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Calif. farm groups aren’t tired of winningCalif. farm groups aren’t tired of winning

Legislative victories highlighted 2024 for Farm Bureau, Cattlemen's Association. But there's more work to do.

Tim Hearden, Western Farm Press

January 16, 2025

2 Min Read
California Capitol dome
California's state Capitol dome.Tim Hearden

In his first campaign, President-elect Donald Trump famously promised Americans they’d win so much they’d get tired of winning. In reality, political victories are fleeting in a country as evenly divided as the U.S. And for farmers in an urban-centric state like California, victories are all the rarer and sweeter.

Nonetheless, agriculture industry leaders in the Golden State kicked off 2025 by savoring their recent wins. Among them was California Farm Bureau president Shannon Douglass, who heralded last year’s resounding defeat of Measure J, a Sonoma County ballot measure that would have phased out large dairy and poultry farms in the county within three years.

“We recognized that something like this in Sonoma County could easily be replicated” in other counties and states, Douglass told members during the CFB’s 106th Annual Meeting in Monterey in December. Farm Bureau offices at the local and state levels worked for more than a year to defeat the measure.

“Not only were they successful, they were extremely successful,” Douglass said, noting that voters rejected the measure by roughly 85% to 15%.

A frequent CFB ally, the California Cattlemen’s Association, is boasting on its website of a string of 2024 victories. Among them:

  • Securing renewed funding for the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program in the current fiscal year’s budget despite a deficit.

  • Killing legislation to subsidize “alternative protein” research and development.

  • Advancing a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that streamlines the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection’s contracting ability to speed up large-scale prescribed fires.

  • Defeating legislation that would have imposed significant costs on ranchers by requiring routine inspections of what could be considered standard-size gates.

  • Enshrining the environmental benefits of livestock grazing in state climate-smart policies advanced by agencies such as the California Natural Resources Agency and Air Resources Board.

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“You’re never tired of winning, and of course there’s always defense that could be played in the industry,” CCA vice president of government affairs Kirk Wilbur told Farm Press. “There are always challenges that our members face … We try to chip away at some of those challenges every year.”

There’s much more work to be done to make California more of a farm-friendly state. As Douglass noted recently, the state has lost more than 7,000 farms and fallowed nearly 1.5 million acres in the past five years, while costs increased more than $150,000 per farm in the same period.

Related:A Western farm community honors one of its best

The victories in 2024 demonstrate what can happen when farmers get together and speak with one voice. Ag may not have the political clout that it used to, but it still has enough to gain the attention of policymakers and other Californians. It’s important for food producers to use these groups as a platform to voice your opinions. And you’ll never get tired of winning.

About the Author

Tim Hearden

Western Farm Press

Tim Hearden is a more than 35-year veteran of agricultural, government and community journalism. He came to Farm Progress in 2018 after a nine-year stint as the California field reporter for Capital Press, an agribusiness newspaper. He spent 20 years as a reporter for daily newspapers, winning California News Publishing Association awards for reporting on flooding and drought for the Napa Valley Register and Redding Record Searchlight, respectively. He is active in North American Agricultural Journalists, a professional organization.

“I believe publications like Farm Press are the future of news and information media,” Hearden said. “People are hungry for thorough, accurate and even-handed reporting from sources that understand and respect their way of life. Ag media is one of the most vibrant and robust sectors in media, and I’m proud to be a part of it.”

A lifelong Californian, Hearden lives in Redding, Calif., with his wife, Sara, a preschool teacher and third-generation Shasta County resident.

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