Douglass heralds 'bright future' for farms

By Caleb Hampton

California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass applauded the organization’s principles and celebrated its accomplishments this year in an address delivered last week at the Farm Bureau’s 107th Annual Meeting in Anaheim.

“Despite all the challenges we have in the world, all the challenges we have in agriculture, we still have a tremendously bright future,” Douglass said. “I believe that it’s because of Farm Bureau that the future of California agriculture looks bright.”

A diversified farmer and rancher in Glenn County, Douglass was first elected in 2023 to lead the Farm Bureau. Last week, she was reelected to another two-year term.

Also reelected last week to two-year terms were Vice President Shaun Crook, a Tuolumne County forester, and Second Vice President Ron Peterson, a Stanislaus County cattle rancher and dairy farmer who also grows almonds and silage crops.

In her annual address, Douglass highlighted several of the organization’s achievements this year, including work by its policy advocates to reduce utility rates and to safeguard state laws pertaining to farmland conservation and to ranchers’ ability to protect livestock from coyotes.

“I think our voices were heard,” she said.  

Douglass also spoke about the Farm Bureau’s decision this year to speak out in support of California’s farm workforce.

With immigration raids causing fear for many farmworkers, “we got a little more aggressive in how we talked about that this year,” she said.

In August, the Farm Bureau president and California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas coauthored an opinion piece in The New York Times highlighting the essential role workers play in food production and advocating that a pathway to legal status be created for undocumented farmworkers. 

“We simply talked about why this issue is important, why it’s important not only on our farms and businesses from a business perspective, but why it’s important from a people perspective—and how we value and appreciate the people that work on our farms and are involved in our communities and our families,” Douglass said. “We are going to continue fighting on the issue.”

California Farm Bureau has long advocated for an earned pathway to legal status for undocumented longtime farmworkers.

Farm Bureau’s Annual Meeting also featured other notable speakers.

Rep. Lou Correa, D-Santa Ana, acknowledged challenges facing agriculture while committing to find solutions to support California’s farmers and ranchers.

“The health of the ag industry in the United States is an issue of national security,” Correa said. “We’ve got to make sure you’re strong and that you’re growing.”

Speaking with reporters during Annual Meeting, American Farm Bureau Federaion President Zippy Duvall expressed his conviction that California Farm Bureau will continue shaping state policy to alleviate regulatory burdens farmers in the state face.  

“I’ve got so much confidence in California Farm Bureau here to keep their eye on things,” Duvall said. “They do a tremendous job.”

With regard to farm labor and immigration reform, Duvall said he was optimistic that AFBF, which historically has not supported a pathway to legal status for undocumented farmworkers, and California Farm Bureau might find common ground and advocate for a policy solution.  

“I think we’ll be able to work together,” he said. “We need to have something done.”

Duvall also spoke about the important role Farm Bureau members play in informing state and federal policies that affect agriculture.

“We really appreciate your participation,” he said, adding that every time a Farm Bureau member engages with an elected official at a townhall meeting, in an email or during a phone call, “it goes a long way to helping us educate the people making these policies, and lets them make better decisions on the things that they’re trying to decide on.”

Also at Annual Meeting, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. CEO Patti Poppe participated in an on-stage interview with Douglass.

The PG&E executive spoke about the company’s efforts to reduce the cost of utilities for farmers and ranchers, build grid capacity and mitigate wildfire risks caused by powerlines.

Poppe noted that PG&E rates for agricultural users declined in September, and they are set to decline by another 6% next month.

“We’re excited about that,” she said, adding that those rate declines are the first in years. “It’s not easy to do in this environment.”

Poppe encouraged farmers and ranchers to take advantage of PG&E’s customer service representatives who focus on assisting agricultural customers. PG&E has 15 customer service representatives dedicated to serving large farms and another 15 who serve small-scale farms.

“We have a mutual self-interest,” Poppe said of the utility company’s success and that of California’s farmers and ranchers.

During her Annual Meeting address, Douglass also celebrated efforts by several county Farm Bureaus to grow their membership this year, including Lake, Nevada, Napa, Plumas-Sierra, San Francisco, Santa Cruz and Solano County Farm Bureaus, while also acknowledging efforts by the San Bernardino and Alameda County Farm Bureaus.

“We’ve got over 100 years of history—a whole century of work that’s been laid out before us,” Douglass said. “All that investment allows us to look ahead at a really bright future.”

Caleb Hampton is editor of Ag Alert.He can be reached at champton@cfbf.com.