An interview with...

John Gamper
Director of taxation and land use with the CA Farm Bureau Association

 

One of the questions that was posed recently at a luncheon that we went to was should the valley even stay in the agricultural business? And that was something that a lot of people kind of cocked their head at -because of course when you think of the central valley you think of agriculture.

When you think of CA you think of Agriculture, when you think of Agriculture you think of the central valley.

But what's happening with our future? Are we staying on that track or are we really hurting our selves?

Well, farmers and ranchers are under a great deal of pressure in California, we produce about 27 billion dollars in farm gate value of agricultural products, 350 different commodities. Of that about 16 billion is produced in the central valley. Unfortunately, farmers are finding themselves caught in a vice squeeze between foreign competition where prices are set on a global fashion and local cost for inputs for labor, water, land, energy-which are determined locally. So they are at a very distinct, competitive, disadvantage for over seas producers who have very cheap labor, water, and land cost. So right now we're probably in the 5th year of a deep agriculture recession in California. And a lot of farmers are loosing money, hanging on, and they're facing increased government regulation, increased urbanization-there are a lot of difficulties facing California farmers. And if they can't make can't make money, if they are not profitable, then all they have left is to sell their land-whether its to another farmer or to someone who may be seeking to convert it to a non-farming use.

And is that the trend, is that what your seeing? Take me from now until, if you can, 10 or 20 years from now. If this, like you said we're in about a 5-year trend, if this continues where are we going to be in 10 to 20 years?

Population growth in California is the driving force. We're at 32 million going towards 50 million. There was an announcement for the first time in history people were leaving California faster rate than they were coming in. Unfortunately, that doesn't take into consideration the births over deaths that are still happening here and the foreign immigration. We're still seeing about a 14% annual growth rate in California which is significant. So the pressure from the coastal areas- people trying to find affordable housing and people just moving to California or just trying to find a place to live, they're looking at the central valley. So I think over the next 10 to 20 years we're going to see tens of thousands of acres come out of production going into urbanization. At our task as an organization is to make sure that state and local government provide policies, both state and local land use policies, that encourage efficient use of our land resources so that we can contain urban sprawl. And try to save as much as our agricultural resources as possible. Now on the other side of that coin, for farmers to be able to continue to farm they're going to have to be able to do it in a profitable fashion. And that means that we're facing increased cost of government regulation, increase cost of doing business with this most recent budget, increase in fees to just continue to do what we've always done. So in order for us as a society, if we are going to protect the astringent values of Agriculture resources in California, we're going to have to make sure that we encourage profitable agricultural operations. And that's essential, otherwise as the old saying goes, "Farmers are often land rich and cash poor," and it they're loosing money, if they're not making money and worst yet if loosing money their not going to have any other alternative but to find other employment and that would include selling their land.

Sad. What's your vision personally? Is it grim, are you staying positive, do you think this trend is going to end, or….

I've been working the tax and land use area for the farm bureau since 1986 and this is the worst I've ever seen it as far as the recession is concerned and that includes the recession in the mid 80's-when a lot of banks were calling in loans and forcing people into bankruptcy. There are very few commodities that are making money right now and with the increase cost of government regulation and as I said foreign competition, markets that were there in the past are now disappearing because China comes in with tens of thousands new of acres of production, and Fugi Apples for example, and all of a sudden that market in California disappears. Asparagus, another staple crop of the Delta is now on the decline because of competition from China. So we are in a cost price squeeze in this juggernaut of population growth that is consuming our land. And it's really our goal and I think it should be societies goal to figure out some policies that both use land efficiently and encourage farmers to stay on the farm to remain profitable.

We're suppose to focus on innovation. Things to keep farmland in the central valley. Any other things you…

I hate to be a harvenger of bad news. But in this most recent budget we've seen severe cuts in research at the University of California as well as drastic cuts in the cooperative extension, which takes that basic research and converts it to practical application on the farm. Farm Bureau grew up with Cooperative Extension and was a devastating blow to see their budgets cut 35%. And it will mean as the dean of the college of Ag said, we're essentially eating our seed corn because we'll see a brain drain in both research and cooperative extension that will be very difficult to replace.

So do we just throw up our hands and give up?

No, we stay working on policies and tax policy, and land use policies that will encourage profitable and responsible Ag land, farmland conservation.

That's a solution. But it sounds so grim. Is there anything else I didn't ask you or something else that you would like to mention? And again, try to push it for the future…innovation, about the future, what we're looking at in the next 10 to 20 years if there is anything I didn't ask you.

In the past, since 1982 the state of California, the only state in the nation, monitors the lost of farmland. We've had reports from 1984 to the year 2000 that have shown changes in irrigated farm land, grazing land, as well as urban built up land and all other lands that come out of Ag production. And in past years when land would be lost to conversion other land, perhaps more marginal land, would be brought into production. Unfortunately, with the growing trend of society to desire wet land protection and endangered species protection, converting marginal land into cultivation is becoming much more difficult. So now farmers are being pressured from both sides, with habitat acquisition from state agencies and well funded non-profit organizations and urbanization from the cities-so the farmland in the middle is shrinking because we are being pressured from both sides. And what we can do about that is to try to encourage compatible uses in these areas and protect the farmland that's the best farmland. Unfortunately, our valley cities sprung up where the water is and where the best soil is and they were created to service the farmers that were in the surrounding areas. Now unfortunately those cities are devouring the land that actually brought them into existence. So in order to solve this problem we need more efficient use of our land resources, smarter growth policies, and again encouraging tax policies and other policies by California that can make California Agriculture more profitable.