from the President's Corner

Joe Sansoni

Wow, what a cold and wet start to 2023 we have had so far! I pray that everyone, their crops and livestock are managing to weather the rain and frigid temperatures without too much struggle. As an almond grower, I am concerned because it has not been a good pollination season so far. We had two or three nice afternoons in the very early stages of the bloom when the bees were happy and busy, however it isn’t likely that much actual pollination occurred because for the most part the pollinators had not yet come into bloom, only the early varieties. Possibly the self-fertile varieties may fare a little better this year because of that. As I write this, we are going on a solid week to ten days of essentially zero bee hours, with more to come. Only two days in the upcoming 10-day forecast are expected to be over 55 degrees, at 57 and 58, then back to 55 or below. The bees don’t fly much until temps reach 55 at a minimum. Any activity seen at the hives at these lower temps are mostly newly hatched workers getting navigationally oriented, or workers simply testing the weather conditions, realizing it’s too cold, and returning immediately to the hive. They will also not fly in windy or rainy conditions. So it has not looked good so far for the almond bloom. I saw pictures of almond orchards and beehives way up north in Glenn County that had 5-6” of snow on them! As bad as it is for the almonds, it’s actually an even worse disaster for the bees and their keepers! The bees struggle to make it through extended periods of cold, inclement weather when they are not able to forage. My beekeepers are headed back down from Oregon to do another round of feeding in order to keep the hives strong and ready to pounce in the hopes that the weather will shift to warmer temperatures and more pleasant conditions before the bloom drops completely. Local beekeepers are no doubt doing the same. Unfortunately many bees are trucked in from much farther away, and those hives are in peril of dying out or being severely diminished by the time their keepers make it back to pick them up postbloom. Whatever the scenario, it creates both economic as well as hive health hardships for the beekeepers that will extend far past the almond bloom. The almond bloom essentially subsidizes the pollination for many other crops that bloom later, so a reduced workforce of bees coming out of the almonds will affect the ability to pollinate other crops and will undoubtedly force an increase in pollination costs for those crops as well as for next year’s almond pollination. Some growers are saying a short crop year could actually be good for the almond industry, as that would help eat up the large carryover inventory and push prices up for the following year. A huge crop this year would likely be an even bigger disaster than a short one! However, I’m still hoping we get a few nice days before it’s all over. I really enjoy listening to the hum of the bees working the flowers on a pleasant afternoon!

On a different topic, this month we will be holding our 105th Annual Meeting on the 24th. I feel like this is an appropriate time to address some of the challenges MCFB and other County Farm Bureaus are facing when it comes to membership. The demographic of agriculture is slowly but surely changing across the nation, and it hits here close to home too. Little by little, smaller farms are selling out, going out of business, or being absorbed by larger farming companies or neighboring operations. Often it’s a result of an older generation coming to the end of their active days and not having anyone in succession to take over. In other situations it simply doesn’t make economic sense to keep a small operation going, especially if it is not diversified or has insufficient equity to sustain itself through downturns in the crop economy. This has of course already been happening throughout the past few decades and is to be expected, however it is a trend that is picking up speed at an alarming rate. Here in California’s Central Valley we are facing yet another unique challenge to all farming operations but especially smaller ones as SGMA regulations come online while our precious water resources are simultaneously being squandered much of the time due to hopelessly outdated environmental ideologies and practices. (I know we’ve had a record rainfall winter so far in 2023 but don’t think for a second that we are out of the woods regarding drought and water scarcity for agriculture.) Smaller farming operations simply don’t have the land or capital resources to be able to fallow a third or more of their acreage in a dry year and keep going. They will become victims and fall by the wayside. It’s a harsh and unfortunate reality. So how does all this relate to membership challenges for Farm Bureau? It’s pretty simple. The same amount of acreage will be getting managed (whether fallow or productive in a given year) by an ever-decreasing number of stakeholders. All those small farming operations were a membership each…sometimes multiple memberships within one family. As they sell out or get absorbed, the membership gets diluted and the revenue to Farm Bureau diminishes a little bit more each year. Some of the large scale or investment farming operations that absorb smaller operations do not even maintain Farm Bureau memberships. This is a problem that is facing every single county Farm Bureau in the state, and has been generating quite a bit of discussion locally within our own MCFB board as well as at the state level at CFB. The reality is that at some point very soon we will be forced to either raise dues substantially, or else implement a completely new type of dues structure entirely, such as by a per acre basis. If we do nothing, Farm Bureau will slowly but surely reach a point of insolvency both at the local as well as state level. Folks, we simply cannot allow that to happen! Many members think that the $275 annual dues are already steep enough. However, consider the fact that Farm Bureau is your primary line of political and regulatory defense, direct farm support across a multitude of issues, and lobbying at local, state and national levels. Sure, there are plenty of crop-specific and brand-specific advocacy groups working to benefit their grower members as well, but Farm Bureau is the one entity that ties it all together and works closely with other organizations for the benefit of ALL in agriculture! I encourage anyone who reads this to think about it and reach out to myself, any of our board members or staff with ideas and feedback on this issue that could help us define a fair and workable path that would ensure the sustainability of our great organization.

I hope to see you at Annual Meeting!