Assembly Standing Committee on Agriculture

Welcome to Fresno State. It's my honor to welcome you to this campus, which is your campus as well. I'll give you just a brief welcome about Fresno State, and then from there I'll give very brief comments on ag. And then, of course, I'll turn it over to our esteemed guests.

Fresno state is about 60% Latino, 15% Asian, 15% white, 3% African American, and then the rest comes from the rest of the world. Approximately 60% of my students are on Pell Grant, which means 60% of my students are low, socially, economically challenged. We graduate about 6,100 students a year.

So this last May, we graduated 6,100 students, out of which 80% after graduation stayed in the region. I say this to you because it really showcases how Fresno State is foundational to both the economy and also the society of the Central Valley.

We have about 300,000 living alumni, and within that, of course, alumni are all over the world. Especially here, though, in the Central Valley, you find in the just the County of Fresno concentrated, about 90,000 alumni are here, powering the economy of the region. In terms of ag, I grew up on a tomato farm.

I know what it takes to actually produce the food that is on our table. Within that, then, ag, of course, is foundational to our economy in the Central Valley. But more than the economy, I think what's important to notice is that we actually produce the food that feeds the United States.

We produce 25% of our nation's food within 100 miles of this region. So this region is foundational not only to food security, but also to national security. Any nation that is able to secure its food source is able to secure its national security in a very, very essential way.

Having grown up then in a farm, I am aware of the two big challenges that face ag today. One, of course, is labor. We do not have the supply of people who are willing or able to be on the field, sun up, sun down, each and every day to produce the food.

And the second one, of course, is water. And water, of course, is the essential element that is required to produce the food. Within that, then, we are making incredible inroads at Fresno State with research in both water and in labor. It is not enough because we have limited resources in terms of research.

Of course, our professor will speak about that in a while. So welcome to Fresno State. We are growing leaders that support the foundation of our economy, which is ag. And I wish you a very good day. Thank you for having me here. Thank you for coming to Fresno State as well.

Good morning. Presidente Jiménez-Sandoval, thank you so much for your welcome remarks. We are always appreciative of the CSU and of course, Fresno State. I think my colleague and I are just very appreciative of you being here today and it just really showcased the commitment that you and the campus have for the region.

So thank you again for the welcome remarks. Thank you. With that, we're going to go ahead and go in. Good morning, everyone. Officially opening today's hearing. The Assembly Committee on Economic Development Growth and Household Impact and Committee of Agriculture Joint Informational Hearing Making Sense of California's Economy caused pressures on California's food system and and household impact.

To ensure members of the media and public have access to the proceedings today, this hearing will be streamed on the Assembly's website. The members of the public can provide testimony in person here at California State University Fresno Smith Camp Alumni House.

To preserve the safety of everyone here and ensure the public's access to the discussion, please follow the directions of our sergeants. Thank you, Chair Assembly Member Soria, for hosting the Pocketbook Tour in our district and for joining me today to discuss California's food system and its impact in households.

For the record, we started this Pocketbook Tour in San Diego, in my district, in Paramount, in Los Angeles area, and now we're in the Central Valley. So again, we're very appreciative that the Assembly Member is hosting us here today.

This is a challenge that affects individuals, families and communities across every region, and especially as the rising cost of food places increasing strain on household budgets. I appreciate your time, commitment and addressing it together. California's economy stands as a powerful engine of growth and creativity.

Its reach extends far beyond state lines, fueling innovation, setting cultural trends, and opening doors to opportunity both locally and globally. Behind the headlines of success, many Californians continue to struggle to meet basic needs, despite our strong economy. Rising food costs and ongoing disruptions in the food system are creating a significant challenge for families, workers and small businesses.

Every day today, we come together united by shared commitment to tackling challenges with practical solutions. I look forward to a thoughtful conversation, one grounded in the insights and recommendations of our panelists, and to lead a meaningful challenge for California and the communities we serve.

I also want to thank the Alumni House because as a former CSU alum myself at Dominguez Hills, it's great that our system is doing amazing work for our state and our regions. With that, I will now turn it over to remarks by Chair Assemblymember Soria.

Thank you and good morning to everyone.

I want to welcome my colleague, Assemblymember Solace, who also is deeply committed to the issues that we will talk about today and for convening this tour, which I believe is great as policymakers to hear up and down the state, what are some of those challenges that our communities are facing when it comes to affordability and the cost pressures?

I also want to welcome all of you to the beautiful campus of Fresno State. Today, as the chair mentioned, we're meeting at the Smittcamp Alumni House. And this Alumni house is named after Earl and Muriel Smith Kemp. They're both graduates of Fresno State and longtime Members of our community here in Fresno County.

If you did not know, the Alumni House is also home to the world's favorite and most handsome mascot, Victory Bulldog iv. Again, thank you to Fresno State and the Alumni House for hosting us. We appreciate the hospitality. Also, big thanks to President Saul Jimenez Sandoval.

