Protecting farmland, water for ag

One of Tulare County Farm Bureau’s largest focuses for the past several years has been water. We have worked with a broad stakeholder body to support bills that would bring more water back to Tulare County and the entire Valley.

Both water scarcity and water quality have been high priority areas for engagement and advocacy in protecting our members and their working lands.

TCFB supported HR 23 (Valadao) to bring more federal relief and release more water to the San Joaquin Valley.

We attended San Joaquin Valley Protecting Farmland and Water for Agriculture Water Authority events and drafted letters in support of Proposition 1 funding to build Temperance Flat, advocating that building this storage must protect agricultural water and create new agricultural water.

We have been steadfast in our support of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act implementation.

Although Farm Bureau has not always been in support of this controversial legislation, it is now the law of the land, and we have worked to educate and inform local landowners about the SGMA process, and provide outreach on behalf of the Groundwater Sustainability Agencies in the County.

Several TCFB Board Directors are now serving in important stakeholder advisory committee positions, representing farmers on the GSA boards around the county and throughout all three sub-basins.

As new attacks have been waged on our farms and ranches, Farm Bureau has assisted with convening important meetings about water quality issues.

State and regional water board enforcement actions have placed an undue burden on local landowners, and Farm Bureau has worked to be a resource and a convener for dialogue about these issues.

As landowners brought on legal support, Farm Bureau’s role became more indirect, but important nevertheless.

At the County level, Farm Bureau has remained involved in several critical conversations about water with the Tulare County Water Commission and Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee. These appointed advisory bodies are charged with providing recommendations to the County Board of Supervisors on issues related to water, agriculture and land development.

Farm Bureau has been steadfast in their engagement with the commission and the agricultural committee to provide positions and input on the adopted well construction ordinance, a proposed groundwater supply ordinance (not adopted), and a groundwater exportation ordinance (discussion still ongoing.)

This past year on the land development front Farm Bureau has engaged on specific comments and advocacy with the County’s adoption of a Conservation Easement tool in the General Plan, and commented on the adoption of the longawaited Confined Animal Facilities Plan which the dairy industry has contributed more than $2 million to helping complete.

Protecting farmland also means working with local law enforcement, and in early 2017 the Sheriff’s office launched an innovative new program known as CSI Smart Water.

This unique product marks anything of value with an invisible tracking system only detectible by using specialized lights and equipment that our Sheriff’s office now has deployed.

Criminals will be easier to match up to crimes and thefts specifically with the use of Smart Water on our farms and ranches.

Farm Bureau was part of the launching of this effort and the dissemination of kits to farms across the County.

Also in support of theft deterrent efforts we engaged with the Agricultural Commissioner, District Attorney and Sheriff’s office to update and strengthen the nut theft ordinance in the county to continue making it more difficult for nut theft to go unchecked.

Limiting cash buying periods to after harvest, and supporting the agricultural commissioner in more rigorous oversight measures we have assisted the county’s nut farmers in saving their crop from theft.