Agriculture

"San Joaquin Valley farms are laying off workers and letting fields lie fallow as their water ration falls."

The Oregon legislature Monday sent to the governor a bill that would phase out the longstanding practice of burning off agricultural fields growing grass seed.

Ranchers and farmers are rebelling against a federal plan to tag livestock with microchips and track them birth to slaughterhouse for disease control and food safety.

The 1988 highway death of a family in Oregon, blinded by smoke from fields being burned for weed control, was a story so moving that it spawned a novel. Field burning is so common in Oregon that it threatens people's lungs and health. A legislative struggle to ban it remains unresolved.

"A House committee began work Wednesday on a comprehensive overhaul of food safety rules that includes more inspections and new fees on producers to pay for them."

Two key House leaders have introduced a bill that would drastically overhaul and tighten the nation's food safety system.

"When it comes to food safety, state lawmakers around the country seem to believe in the adage, if you want something done, you have to do it yourself."