December 26, 2012 Ag Alert 17

Paul WengerPresidentCalifornia farm Bureau federation

As a member of farm Bureau, you make possible an extensive variety of work conducted on behalf of family farmers and ranchers by volunteer leaders and dedicated staff. in the pages that follow, you’ll get a taste of the scope of the issues the California farm Bureau federation tackled during 2012.

As you read, keep in mind that the highlights here represent only a fraction of the advocacy that farm Bureau provides, every day. At the local level, county farm Bureaus offer a broad range of services, and the American farm Bureau federation works on behalf of farmers throughout the nation. in addition to services provided by CfBf, our affiliates the California Bountiful foundation, the California foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom and the farm Employers Labor Service add to the benefit of farm Bureau membership.

You make it all possible through your membership and your willingness to volunteer your time to help farm Bureau protect family farms and ranches throughout California. Thank you.

CFBF Second Vice President Jamie Johansson, President Paul Wenger and First Vice President Kenny Watkins

FARM BUREAU:Working for you

During 2012, Farm Bureau:

Conserving farmland

➤  organized, coordinated and sustained a grassroots effort in response to a draft Central Valley flood Protection Plan, pointing out its significant impacts on farmland, leading to expansion of the plan to address issues important to private landowners and local communities.

➤  Joined in a lawsuit challenging environmental review of a proposed highway bypass around Willits, citing the extraordinarily high loss of farmland that agencies would require to build it and to mitigate for its wetlands impacts.

➤  opposed the current plan for a California high-speed rail system because of the imminent threat the plan poses to productive farmland; submitted extensive comments pointing out flaws with the rail authority’s draft business plan.

➤  Supported successful legislation requiring mineral-rights owners to provide surface owners of overlying land with improved notice prior to entering a

landowner’s property and prior to disturbing the property.

➤  Coordinated with flood-control and water associations to form the Agricultural floodplain Management Alliance, to develop a solution for new federal restrictions on agricultural floodplains.

➤  Pursued legal action to protect the integrity of the Williamson Act from liberal interpretation of early cancellation criteria by a county board of supervisors. The cancellation was made to accommodate expedited development of a utility-scale solar power plant on land enrolled in the Williamson Act as prime farmland.

18 Ag Alert December 26, 2012

During 2012, Farm Bureau:

Making our voice heard

During 2012, Farm Bureau:

Helping you grow and market your products

➤  urged congressional action to finish a new, five-year farm bill; succeeded in encouraging an amendment to the Senate version of the bill reinstating a program that helps farmers and ranchers complete air-quality projects.

➤  Led a coalition that opposed farm bill language that would put California producers at a disadvantage to out-of-state producers selling similar products.

➤  Advocated to strengthen the ability of the national organic Program to take action against those violating the organic regulation.

➤  Worked successfully for additional federal funding to support California Department of food and Agriculture plant and animal disease programs, and advocated to maintain funding for important federal programs to protect against pests and diseases, support research and develop new markets.

➤  Helped instruct rural property owners in payment of new fire-prevention “fees,” protecting their rights under protest; conducted workshops and provided online information and forms on how to do so; continued to oppose the fee as a disguised tax.

➤  Sought extension of current estate tax law with an additional exemption for agriculture, and collected personal accounts of the impact of estate taxes on family farms and ranches for distribution to congressional offices.

➤  Testified before a House subcommittee about the need for a workable, effective immigration program to ensure a stable, legal agricultural

workforce. During his testimony, CfBf President Wenger said passage of a proposed mandatory electronic employment verification (E-Verify) system would be “a disaster for American agriculture” without an effective agricultural immigration program.

➤  Surveyed nearly 800 farmers and ranchers about their ability to hire enough on-farm employees; compiled results of the survey for distribution to congressional offices and the media as part of efforts to advocate immigration reform.

➤  organized visits by farmers and ranchers to every state legislative office in Sacramento and made multiple trips to Washington, D.C., to help elected officials understand the challenges that farmers and ranchers face.

➤  Generated more than 22,000 emails and letters to elected officials and government agencies via 22 fARM TEAM Action Alerts, which also provided

members with background and talking points on key issues impacting agriculture; sent seven general communications and updates to fARM TEAM members during the year.

