Topic List: Agriculture

Overview

Agriculture

California has been the nation’s leading agricultural and dairy state for the past 50 years. The state’s 80,500 farms and ranches produce more than 400 different agricultural products. These products generated a record $44.7 billion in sales value in 2012, accounting for 11.3 percent of the US total.

Breaking down the state’s agricultural role in the country, California produces 21 percent of the nation’s milk supply, 23 percent of its cheese and 92 percent of all grapes. The state also produces half of all domestically-grown fruits, nuts and vegetables, including some products, such as almonds, walnuts, artichokes, persimmons and pomegranates, of which 99 percent are grown in California.

Overall, about 3 percent of employment in the state is directly or indirectly related to agriculture.

 

Aquafornia news KJZZ (Phoenix, Ariz.)

Arizona ranchers, cities attempt to halt Mayes’ groundwater lawsuit against Saudi-backed farm

A group of farmers, ranchers and rural municipalities are going to court to try to stop Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes from pursuing her lawsuit to halt the pumping of groundwater by a Saudi-owned alfalfa farm. An attorney for the Arizona Farm and Ranch Group Coalition says they fear other farms in the future could be sued for their pumping of Arizona’s underground aquifers. Mayes is relying on a largely untested legal theory. She argues the company Fondomonte is creating a public nuisance due to the amount of groundwater it is pumping at its farms in La Paz County. She says the amount they are pumping has dried up nearby wells and has resulted in land subsidence. The coalition worries the outcome of the case could overturn existing water regulations and could be a dangerous expansion of public nuisance laws. But the real purpose behind the new court filing, attorney David Brown said, is the fear that if the attorney general wins in court, “this case is just the beginning.”

Other agriculture and irrigation news: 

Aquafornia news The Daily Democrat (Woodland, Calif.)

Bankruptcies show stress in farm economy

After a four-year downward trend, U.S. farm bankruptcies are on the rise again, and with uncertainties about the impacts of U.S. tariffs on export trade, there’s growing concern that the financial health of farms across the country will continue to falter. A total of 216 U.S. farms filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy last year, up 55% from 2023. With 17 filings, California led the nation. … Arshdeep Singh, a Fresno County citrus grower and director of the Punjabi American Growers Group, said there is no support for California farmers in the San Joaquin Valley who have been financially pummeled by impacts of the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Some have filed for bankruptcy or are on the verge of it as their land value has plummeted and their equity has evaporated, with banks calling on their loans.

Related article:

Aquafornia news Valley Ag Voice

SGMA creates winners and losers in Central Valley agriculture 

A decade after the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act became law, many California farmers still feel lost in the bureaucracy surrounding its implementation. A new study finds that, despite widespread awareness, real engagement remains low. According to research from CSU-WATER — an initiative encompassing 23 California State University campuses — significant logistical and representational barriers have prevented farmers from meaningfully engaging with their Groundwater Sustainability Agencies. The research is part of SGMA WAVE — short for Water and Valley Economy — a project led by CSU-WATER, a water policy initiative involving all 23 CSU campuses. The study focuses on 72 GSAs across the San Joaquin Valley counties of Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings, and Kern.    

Other SGMA news:

Aquafornia news Fresh Fruit Portal

California walnut production forecast up

California walnut growers are experiencing promising early-season conditions that suggest a positive outlook for the 2025 crop, the California Walnut Board (CWB) and California Walnut Commission (CWC) reported. These favorable climate conditions follow three consecutive years of average to above-average rainfall and snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains. The current growing season benefits from adequate surface water and replenished soil profiles, contributing to a strong bloom and early shoot development. Early walnut varieties began to show bud break in mid-April, with varieties such as Chandler exhibiting healthy shoot growth across California’s main growing regions. The orchards are currently in a critical growth phase, which is essential for nut development throughout the season.

Aquafornia news Grist

Farmers are making bank harvesting a new crop: Solar energy

Around the world, farmers are retooling their land to harvest the hottest new commodity: sunlight. As the price of renewable energy technology has plummeted and water has gotten more scarce, growers are fallowing acreage and installing solar panels. Some are even growing crops beneath them, which is great for plants stressed by too many rays. Still others are letting that shaded land go wild, providing habitat for pollinators and fodder for grazing livestock. According to a new study, this practice of agrisolar has been quite lucrative for farmers in California’s Central Valley over the last 25 years — and for the environment. Researchers looked at producers who had idled land and installed solar, using the electricity to run equipment like water pumps and selling the excess power to utilities. 

Aquafornia news Sierra Daily News (Susanville, Calif.)

