Major issues confronting farmers and ranchers—including water use, employee shortages and increasing regulations—were outlined by California Farm Bureau Federation President Jamie Johansson during the CFBF Leaders Conference in Sacramento.
"The state is so big that there will always be something going on that we have to watch, that we have to react to or we have to change," Johansson said. "Farm Bureau will never go out of style and will always be relevant. We have always been willing to be part of the solution. Invite us to sit at the table and let us participate and we will make a difference."
Emphasizing the importance of being involved in the legislative process, the CFBF president said farmers and ranchers must take every opportunity to speak with elected officials and other residents of urban regions about the issues affecting rural California.
"There is only one interest group that can tell our story, and that is the California Farm Bureau—not food policy think-tanks and certainly not environmental groups—because you are the only ones who live it every day," he said. "Rural California will not be successful unless agriculture is successful in California."
Johansson said the state must do a better job of managing its natural resources, to store water, prevent flooding and reduce the threat of wildfire.
"Sixty percent of our developed water comes through the Sierra Nevada. We have to develop, maintain and manage our forests," he said.
Johansson outlined a five-step plan to improve rural California:
- Making sure agriculture is a part of the solution.
- "We have always worked to be part of the solution," he said. "We have done it on the local level, we have done it on the state level and we have done it on the national level. That is the commitment we give to our state and to our legislators, to our mayors and to our supervisors. When there is a problem, we are committed to being part of the solution. That is what we promised first and foremost."
- Regulators must have realistic expectations, because farming inevitably affects the environment.
- "If we are going to continue to be the largest agricultural state, the envy of the world, the expectation is that the environment is simply going to look different. We can come up with technology over time that mitigates those impacts," he said.
- The third and most important of the steps, he said, involves farmer-led solutions.
- "If we look at the unimpaired-flows decisions, they didn’t involve farmers, they didn’t involve our local water districts; they just involved staff at their level. They have to listen to farmer-led solutions if we want to make an impact," Johansson said.
- The fourth step is having a reasonable amount of time. Johansson noted that many new regulations come with arbitrary deadlines.
- "As these dates get closer, like they are with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, it is OK to rethink those dates to minimize the impact. As we look at these deadlines, we realize we need more time to come up with solutions. This is the first priority," he said.
- The fifth step is to emphasize the importance of ever-evolving research.
"Keep working the science," Johansson said, noting how research has helped farmers enhance efficiency in using water, fertilizer and other crop inputs.
"Science isn’t an overnight answer," he said. "We’re going to need time to evaluate that science and implement that science on our farms."
(Steve Adler is associate editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at sadler@cfbf.com.)