And again, I do also would be remiss if I didn't thank all the staff. There's a lot of work that happens behind the scenes and leading up to this. So to the staff here at Fresno State, to the staff from the State Assembly, our Committee staff, the Chairman staff, to make sure that today was a successful hearing.

Again, today's joint informational hearing will focus on the cost pressures of California's food system. What a better place than here in the Central Valley where we are and we call ourselves the breadbasket of not just the nation, but of the world. And so again, I want to thank my colleague for traveling here.

I want to thank the panelists and the General public also for tuning in and being here to be part of this discussion.

As we dive deeper into the discussion of California's food system and the cost pressures that we are seeing that are impacting not just the agriculture economy, at the end of the day, it's impacting each and every one of us when we show up to the grocery store.

And so while California is the number one agricultural state here in the U.S. we've heard, you know, California is also home to over 400 different crops and the Central Valley is leading and home to many of those crops. Farming here in California has many cost pressures. I've heard it time and time again.

I've done a lot of roundtables up and down the Central Valley and other parts of the of the state where we have ag.

And so I think it's great to be able to hear directly from our, not just our researchers, those in academia, but also those that are putting shovels to the ground and doing the harvesting year round and seasonally to ensure that we all have food on our table. The.

But I am hearing, and I think the biggest challenge we're hearing is really the cost impacts that those that are in food production and then also those at the end which are the consumers, that's all of us.

And you know, our families that are struggling today are really impacted by these cost pressures that are coming from multiple directions. And so I'm extremely excited to hear about some of the. The challenges.

But also, while we point out the challenges, I think it's an opportunity to talk about solutions because that's what my colleague and I are interested.

We are here to listen, to understand and to put together practical solutions so that when we go back to Sacramento in January, we are able to work together, hand in hand with many of you to try to tackle the challenges that many of our, our communities are facing related to increasing labor expenses, inflation, water scarcity, regulation, and then market fluctuations, which, you know, sometimes we can't control much.

These factors obviously are squeezing the profit margins from folks. I hear it every day, as I mentioned, which are threatening the viability of smaller family farms.

But I would just argue that actually all farms continue to face the same impacts and it could impact California's dominance in the specialty, specialty crop market, which I don't think is something that we want to see.

And you know, I would be remiss also to not point out that the Government's Federal Shutdown is impacting CalFresh, which is an issue that is tied, you know, to the issues that we're talking about today by delaying or halting the release of the November benefits for millions of Californians with potential for delays affecting all recipients if the shutdown continues past.

Is it tomorrow? Geez. Okay, so that's the reality we're living in today. And so the Federal Government has directed states to hold off on submitting November benefit data to EBT vendors. This delay would increase food insecurity for vulnerable populations and really will strain, not just make impacts for families every day that are struggling.

But what does that mean? It will strain local food banks while also hurting farmers who rely on sales of CalFresh recipients and potentially disrupting food safety inspections.

That's a big deal and we should all be talking about it with one voice so that folks can actually get to the table, open the government back up and ensure that we're putting people over politics in response.

Obviously, you guys probably have seen California is preparing to address potential food insecurity by deploying the National Guard to support food bank and has set aside about $80 million for food assistance programs.

That's our way of California saying, hey, we're going to step up and try to fill the gap that may be caused by the government federal shutdown.

And so today I hope that we will have a full discussion on the impacts of cost inputs, what steps are being taken to lessen the impact and look at how we can work to develop policies that will help keep California's farm economically viable.

This issue is deeply personal to me because not only do I eat food, as I'm sure you guys all do, but I am also the daughter of farm worker immigrants. I've talked about my story and so I know how important ag has been for my family and families across this region and the entire State of California.

And so I'm excited to hear what folks have to say and how we can actually come up with solutions and not just point out the problems. Thank you again all for being here this morning. Okay, we will start with our first panel.

In our first panel we will dive into economic drivers and affordability in the Central California agriculture. We have experts that will examine key economic pressures and their impact on the cost of doing business in household defined affordability in our region. We want to welcome Dr. Konduru, Chair of Department of Agricultural Business.

If you guys want to come on up. Also Caroline Danielson, VP of Research from the Public Policy Institute of California. Susie Prior, Regional Director of the Central California Small Business Development Center. Welcome and you guys may start. Thank you.

Good morning all. Welcome to Fresno State, honorable Assembly Members and the guests here.

I'm going to be making a brief presentation about the pertaining to the role of agriculture in the regional economy of in the Central Valley and also the economic impact on the regional economy that this agricultural sector is going to have and some barriers to growth or improvement to the regional ag economy.

So I may take about seven to eight minutes and then hand over to my colleagues here.

So the first aspect is I would like to give some information about the GDP contribution by agriculture to these nine counties which I have taken into consideration the San Joaquin Valley and which I consider as the regional immediate regional economy around Fresno.

