Celebrating West Side Agriculture 2020

14 | HONORING WEST SIDE AGRICULTURE THURSDAY, MARCH 19, 2020
State government needs
to work with farmers,
not against them
Farmers have no end of
worries: Will it rain too little?
Will it rain too much?
What is ailing the bees?
Will the price of nuts be
high enough to cover my
costs?
State government can’t
do much to alleviate such
worries. But we shouldn’t
be increasing them by piling
more regulations and
reporting burdens onto the
backs of farmers.
Start with trucks. You’ll
find them on every farm.
Under a 2014 law, diesel
trucks made before 2010
are supposed to be removed
by 2023. Most of
the gross polluters are big
rigs used to haul goods
up and down California’s
highways. Since only a
relative few big trucks are
used in farming, farmers
were given limited exemptions.
A 2018 lawsuit forced
the state to alter its rules
for granting those exemptions.
Now, relatively small
diesel trucks – including
many pick-ups – fall under
the state’s stricter rules.
So a farmer who bought a
one-and-a-half-ton truck in
2009 to haul farm equipment
from one orchard to
the next will have to replace
it. Never mind that
she might use that truck
only six or seven times
a year or that it rarely
leaves the farm; it’s got to
go.
For keeping an infinitesimally
small amount of
carbon out of the air, the
small farmer will pay an
enormous cost - $80,000 to
$100,000.
That’s nothing compared
to the threat of lawsuits.
Farmers are not secretive,
especially with each other.
Sharing information about
what works (and what
doesn’t) is an essential
part of neighbors helping
neighbors. For example,
when farmers began applying
fertilizer through
ADAM GRAY
drip and micro-irrigation
systems – now it’s called
fertigation – they shared
their methods and now it’s
common practice.
Farmers are required
to share how much fertilizer,
like nitrogen, they
use with their local Farm
Bureau. Nitrogen helps
plants grow and increases
yields, but using too much
allows it to seep through
the root zone and into the
groundwater below. The
bureau compares yield
to use, and if a particular
farmer is using too much,
they are asked to explain.
Fertilizer is expensive, so
most farmers are amenable
to learning about better
methods.
In my district, farmers
meet annually to discuss
practices, problems
and solutions. Earlier this
month, some 3,000 farmers,
mostly from District
21, got together to share
information.
Now, other entities are
insisting this specific
farming data should be
public, making it available
to people who don’t
understand farming or
who don’t like it. Such
people could use that data
to sue individual farmers
for using more fertilizer
than they deem necessary.
Big, corporate farms -
still rare in my district -
have experts to deal with
all the regulations and reporting
requirements imposed
by the state. Small
farmers have only themselves.
Sadly, these requirements
are driving many
small farmers to sell out
and move on. Often, the
buyers of their farms are
large corporations.
As my friend Wayne
Zipser, executive director
of the Stanislaus County
Farm Bureau, told me,
“We’re seeing consolidation
of farms and dairies,
and a lot of it has to do
with regulations. The little
guy has to do all this reporting
and replacing of
equipment, but that little
guy needs to be out on a
tractor.”
Virtually everyone in
my district knows a farmer.
We trust them to farm
in safe and sustainable
ways. Why? Because it’s
in their best interest - and
ours.
Farmers in the Northern
San Joaquin Valley
produce food we can trust,
food we all want to eat.
Worries over water, bees
and fees are enough for
them to deal with.
At some point, piling
more regulations, rules
and reporting requirements
onto their proverbial
plates will mean taking
food off ours.
Adam Gray represents
the 21st Assembly District,
which includes all of Merced
and part of Stanislaus
counties.
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