California farmland values plummet as water concerns and market pressures intensify

The value of much of California’s farmland declined from 2023 to 2024, according to figures published last month by the state’s chapter of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers. Authors of the ASFMRA chapter’s annual Trends report attributed the declines in farmland value to multiple factors, including low commodity prices, high inflation and interest rates, overall high operating costs and regulatory impacts. Since the adoption of California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014, appraisers have noted a divergence in the value of farmland with two reliable sources of water and so-called “white area” farmland that depends entirely on groundwater. That trend accelerated last year, according to the report, with white area orchards in parts of the San Joaquin Valley losing more than half their value in the space of a year. 

Other SGMA news:

Aquafornia news KCRW (Los Angeles)

Torturing California’s almonds and pistachios to survive climate change

California is a national and global powerhouse when it comes to nuts. Recent data shows that the Golden State produces roughly 80% of the world’s almonds and 60% of the world’s pistachios. It’s a lot of nuts and a lot of money. But changing climate conditions are challenging nut growers. With warming winters and a propensity for drought, crops that did well 20 years ago might not make it 20 years from now. That’s where the plant geneticists and breeders at UC Davis’ Wolfskill Experimental Orchard come in. This week, Gabriela Glueck, KCRW’s Julia Child Reporting Fellow, takes us on a trip to the orchard to meet with two nut crop breeders who are trying to set up California almond and pistachio growers for success.

Other plant breeding news:

Aquafornia news The Fresno Bee

Opinion: Repurpose barren land for clean energy projects

… Nearly 1 million acres of farmland across the state are expected to come out of production due to SGMA. Without new uses for that land, agricultural jobs will disappear, local tax revenues will plummet, and our small towns, which are already stretched thin, will be left with few options. A 2023 Public Policy Institute of California report put it bluntly: without action, the economic fallout for the Central Valley could be massive. If we don’t find new ways to keep this land economically viable, our rural communities are going to suffer badly. But legislation currently moving at the state Capitol, Assembly Bill 1156, provides a lifeline by making it easier to repurpose fallowed farmland for clean energy projects like solar panels. It’s a smart, timely solution that protects farmers, supports clean energy, and brings jobs and investment back to rural California.

Other SGMA news:

Aquafornia news Agri-Pulse Communications, Inc.

Opinion: Rethinking irrigation to transform California’s agricultural heartland

… Today, 40% of the irrigated land in the (Central) Valley still depends on flood irrigation. It’s a method that served its purpose for decades but no longer aligns with current challenges. It’s inefficient and costly—not just for the farmer, but for the entire community that relies on that water. And perhaps most concerning: many producers remain locked into this system not due to lack of will, but due to lack of access to the capital required to transition. But change is already taking shape.  A new generation of companies, organizations, and public-private initiatives is proving that it’s possible to reduce water use without compromising productivity. And even more importantly: that this model of water stewardship benefits every actor involved. Every cubic meter of water saved creates value—for the companies financing technology adoption, for the farmers implementing it on their land, and for the communities that depend on water to thrive.
–Written by Jairo Trad, CEO & Co-Founder of Kilimo.

Aquafornia news Animal Legal Defense Fund

News release: Settlement reached in California water use lawsuit against Foster Poultry Farms

The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF) and Foster Poultry Farms have reached a settlement of the lawsuit filed against Foster Poultry Farms in 2020. ALDF’s complaint alleged that Foster Poultry Farms unreasonably uses water to slaughter and process chickens at its poultry-processing plant in Livingston, California in violation of Article X, section 2 of the California Constitution, which mandates that all water use in the State of California must be reasonable. While Foster Poultry Farms completely denies ALDF’s allegations regarding its water use and animal welfare practices, it has agreed to continue to work to improve water conservation and animal welfare at its Livingston poultry-processing plant, which is the largest chicken poultry-processing plant on the West Coast.

Aquafornia news Civil Eats

An ancient irrigation system could help farmers manage water

On a stormy spring day, Devon Peña stood atop a sagebrush-covered hill and looked down on Colorado’s San Luis Valley. Dark clouds had unleashed a deluge just a few hours earlier, but now they hovered over the mountains, veiling the summits above. Below, rows of long, narrow fields extended from Culebra Creek toward a man-made channel, the main artery of the valley’s centuries-old “acequia” irrigation system. This was the “People’s Ditch,” a waterway holding the oldest continuous water right in Colorado. … The acequia system was once dismissed by Western water managers. But as a changing climate brings increasing drought and aridification to the Southwest, time-tested solutions like this one could hold the key to mitigating the worst impacts of climate change, especially in rural communities.

