their groundwater sustainability plans were deemed inadequate by state officials.
At a workshop of the California State Water Resources Control Board, members identified a schedule for potential probationary hearings for the six plans.
Local groundwater agencies must implement plans to balance aquifer supplies within 20 years.
**Representative Dan Newhouse, of Washington, alongside California Representatives Zoe Lofgren and several other Reps from both parties reintroduced the Farm Workforce Modernization Act.
The legislation, which passed in the House with strong bipartisan support in 116th and 117th, makes meaningful reforms to the H-2A agricultural guestworker program.
Lofgren says it’s well-past time we get this legislation that serves the best interests of our country through the Senate and to the President’s desk.
**Chinese scientists say they’ve identified what appears to be a new strain of the African Swine Fever virus working its way through three counties in China.
The new virus appears to be a hybrid of the genotype 2 strain that caused the 2018 outbreak of ASF that began in China and a more recent strain in 2021.
Pirbright Institute Vaccinologists, say the new variant causes chronic disease in pigs, but it’s not as deadly as genotype 2.