➤  urged animal-welfare organizations to denounce an arson attack on Harris Ranch Beef Co. and to help authorities resolve the case.

➤  Played a key role in advising the Brown administration on how to achieve budget reductions to the California Department of food and Agriculture while maintaining its core missions of ensuring food safety and protecting against invasive pests and diseases.

➤  Collaborated with agriculture and conservation organizations to form a new coalition to advocate for economically and environmentally sustainable working landscapes across the West.

➤  Pressed for passage of a new forestry reform law that extends the length of California timber harvest plans, pays for plan review through an assessment on retail lumber and limits wildfire liability for landowners neighboring government-owned lands.

➤  Worked with a coalition of farm and food groups that encouraged voters to defeat a measure on the november ballot that would have required California-only labels for foods containing genetically engineered ingredients, citing the potential for shakedown lawsuits against family farmers and other impacts; the measure, Proposition 37, was defeated.

➤  Worked to assure that export destinations remained open to u.S. beef after discovery of a case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy in California.

➤  Successfully encouraged the Public utilities Commission to provide easier access to information about rules related to tree trimming around utility lines and other issues, through creation of an Agriculture information section on the PuC website.

➤  Worked with trade negotiators to assure that Trans-Pacific Partnership talks address issues important to agricultural trade. The agreement could boost exports to a number of Pacific Rim nations.

December 26, 2012 Ag Alert 19

During 2012, Farm Bureau:

Managing production costs

During 2012, Farm Bureau:

Increasing the benefits of membership

➤  Actively engaged in a coalition of farm groups opposing new, more stringent overtime payment rules for agricultural employees. Due to these efforts, and the engagement of county farm Bureaus, the proposed legislation was defeated in the Assembly.

➤  Worked with a number of agricultural organizations, including the American farm Bureau federation, to create an agricultural worker visa program proposal that would allow foreign workers to enter the united States legally to work on farms.

➤  Supported successful legislation to strengthen laws against metal theft.

➤  Sponsored successful legislation to add shade trailers and utility-terrain vehicles

as implements of husbandry under the Vehicle Code, making them exempt from vehicle registration when used exclusively in off-road, agricultural operations.

➤  Actively engaged in negotiations and arranged expert testimony in rate cases for public utilities including Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas and Electric Co., helping to moderate rate increases and saving agricultural customers at least $8 million per year.

➤  Supported a new state law that changes rules for net energy metering to enable farmers, with authorization from the California Public utilities Commission, to install a single renewable-energy system to serve their entire on-site electric load.

During 2012, Farm Bureau:

Enhancing water supply and quality

➤  Stressed the need for new water storage after state and federal officials released a revised Bay-Delta Conservation Plan, noting that farmers have consistently improved water efficiency but that efficiency alone will not solve California water problems.

➤  in cooperation with Central Coast agricultural organizations, petitioned the state water board to set aside new agricultural water regulations for the Central Coast region, based on violations of state environmental and water laws, winning a partial stay of the new regulations.

➤  Joined with water quality coalitions to sue the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, saying it failed to conduct adequate environmental review of potentially significant changes in water quality regulations.

➤  Took a lead role in responding to a university of California report that implicated agricultural applications of nitrogen as responsible for nitrate problems in groundwater, emphasizing the significant improvements farmers have made in

managing nitrogen and the need for solutions for those whose drinking water is affected.

➤  Actively participated in the Governor’s Drinking Water Stakeholder Group, identifying solutions that addressed nitrate issues in drinking water without harming farmers and ranchers; supported legislation to help economically disadvantaged communities where drinking water was affected by high nitrates.

➤  Continued working with the north Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board in developing a workable new program to regulate discharges from agricultural lands; participated in a separate, collaborative effort to help the regional board craft a new program for how dairy farmers deal with waste discharges from their livestock.

➤  Achieved a significant reversal of an earlier proposal for stringent regulation, when the State Water Resources Control Board staff recommended that most rural residents who have working septic tank systems on their property need take no further action other than routine maintenance.

➤  Defended in court a Ventura County water district’s rate-setting practices for agricultural water use and, in a separate case, filed a challenge to a protest election procedure involving agricultural water rate increases in imperial County.

➤  Participated in proceedings involving the Delta Stewardship Council, Bay-Delta Conservation Plan and State Water Resources Control Board involving statewide agricultural water supplies.

