California lawmakers must protect farmworkers from Trump’s deportation plan | Opinion

Protect farmworkers

“If Trump deports farm workers, who will be left to pick California’s crops? | Opinion,” (modbee.com, Nov. 20)

I read with interest Fresno Bee Opinion Writer Tad Weber’s column about the vast dangers Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan poses for the Central Valley as well as our entire national economy.

Deporting hard working taxpayers who harvest our food is ill conceived and will cause both far-reaching economic and social consequences. I urge our lawmakers to provide a safeguard against deportation of these folks who are, frankly, the backbone of our economy.

Joan Tilbury

Escalon

Season of giving

“Freeze warning issued for Modesto area. Here’s how long cold weather is expected to last,” (modbee.com, Nov. 19)

It’s going to be a cold winter, and local charities are asking folks to look in their closets for coats and jackets that can be donated to help keep low-income people warm. In this season of giving, I encourage those who can donate items or cash to local charities to do so. Local nonprofits like The Modesto Love Center, the Salvation Army, Modesto Gospel Mission and Church in the Park all have websites that take donations.

Any bit you can contribute is wanted and appreciated. Donations made in our community stay here to benefit friends and neighbors.

Daniel Marsh

Modesto

Protecting ag land

“If Stanislaus County wants to remain a top ag producer, it must protect prime farmland | Opinion,” (modbee.com, June 15)

On November 2, the California Farmland Trust celebrated its 20th anniversary in a 100-year-old barn in Modesto’s Wood Colony. While the trust’s offices are in Elk Grove, it seemed fitting to hold the celebration in Modesto where our story began.

The trust first started as a group focused on the bounty of and challenges in California’s Central Valley — one of those challenges being protecting agricultural land.

A handful of citizens began work on creating a farmland trust. Fast forward to today, Carol Whiteside and the persistence of many have helped permanently protect 18,259 acres of farmland in California’s Central Valley.

Jeani Ferrari

Founding director, Stanislaus Farmland Trust

Charlotte Mitchell

Executive director, California Farmland Trust

Shocked and disappointed

“COP29 ends with deal on climate finance after bitter fight,” (modbee.com, Nov. 23)

While the outcome of the COP29 summit in Baku may have been hailed as a step forward, the reality is far more concerning. As a climate justice activist and member of various ecological associations, I have followed international climate negotiations for over a decade. I could not disagree more with this article’s assertion that COP29 succeeded in “keeping the multilateral system alive.”

Although there is some modest increase in funding, negotiations at the conference entailed many compromising measures that effectively water down the urgent need to tackle the climate crisis. Alarmingly, it contains no clear commitments to the phasing out of fossil fuels.

What is perhaps most troubling is the failure of delivery on the needs of the world’s most vulnerable nations. Developing countries have long demanded more significant financial support, especially in the form of grants and not loans that would only add to their indebtedness.

Jorge Manuel Tun Rocha

Atwater