New state laws affecting farms take effect Jan. 1

By Caleb Hampton

Several new state laws set to take effect this week will impact agriculture in California. Beginning Jan. 1, California farmers and ranchers will see changes pertaining to employee wages, management of abandoned farmland, organic waste disposal, agritourism and immigration enforcement.

As with other sectors, the cost of agricultural labor will rise as California’s minimum wage increases in 2026 from $16.50 to $16.90 an hour. 

Under a 2016 state law, minimum wage increased by set amounts from 2017 through 2023, when it reached $15 an hour. Since then and going forward, the law requires minimum wage be adjusted annually according to the consumer price index, which is used to measure inflation. 

A new state law will impact the way counties in California deal with abandoned farmland. Assembly Bill 732, authored by Assemblymember Alexandra Macedo, R-Tulare, was created this year to help county agricultural commissioners compel landowners to clean up neglected orchards and vineyards.

During the past few years, lower prices for winegrapes and tree nuts left some farmers unable to afford the cost of managing permanent crops or of removing them, resulting in a surge in abandoned acreage and increased pest pressures in neighboring farms. 

“If you’re right next door, it’s pretty difficult,” Michael Naito, who grows winegrapes, almonds and pistachios in Fresno and Madera counties, told Ag Alert® earlier this year. “You’ve got to spend more because you get a lot of pest pressure.”

Current state law allows agricultural commissioners to place liens on abandoned properties that have been declared a nuisance and that property owners have failed to address after a warning. But the abatement process can take years, and it weighs on county budgets, as counties must pay to remove crops or control pests before trying to recoup the money by placing a lien on the property. 

“The current abatement procedures place a cost-prohibitive burden on the counties,” Fresno County Agricultural Commissioner Melissa Cregan said this year during a state Assembly hearing. “Local governments simply do not have the funds to front these costs.”  

Beginning this week, the new state law will allow agricultural commissioners to fine landowners $500 per acre if they fail to make a good faith effort to address a pest-related public nuisance within 30 days and $1,000 per acre if they do not take action within 45 days. 

“This process is something that we, unfortunately, need,” Macedo said. “We’re not trying to come in and be a bully. We’re coming in and trying to work with ag to solve a problem.”

A pair of new laws were signed this year to give California farmers and ranchers more options for disposal of organic waste. 

Assembly Bill 411, authored by Assemblymember Diane Papan, D-San Mateo, will allow small-scale, on-farm livestock composting under specific guidelines. Cattle ranchers in more than 40 other states already allow livestock composting. 

Beginning this week, California ranchers will join them in being able to dispose of a limited number of livestock carcasses on their own property instead of having the carcasses hauled to a rendering plant. 

A different new law, Senate Bill 279, authored by state Sen. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, will increase the amount of agricultural material farmers can send to composting facilities. The law was created to provide alternative disposal options for discarded orchards and vineyards in the San Joaquin Valley, where agricultural burning is no longer permitted. 

In recent years, as many farmers struggled to break even amid lower crop prices and rising costs, some turned to agritourism as an alternative income source. A new state law, Assembly Bill 518, authored by Assemblymember Christopher Ward, D-San Diego, was created to provide more opportunities for agritourism operators. 

The new law will establish a framework to reduce the regulatory barriers for landowners to host overnight campers on working lands. 

“This new law creates opportunities for agricultural producers to diversify revenue, build a new customer base and help more people experience California’s beautiful working landscapes,” California Farm Bureau, which supported the bill, said in a statement on the organization’s website. 

While immigration enforcement dominated headlines about agricultural news during much of the past year, few changes will take effect in the new year because immigration law is primarily determined by the federal government. 

However, like California’s response during President Donald Trump’s first term in office, the state Legislature enacted some policy changes this year in response to the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.

Under Senate Bill 627, authored by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, beginning Jan. 1 federal law enforcement agents will—except in specific circumstances—be prohibited from wearing masks that obscure their faces and identities. 

If agents choose to still cover their faces, they lose their right to assert “qualified immunity,” which protects law enforcement officers from individual liability for their actions, meaning they could be sued for violations such as assault, battery or false imprisonment. 

The law was created in response to the new and widespread use of face coverings by federal agents this year during immigration raids. 

Enforcement actions this past year were largely focused in urban areas such as Los Angeles and major cities in other states, though some farming regions such as the Oxnard Plain in Ventura County and the Bakersfield area in Kern County were affected by sprawling raids that lasted up to a few days.  

It remains unclear to what extent the new state law will affect immigration enforcement in California. The Trump administration has sued to block enforcement of the law, and administration officials have said agents will not abide by it.  

Under federal law, immigration enforcement agents are entitled to enter private worksites only after obtaining a warrant signed by a judge. In California, a 2017 state law prohibits employers from allowing immigration authorities to access nonpublic work areas without a judicial warrant.

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