➤  Developed and expanded relationships with industry partners that broadened oppor-tunities for farm Bureau and its members.

➤  Established a membership program for the California Bountiful foundation, also launching a website and social media

channels to engage and educate urban residents.

➤  organized public outreach events through the California Bountiful foundation to showcase farmers, ranchers, winemakers and chefs. Events were held in

San francisco, Anderson, Sacramento and St. Helena.

➤  Established a monthly membership newsletter to share news and information about current programs and invitations to upcoming events.

20 Ag Alert December 26, 2012

During 2012, Farm Bureau:

Standing up against onerous regulation

➤  Conducted a comprehensive, successful effort including a fARM TEAM alert campaign to encourage Gov. Brown to veto two heat illness bills. The legislation would have placed additional burdens on farmers who already work under comprehensive heat-safety regulations.

➤  Encouraged members to urge the u.S. Department of Labor to drop proposed regulations that would have greatly restricted the opportunity for young people to work on farms and ranches. The department ultimately abandoned the proposed rules.

➤  Supported water users along the Russian River watershed in their successful court challenge against severely restrictive regulations on the use of sprinkler irrigation to protect vines from frost.

➤  Supported a legal challenge by Siskiyou County water users to Department of fish and Game efforts to require streambed alteration agreements simply to exercise longstanding water rights.

➤  organized a large coalition of groups opposed to bills that would have expanded state Department of fish and

Game authority to fine people believed to be violating the fish and Game Code, and would have allowed individuals to enforce the code through private lawsuits; each bill failed to advance out of the Legislature.

➤  Arranged field trips to give state air-quality officials a better understanding of the impact of possible new regulations on tractors and other off-road farm equipment; encouraged participation in the public process that could lead to the new rules.

➤  opposed a u.S. Environmental Protection Agency plan to require duplicative reporting requirements for livestock farms, and welcomed the EPA decision to drop the proposal.

➤  Joined in a petition that caused the u.S. fish and Wildlife Service to take a closer look at whether to “delist” or reclassify six protected species found mostly in California.

➤  Appealed a forest Service grazing allotment decision regarding the Yosemite toad, to ensure that the best available science is used in developing grazing management standards on public lands.

➤  Successfully opposed a bill that would have granted civil fine authority to the California Coastal Commission.

➤  Worked with a coalition of forestry and natural-resources organizations to seek solutions to new northern spotted owl regulations that affect timber landowners.

➤  Called attention to an environmental screening tool drafted by state agencies that would overstate environmental hazards and would block economic growth in parts of California that most need it.

During 2012, Farm Bureau:

Reaching out

➤  for a fifth consecutive year, purchased Spanish-language radio advertisements in key areas, containing information about how to work safely on hot days; placed prominent links to heat-safety information on the CfBf website; published articles in Ag Alert and conducted other efforts to encourage heat safety.

➤  Expanded the network of stations airing the California Bountiful television program with the addition of affiliates in Los Angeles and San francisco; earned a second grant to maintain the expanded network in 2013.

➤  Enhanced the farm Bureau presence on social media by launching a Pinterest site for California Bountiful and by increasing the number of tweets, facebook posts and interaction with users of CfBf and California Bountiful social media offerings.

➤  Responded to more than 450 inquiries from reporters from California and throughout the nation on numerous issues facing California agriculture.

➤  Launched the Central Valley farm to School Pilot Program—a partnership among the California Bountiful foundation, California foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom and state Department of food and Agriculture—to teach schoolchildren about healthy food choices and the value of agriculture.

➤  Represented farm Bureau and encouraged farm Bureau membership at events including the Red Bluff Bull and Gelding Sale, Colusa farm Show, World Ag Expo and Ag Day at the Capitol.

➤  Earned the national Shepherd’s Award for Media from the American Sheep industry Association for outstanding coverage of the sheep business in CfBf publications and broadcasts.

➤  informed farm Bureau members, legislators, news media and the general public through publication of 46 issues of Ag Alert, six issues of California Bountiful magazine, 50 weekly airings of the California Bountiful television program and 50 editions of the weekly food and farm news service.

➤  Made available a new benefit for members, Life Line Screening, which offers preventive health services.