Aquafornia news CalMatters

Opinion: CA’s economy was sluggish well before Trump’s tariffs

Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit challenging the legality of President Donald Trump’s broad imposition of tariffs on imported goods … but California’s economy was already sluggish. … California’s largest-in-the-nation agricultural industry, including its famous winemaking sector, is also shrinking, largely due to uncertain water supplies, labor shortages and the same high costs for electricity and fuel that the logistics industry faces. The Public Policy Institute of California has estimated that, “even in the best-case scenario, some 500,000 acres may need to be fallowed in the San Joaquin Valley” due to restrictions on pumping irrigation water from underground aquifers.
–Written by CalMatters columnist Dan Walters

Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

A major California city lost its river. Residents are fighting to revive it

For decades, residents of Bakersfield have lived with a river that’s little more than a channel of dust. The Kern, which pours from the snowy peaks of the southern Sierra, descends upon California’s ninth-largest city and, in all but the wettest of years, runs dry. A sandy, weed-strewn corridor is left winding unremarkably through the downtown, beside roads, beneath bridges and behind businesses. … A group of residents is trying to change that. Cooper and dozens of others are fighting to bring water back to the Kern River, hoping to create a lush, parklike centerpiece in a city best known for the sunbaked oil fields and farms that surround it. It isn’t an easy go. The river’s waters are already largely accounted for, some serving the municipal needs of Bakersfield and nearby communities, but most drawn for agriculture, the engine of the regional economy. 

Aquafornia news Fresh Fruit Portal

Weather outlook improves following 2024’s heat-driven drought

According to the USDA Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook (March 2025), 2024 brought historic heat to the United States, marking the warmest year in the contiguous U.S. since records began in 1895, according to NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. While 2024 also ranked as the third wettest year overall, key agricultural states like California and Washington experienced a dangerous mix of summer dryness and extreme heat, significantly affecting fruit and tree nut production. … In California, southern regions were hit especially hard. By February 2025, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported moderate to extreme drought across the entire southeast interior of the state. In Northern California, drought was less severe. The Sacramento Valley saw a rapid shift from no drought in July 2024 to 100% of land classified as abnormally dry by October. … The San Joaquin Valley, largely drought-free through the summer, also saw worsening dryness by fall, with nearly all land in drought by February 2025—over 60% at moderate to severe levels.

Other land drought news:

Aquafornia news The Guardian

California’s $59B agriculture industry reels under Trump’s wavering tariffs

… California is the country’s breadbasket, supplying roughly one-third of US vegetables and 75% of its fruits and nuts. But it also exports much of its produce – close to $24bn worth in 2022. This means farmers in the state could lose out significantly as China imposes retaliatory tariffs on American goods. … Already grappling with extreme weather events that have damaged or destroyed crops and water restrictions that added challenges, a spate of Trump policies – including attacks on agricultural research, a funding freeze of billions from the US Department of Agriculture, and crackdowns on migrant workers – have left farmers reeling. … But even as Trump takes grave risks with California agriculture in his attempts to rework global markets, few in the industry have been outwardly critical of his actions. Many growers are instead focusing on their confidence that the president will come through with campaign promises to make more water available for thirsty crops.

Aquafornia news The Harvard Crimson (Cambridge, Mass.)

Opinion: Harvard — hands off California’s water

… Just 100 miles northwest of Los Angeles, in California’s Cuyama Valley, an exploratory oil drilling project is moving forward on Harvard’s 6,565-acre vineyard. This project is the latest in a series of Harvard’s grabs on natural resources in the region that have worsened a critical drought of groundwater and endangered the area’s many local farmers and ranchers. To repair these harms, the University must, to the extent that it is able, put an end to extractive groundwater pumping and oil drilling in the area and instead invest in building sustainable agricultural practices that prioritize — rather than threaten — a human right to water. … From 2012 to 2018, Harvard purchased thousands of acres of arable land across California. Of these holdings, North Fork Ranch, acquired through the subsidiary company Brodiaea Inc., has been the subject of particular controversy. The land, historically a dry rangeland, was transformed in a water-intensive process by Harvard into the largest vineyard in the valley. 

Aquafornia news Ag Alert

Agencies race to fix plans to sustain groundwater levels

Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and $20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%. SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater extraction reports.

Aquafornia news Ag Alert

Commentary: As farmers endure disasters, relief is slow in coming

Catastrophic weather events wreaked havoc on U.S. agriculture last year, causing nearly $22 billion in crop and rangeland losses, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. California accounted for $1.14 billion of that figure, including nearly $880 million in damages from severe storms and flooding. The figures represent a significant shift from previous years, when drought and wildfires were California’s biggest challenges. Since then, atmospheric rivers, Tropical Storm Hilary and other weather events battered our farming communities.
- Written by Matthew Viohl, director of federal policy for the California Farm Bureau

Aquafornia news Ag Alert

Commentary: Where does water wind up? You might be surprised

Water, the essence of life, is an indispensable resource intricately woven into the fabric of our daily existence. From the food on our plates to the gadgets in our hands, water silently plays a pivotal role in the creation of almost everything we encounter. In a world where water scarcity is a looming concern, it is essential to explore the profound impact of water in the production of goods and services that shape our lives as well as the food we feed our families.
-Written by Mike Wade, executive director of the California Farm Water Coalition