Category: Policy

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Drought adds pressure on Central Valley farmers as other factors cause food prices to rise. Dan Sumner comments on drought and food price

Snowpack statewide is only at 59% of its April 1 average, based on electronic measurements according to the California Department of Water Resources. Farmers in the Central Valley producing water-intensive crops such as almonds and tomatoes are already facing some difficult choices. “It’s really serious, particularly in the Central Valley.”

UC Davis Agricultural Economist Daniel Sumner

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Daniel Sumner to testify on November 18 at the State Assembly Committee hearing on the Economic Impact of Wildfires for California Agriculture

The Impact of Wildfires on California Agriculture
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
State Capitol, Room 4202

Panel 1: Overview of the Impact of Wildfires on California Agriculture

  • Chief Nick Schuler, Acting Deputy Director for Communications, CalFire o
    • Overview of California Wildfires
  • Professor Dan Sumner, University of California – Davis
    • Economic Impact of Wildfires on Agriculture
  • Kevin Masuhara, Deputy Secretary Administration and Finance, California Department of Food and Agriculture
    • Emergency Services – Fairgrounds and CA Animal Response Emergency System (C.A.R.E.S)

Panel 2: Examples of Specific Wildfire Impacts on Farms, Farmland, and Farmworkers

  • Jamie Johansson, President, California Farm Bureau
  • Eddie Campos, No Boundaries Farm
  • Dr. Dave Daley, Rancher, California Cattlemen Association
  • Karissa Kruse, President, Sonoma County Winegrowers
  • Cole Mazariegos-Anastassiou, Brisa de Ano Farm
  • Arnulfo Solorio, Director, Napa Valley Farmworker Foundation

Panel 3: Agricultural-based Wildfire Mitigation

  • Dan Macon, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources/California Woolgrowers)
    • Targeted Grazing and Wildfire Fuel Reduction
  • Kara Heckert, American Farmland Trust
    • Agriculture Land Preservation and Wildfire Mitigation

Closing remarks

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Statistical Review of California’s Organic Agriculture, by Wei, Goodhue, Muramoto, and 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.

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Professors Sexton and Sumner critique Misguided “Price-Gouging” Lawsuit in New Wall Street Journal Opinion Piece

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.

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Want to understand the laws of supply and demand? Watch the dairy industry

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.”

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A Big Rat in Congress Helped California Farmers in Their War Against Invasive Species

Climate change did not create the issue of invasive species. But shifting temperatures and changing environmental conditions are making the problem worse and pushing species into new areas of the state, said Daniel Sumner, director of the University of California Agricultural Issues Center.

“Both more uncertainty and the slowly evolving climates will make pest control more costly and complicated in most places,” he said.

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