Sonoma County supervisors to discuss ag industry wish-list amid economic and political headwinds for farm sector

Sonoma County government staff are set to embark on the development of sweeping policy changes aimed at bolstering the local agriculture industry, which has been looking to officials for help in the face of mounting economic and political pressures.

The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will be asked to endorse a multi-year plan to forge and implement policy dealing with historically thorny issues, including permitting, regulation of events, nuisance complaints, zoning designations, right-to-farm rules and land conservation.

The proposal also includes development of two new ordinances stemming from the local farm industry's ongoing experience with animals welfare activists. The board on Tuesday has the option of including drone regulations and limits on targeted residential picketing in its laundry list of policy work.

An OK from the board would authorize staff to move forward with policy development, but any change will need to return for further discussion and votes before implementation.

County staff and local industry representatives are casting the proposed work as critical to ensuring the health of local agriculture – an assertion reflected in an urgency resolution the board is being asked to adopt Tuesday.

"We need to provide agriculture practitioners with certainty and clarity in our policies and we need to allow for flexibility and diversification for land uses so we can ensure a bright future for agriculture moving forward," said Andrew Smith, Sonoma County's agricultural commissioner who oversees the Agriculture, Weights and Measures department.

The move comes against some significant economic headwinds.

The number of dairies operating in Sonoma County has shrunk from 60 in 2018 to 47 in 2026, according to a county staff report.

That report also cited a 2025 study by the California Association of Winegrape Growers, which found that between summer of 2024 and fall of 2025, 2,711 acres of vineyard had been removed in Sonoma County.

That would be about a 4.6% loss over the planted acres in 2024, according to the county's crop report.

The staff report lists "vineyard sector market pressure and subsequent removals, declining commodity prices, labor shortages, water constraints, climate volatility, and rising operational costs are placing extraordinary pressures," as driving factors behind the local industry's strain.

These challenges are not new, but mounting pressures on the local wine industry have driven the issue forward, according to Scott Orr, director of the county's permitting and land use department.

"It's really the state of the wine industry. We're starting to see grapes being pulled out and the general economic climate being what it is, if we were to not try to expeditiously jump in and see what we can do to help alleviate the pressures, the impacts will be greater long term," said Orr.

"Particularly because this is such a driving force of Sonoma County's economy, it doesn't do anyone any good to have land not being managed," he added.

The county's multi-year workplan outlines 30 tasks spread across multiple departments and agencies, including Permit Sonoma, the Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, County Counsel, University of California Cooperative Extension and the Department of Agriculture, Weights and Measures.

The list was created based on work helmed by supervisors Lynda Hopkins and James Gore, who formed a board advisory committee, and feedback from stakeholders delivered during a public workshop in April.

Prominent industry voices - including some who are politically active - were among those stakeholders including, the Sonoma County Farm Bureau, California Alliance for Family Farmers, Sonoma Alliance for Vineyards and the Environment and Sonoma County Winegrowers Association. Individual vegetable, dairy and poultry farmers, vineyard managers and farmworker representatives rounded out the stakeholder input, Smith said.

As it stands, the scope of work would be focused on the types of farming defined by the county as agriculture, including dairies, vineyards, vegetable farms and ranching operations. The policy work would not apply to cannabis, which is the only crop the county defines as "controlled agriculture," Smith said.

The "controlled agriculture" definition was adopted in December by the board as part of a significant overhaul of its cannabis regulations. Local cannabis industry representatives have urged the board to treat the crop as any other agriculture over pushback from neighbors and other agriculture industry representatives including the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.

County staff still need to dig into the details of developing any new policy or regulation change, but proposals have already begun to take shape, including for a set of fought-over rules known as the Vineyard Erosion and Sediment Control Ordinance, VESCO.

The guiding idea behind revisiting VESCO is to allow vineyards or orchards to replace grapes with other crops - so long as the footprint remains the same - and later replant the vineyard or orchard by obtaining a replanting permit, instead of the current regulations which would require a permit for new planting, Smith said.

Those in the local animal farming industry have asked the county to offer more protection against drones flying over farms and production facilities. After a 2025 spate of protests held outside the homes of those in the industry, including the director of operations at Perdue Poultry's Petaluma facility, the board on Tuesday will consider whether to add drone regulations and limits on targeted residential picketing to the list of policies for staff to develop.

Smith, asked why those specific ordinances were being floated as solutions, said the inquiry would be better directed to the farm bureau or "Petaluma poultry leadership."

"We have a vibrant poultry industry in the county and dairy industry in the county," he later added. "Agriculture and county leadership would like to see us maintain that."

The entire county plan looks as far out as Fiscal Year 2028-29, but the first policy recommendations could come back before the board within six months, Smith said.

Some of Permit Sonoma's share of the work will be wrapped into the county's General Plan update, which is expected to be completed in 2029. Changes to the county's noise ordinance and zoning code updates regulating events that do not have a physical impact on the landscape and low impact camping could move forward within the year, Orr said.

"What I did after hearing all of the various things that people were interested in, is try to come up with a game plan. What are the things we can do now, potentially this year, for people who are struggling?" Orr said.

You can reach Staff Writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MurphReports.

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