Fruit Fly Quarantine in California and Vilsack Reaction to Census

**Seven counties remain under quarantine in a battle to eradicate and stop the spread of four different fruit fly species that agricultural officials say could wreak havoc on California farms and hundreds of crops.

The Oriental fruit fly triggered quarantines in parts of Santa Clara, Contra Costa, Sacramento, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

Parts of Los Angeles County have been under quarantines after findings of the Mediterranean, Tau and Queensland fruit flies.

**Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack’s reaction to last week’s release of the 2022 Census of Agriculture underscores, in his words, it’s imperative we continue to deliver agriculture policies that create multiple streams of income and new, more competitive models for small- and mid-sized farms.

He says a combination of trade wars, the pandemic and policies that furthered a ‘get big or get out’ mentality pushed more people out of farming in the five years since the last Census, than in any other Census period this century.

**American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duvall is asking the Environmental Protection Agency to allow farmers to use existing dicamba stocks for the upcoming season.

An Arizona court vacated the registration of three dicamba products critically important for farmers in fighting resistant weeds.

Duvall says without those products, not only are their substantial investments at risk, but farmers don’t know how they’ll protect their crops.