Challenges Dec 29

Mike Stephens

News Reporter

California Farm Bureau President Advocates

Protecting Vital Agricultural Economy

California Farm Bureau President Jamie Johansson opened the organization’s 103rd Annual Meeting with a call for climate-smart agriculture that is supported by policies that don’t compromise farmers’ ability to bring crops to market.

“We need to be allowed to be efficient,” Johansson told Farm Bureau members, “As we deal with climate change impacts and legislation coming down the pike, make no mistake. It is not a climate solution if you make farmers less efficient. It simply won’t happen.”

California farmers and ranchers are currently facing a historic drought that has resulted in severe cuts in water supplies for thousands of farms. In addition, California agriculture has been impacted by the pandemic, supply chain disruptions and wildfires.

Johansson urged protecting America’s largest and most vital agricultural economy in the face of such challenges. He called for California to protect reliable water supplies for farming by building major water storage facilities overwhelmingly approved by California voters who passed California’s Proposition 1 ballot initiative in 2014.

“First and foremost, we need predictability,” Johansson said. “This past year has been anything but predictable.”

Johansson said California agriculture is built on foundations from the generations that preceded today’s farmers and ranchers, even as agricultural production has evolved considerably over the years as it adjusts to an ever-changing marketplace, new regulations and water challenges.