Articles by Betty Resnick

New legislation in California is designed to ease requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act, in part to encourage development of more farmworker housing. But the way the law is written may blunt its impacts, this analysis argues.

When an opportunity recently arose to visit my husband’s Canadian cousins in Calgary, I jumped at it. While I wanted to meet his relatives, visit Canada for the first time and see the majesty of the Canadian Rockies, I was most excited to visit the grocery store. In 2024, Canada was both the second-largest exporter of agricultural products to the U.S., representing 19% of all American agricultural imports, and the second-largest destination of U.S. agricultural exports at 17% of the total. 

Cattle imported from Mexico have become a significant part of the U.S. beef supply, raising the stakes for the Trump administration’s battle against an outbreak of New World screwworm at a time when U.S. cattle production is in a down cycle. Consumers are feeling the pinch of higher beef prices due to the reduction in cattle supplies, while ranches and feedlots in the southwestern United States that rely on Mexican cattle for their normal operations also are being hurt.