California Agricultural Issues Lab
of the University of California
Modern Farmer / June 7, 2021
Droughts in California have been part of agriculture for a very long time…California is a wonderful place for many crops and that has not changed at all.
AIC DIrector Dan Sumner
Marketplace / May 11, 2021
“So China has turned to U.S. corn, and that drives prices in the United States,” said agriculture professor Daniel Sumner at University of California, Davis.
He said American farmers have been growing more corn to meet demand, so they have less room for other crops.
“Corn takes land away from wheat. Well, that reduces wheat supply, and you increase the price of wheat as a consequence,” Sumner said.
How California farmers view climate change action and adaptation. How carbon pricing and border adjustments will affect farm economics in California. Growing use of electric tractors, trucks, and solar power on California farms.
Sumner presented data and projections for the long term future of California Agriculture to seed industry professionals at the UC Davis Seed Central Oniline Event on December 10.
California Ag Today / October 7, 2020
These kinds of volatilities are partly because of the shutdown and the milk market, even though there were some videos showing people dumping milk, that was not particularly common. It was terrible. It’s emotional for me and everybody else who cares about the milk market. You hate to see milk poured out. But it was a headline because it was rare. And I do think that was a temporary thing; it got settled pretty quickly. And the dairy industry has really been remarkably resilient. And the marketing side of the industry just did a great job.
Daniel Sumner
California Ag Today / October 6, 2020
It turns out the California government data on labor markets is usually quite good. But this year they get reports from counties and the counties are delayed or only partial reports. So what might look in the official data, like a lot fewer workers in agriculture, frankly it’s just not true.
Daniel Sumner
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) State Organic Program (SOP) oversees organic agricultural production, milk and dairy food processing, meat and poultry processing, and retail organic production activities. All organic producers, handlers, and processors must complete the organic registration before the first sale of organic products. The registration process collects information on commodity, location, sales value, acreage, and area. Registration by each operation must be annually renewed unless the registration is no longer
needed.This report uses the data provided by individual operations to provide number of growers, acreage, and farm gate sales revenue for the organic industry in California. Tables are constructed for each commodity, commodity group, county, region, and statewide using the CDFA organic registration data from 2013 to 2016. Registrations are aggregated by the year to which the submission applies.
New York’s AG Lays a Rotten Egg, by Richard J. Sexton and Daniel A. Sumner
A bright spot during the pandemic has been the resilience of the food supply, which kept staples on shelves. But now state attorneys general in New York, Texas and West Virginia are taking aim at farmers—and the market forces—that helped keep eggs on Americans’ plates.
What did the farmers do to run allegedly afoul of the law? They responded to an unprecedented increase in demand for retail groceries, including eggs, by selling eggs at prevailing market prices, which rose in New York from about $1 for a dozen large eggs from January through early March to about $3 on April 1. During normal times, our economy relies on price adjustments to avoid shortages.
The California almond industry is large, dynamic, and closely linked to other parts of agriculture and the California economy. Almonds generate billions of dollars of direct economic activity and interactions with complimentary industries create a linked chain of indirect economic impacts from the production and processing of almonds. Despite relatively low prices during the 2017/2018 crop year, wholesale revenue of California almonds was $7.4 billion and the industry generated 110 thousand jobs in California.
Marketplace / August 6, 2020
Agricultural economist Dan Sumner at the University of California, Davis, said that’s when dairy farmers started ramping up production.
“They have added some heifer calves that might have not made the cut a year ago,” he said. “They’ve kept an old cow on a few more months that might not have been profitable a year or two ago.”