Friday, January 16, 2009

Senate Shake-up

On Tuesday, Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg and Senate Majority Floor Leader Dean Florez conducted a press conference to announce major changes to the membership and policy jurisdiction of the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Republican Abel Maldonado from Santa Maria, who had served as chairman for the past two years was replaced by Dean Florez. Maldonado will remain on the committee with fellow Republican Dennis Hollingsworth from Murrietta. Two urban Democrats, Loni Hancock from Berkeley and Fran Pavley from Agoura Hills will join with Florez in holding majority control on committee actions. Additionally, the committee’s name was changed to the Senate Committee on Food & Agriculture.

This signals an expansion of the committee’s customary focus (production agriculture) to a broader range of policy issues encompassing the entire food system including food safety and nutrition, sustainability, animal welfare, organics and other issues of importance to consumer, environmental and animal rights groups. While it’s common practice for legislative policy committees to be reorganized at the beginning of each biennial legislative session, Tuesday’s actions were highly unusual in at least two respects:

• Having the Senate president pro tem and majority floor leader conduct a joint press conference to announce the reorganization of any committee, much less the Agriculture Committee, is almost unheard of;
• None of the traditional agricultural lobbying groups received an invitation to participate in the news conference. Instead, representatives from the Humane Society of the United States, the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment, the Food Empowerment Project, the Center for Food Safety, Food and Water Watch, Whole Foods Market, and the Community Alliance with Family Farms shared the podium and expressed support for the committee’s new mission.

What’s the significance of these events? Quite frankly, they undoubtedly reflect a dramatic change in the “rules of engagement” for agricultural lobbying groups. With the president pro tem’s blessing, Chairman Florez now has the staff resources and policy platform to aggressively pursue major policy initiatives relating to the production, processing, and consumption of California agricultural products. Given the overwhelming success of Proposition 2, combined with the media savvy and grass-roots organizational abilities associated with groups that are aligned with the new chairman, agricultural policy issues will increasingly be decided in the “court of public opinion.” While agricultural groups are adept at lobbying and negotiating legislation in the offices and hearing rooms of the State Capitol, our collective resources will have to be harnessed in new and innovative ways to engage more effectively in what will be a much larger universe of debate. California succeeded in the Farm Bill debate on much of these same terms. We will have to do it again in a much more focused and sustained way. We have a good story to tell and collaborative relationships with some of these groups that will stand us in good stead. It is a challenge we should view as an opportunity!

Diesel Clean-up Funding

The Ag Council has joined with a board coalition of agricultural, business, environmental and health groups in urging Congress to appropriate an additional $1.5 billion from the Economic Recovery Package to fund the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA.) DERA is a federal grant program that allocates funds to the states to help reduce emissions from diesel engines. All sectors of the economy utilize these funds for a variety of projects relating to diesel engine retrofits, replacement and idle reduction. The program is administered by EPA, which currently has a large backlog in applications pending due to lack of funding.

According to a letter from Governor Schwarzenegger, California alone needs $1.6 billion in DERA funding. The tie-in to the Economic Recovery Package is substantiated by an analysis prepared by Dr. Robert Wescott, who served on the Council of Economic Advisors during the Clinton Administration. He states that such a level of funding could save 39,000 to 50,000 jobs and generate $6.8 billion to $8.7 billion in additional economic output. The actual economic effect depends upon the degree of matching funds that EPA is able to generate. In the past, EPA has been able to generate $1.38 of matching funds for every $1 of federal expenditures. Given California’s strict air quality standards, we can use all the financial assistance that we can get!

Welcome to Ag Council’s newest member

North Valley Ag Services, based in Chico, recently joined Ag Council. North Valley Ag Services was started by Chico Bean Growers to assist a greater number of agricultural customers with services and products that include fertilizers and supplies. Their main facility is located just West of Chico.

Check out their website at: http://www.northvalleyagservices.com. We are excited to have them on board!

General Session Speakers for Annual Meeting

We have a very exciting line-up for the General Session this year! Tony Coelho will be discussing the political climate in Washington, along with the outlook for the Obama Administration. Phil Isenberg will be outlining California’s water challenges with respect to the findings of the Delta Blue Ribbon Task Force, and Ralph Grossi will talk about implementation of the 2008 Farm Bill.

If you have not yet registered for Annual Meeting, please go to our website at www.agcouncil.org or give us a call at (916) 443-4887. Early registration is due today!

As a reminder, the following deadlines are of particular importance:

• Early registration with Ag Council is due by close of business (COB), January 16, 2009
• Co-op Leader Award nominations are due by COB January 16, 2009
• Ag Council hotel rates at the Carmel Valley Ranch expire January 30, 2009
• Registration deadline for the golf tournament is February 6, 2009