California ag chief’s plan for future includes ‘with innovation, small farms can be viable’

California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross is putting forward a five-fold plan intended to guide the direction of farming in the the state in the next decade.

Called Ag Vision, the plan calls for:

• Efforts to improve agriculture’s effect on the environment through smart use of water and natural resources.
• Investment in “healthy, local communities” that live adjacent to California farms.
• Support for programs that develop a “diverse agricultural workforce.”
• Enhancing understanding of agriculture among the state’s leadership and communities.
• Collaboration with state officials and communities to develop “simplified, less expensive regulatory compliance reporting and implementation.”

Ross called Ag Vision “a plan for every Californian, from those who care about the land and landscape and making it better for the future, to those who work with or live around farming communities.”

To create Ag Vision, officials said they used one-on-one interviews with “a diverse set of agricultural stakeholders,” along with roundtable discussions with various segments of California agriculture, including dairy and livestock farmers, berry growers, and tree nut producers.

In an interview with The Bee last week, Ross noted that while the state is a world powerhouse in food production, almost 70% of the state’s farms are less than 100 acres in size, producing specialty crops.

“With innovation, small farms can be viable,” she said.

Farming operations can be good neighbors, Ross said, a high priority In the central San Joaquin Valley, where farms exist near rural communities. That means developing better machinery to reduce air pollution, and finding alternative methods of pest control.

However, the secretary declined to comment on a controvesy in Tulare County, where some have accused the agricultural powerhouse J.G. Boswell of holding back floodwaters from the state’s record snowpack from a portion of its Tulare Lake land in order to plant tomatoes.

She noted the dairy industry has taken great strides to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, by 2.2 million metric tons, and that the almond industry has cut the use of water by 33%, and is halfway to a further reduction of 20%.

This story was originally published April 10, 2023 at 5:30 AM.