File farmworker reform bill: Against long odds in the Republican-controlled House, a bipartisan group of lawmakers filed a farmworker reform bill that would give legal status to undocumented farmworkers and update the H-2A guestworker program. (Lofgren)
Midwest drought to wane: Above-normal rainfall will be widespread from the central Plains through the Midwest and into the Northeast during July, reducing drought in the region, said the U.S. Monthly Drought Outlook. (National Weather Service)
Pistachio farm flood disaster: The resurgent Tulare Lake has flooded hundreds of acres of trees on Makram Hanna’s pistachio farm in California’s Central Valley before the trees could bear their first crop: “To see everything we worked for going down the drain, it’s very hard,” Hanna said. (Los Angeles Times)
Basse heads Farm Foundation: Don Basse, president of AgResource Company, of Chicago, was elected to a two-year term as chair of the Farm Foundation, a nonpartisan organization that examines issues in the agriculture sector. (Farm Foundation)
Oppose Prop 12 override: In their zeal to obviate California’s Proposition 12 animal welfare law, farm-state lawmakers threaten the ability of states to pass laws to regulate the agriculture sector, said the Humane Society of the United States. (HSUS)