The ascension of Donald Trump to his second presidential term on Jan. 20 could loom over this week’s Organic Grower Summit in Monterey, Calif., raising questions about the discipline’s murky policy future while underscoring the need for labor-saving technology amid a threatened mass deportation of undocumented immigrants.

The policy ramifications will take center stage during a keynote address Dec. 5 by California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross, to be followed by a panel that will include Jenny Lester Moffitt, the USDA’s under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs.

The panel, titled “What’s next for organics?” will be moderated by Western Growers chief executive officer Dave Puglia during OGS’ final session at 11:30 a.m. in the main ballroom at the Hyatt Regency Monterey Hotel and Spa. Farm Progress and Western Growers are presenting the summit, which begins today, Dec. 4.

Moffitt, a late addition to the summit’s lineup, is overseeing an ambitious specialty crop initiative that included a combined $70.2 million on 21 research and Extension projects nationwide that address key challenges for both conventional and organic producers. Earlier this year, Ross told Moffitt she’d like to work with the USDA to make California a “preferred choice” for organic produce.

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“As we started to sit down with organic groups, that’s what we heard – we need to grow organic production and we need to grow organic markets and link it together,” Moffitt told the California food and ag board in February as she was visiting the World Ag Expo in Tulare, Calif.

The final panel will also include Yolo County, Calif., organic farmer Thaddeus Barsotti; Victor Smith, whose JV Smith Co. has farming, cooling and distribution operations in the U.S. and Mexico; Colby Pereira, chief operating officer of California-based Braga Fresh Family Farms; and other special guests.

Hundreds of organic producers and the businesses that cater to them are gathering for the seventh annual summit, which begins at 8 a.m. today with sessions on technology and soil health. Other sessions will cover topics such as pest management, production challenges and stringent new federal requirements for organic certification.

The summit will also feature a trade show and honor Grower of the Year Dick Peixoto of Watsonville, Calif., during the Dec. 5 keynote session.

Trump’s return

The event comes as Trump’s election on Nov. 5 sent shock waves through the ag world, as his proposals to move thousands of federal workers out of Washington, D.C., place tariffs on several trading partners and deport millions of immigrants in the U.S. illegally have been met with concerns among producers.

Related:Will Trump tariffs benefit agriculture trade?

Farm groups have asked the president-elect to spare their sector from mass deportations they say could upend a food supply chain heavily dependent on the nation’s roughly 2 million farmworkers, about half of whom lack legal status, according to the Reuters news service.

Western Growers’ Puglia recently told the wire service the group is encouraged by the incoming administration’s stated emphasis on removing criminals.

For their part, California Gov. Gavin Newsom and state lawmakers began deliberations Dec. 2 on legislation to set aside $25 million for legal challenges against various Trump policies, including those regarding immigration. However, a Scripps News/Ipsos survey this fall found that more than half of Americans, including a quarter of Democrats, support the mass deportation of illegal immigrants.

The deportations and tariffs are among several “land mines” that could interfere with the organic industry’s expected growth, cautions Chris Ford, the business development and marketing manager of the Mount Vernon, Wash.-based marketer Viva Tierra Organic. He is appearing on a panel today on industry growth.

“All can result in driving costs up,” he recently told Farm Press in an email. “This is not a political statement but the likely result.”