And if you look at that, the last row, California, the total GDP $3.6 trillion and from agriculture about $48 billion. It is the Gross Domestic Product and constituting about 1.3% of the total GDP.

But when you look at these individual counties in the SJV San Joaquin Valley, the contribution is much, much higher almost in some counties reaching 20% of the total GDP. That is contributed by agriculture that shows the importance of the ag sector to the economy, General economy of this region.

And then this is a different look at the gross production value which is also can be considered as the farm receipts that the agriculture farms are receiving. Or these last 22 to 24. And some of the gaps are still to be filled. The latest data is not available.

But again as you can see 2023, if you are looking at it, the total farm receipts in California are almost 66 billion or $67 billion if I round it up. And from just SJV these nine counties it comes to almost $40 billion. That's almost 60% of the total farm receipts are coming from these nine counties alone.

And similar information from CDFA AG Statistics Review. What are the different products? And I'm not going to go into the details, but these are the different makeup of the agricultural sector in these different counties.

And coming to the employment, another aspect of impact here that agriculture is creating the total number of jobs that are getting created through agriculture. And again look at the state level, it is only about 2.2% of the total employment that happens in California comes from agriculture.

But again if you look at these nine counties, some of them are households are dependent upon agriculture almost in Madeira 22%, Fresno, 9.5% getting. Of course there are other many food related and agricultural related supporting industries which I have not taken into consideration here. But it is just the farming that is contributing so many jobs here.

And the multiplier effect. You have to also consider all these households are going to be spending their income and that creates multiplier effect into the economy. So the impact is going to be much, much larger than what we are just seeing here.

They are supporting so many other jobs from these ag related jobs that they are going to be creating. And these are some additional data from if I include food manufacturing industries as well, which usually many of them lie close to the points of production of these raw materials.

So they also are, you know, if ag is kind of a supporting base for all these food manufacturing industries as well.

So if you look at it, the food manufacturing all through the State of California, it is about 0.92% of the jobs are created from this food manufacturing and the other sub sectors of Wood manufacturing, you can see how much they are contributing.

But I would like to point out to the right hand side this slide, which again I couldn't get all the data from all the nine counties here, but the top five counties here, they themselves contribute almost about 25% of the total jobs in the food manufacturing that are created in California are generated in San Joaquin Valley.

So at least 25%. If I add those other four counties, that will be a little bit more again so that shows the importance of these San Joaquin Valley to agriculture and food processing sector for California agriculture. And this is exports. Again, California is the country's largest exporting state shipping about $24.3 billion of worth of exports in 2023.

And if I look at the county level, which is little difficult to get exactly the Ag exports from this county. So I included all the goods that I could get information upon, both AG and non AG exports. But Again, in these counties, Most of that, for example Fresno, $3.1 billion worth of exports are happening.

Mostly it's going to be ag and food related products. The other exports might be. It's very difficult to say at this point for lack of information, but it will be minimal. So similarly, as you can see other regions, counties which are.

This county is part of and you can see that is the contribution of for the export revenues that you are generating from these counties. And there are a few studies which also provide. I'm sure these are little older studies you might have come across.

For example Merced county in 2023, they did a study of how this agriculture contribute. What is the total impact of agriculture on the county's economy. They took into effect the direct effects, the indirect effects, the multiplier effects, all of these that I was talking about into consideration.

And they came to a kind of conclusion that almost $9.9 billion worth of contribution happens from agriculture. Even though the GDP is much lesser than that. Here we have to take into consideration the impact on the General economy because agriculture provides so many jobs and in turn creates need for other resources and services from the economy.

And there is also another similar study. These all have used this regional impact analysis models and UC Ag Issues center has done a study on the entire almond sector in California. How much does it contribute to this state's total economy? It's about $9.2 billion.

So these kinds of studies are very useful to understand the General impact of agriculture on the economy. More studies are definitely needed to understand the regional impacts as well as the sector wide impacts on the California economy and US economy in General. And almond sector also in 2020 almost generated about 110,000 jobs.

Not only in almond sector, but the jobs and the demand that it creates for other sectors. So the links are provided for more details there. Just to give you an idea about the barriers to growth in the Ag economy in this region. Again, I haven't put much details here, just a starting initiation into those discussions.

So water obviously is one of the major issues. The shortage and the groundwater management regulations that are in, in effect are going to be definitely impacting the acreage that is going to be under cultivation. And also yield declines are also going are expected because of these regulations.

And there has been some studies which expected about almost half a million acres going out of cultivation because of Sigma by 2040. And there are multiple studies in that regard, but that is about water and shrinking snowpack in the mountains which is taking away all the. The free storage that we get through the Ayes packs is depleting.

And that is going to be also a source of concern in the coming future. I'm sure my colleagues will talk more about some of these issues again, and the labor, the immigration policies and the associated rising labor cost is going to be another. Going to be an impact on agricultural sector and the profitability of them.

And again, multiple studies, some of those studies have estimated that the increase is going to be almost more than 20% to the cost and uncertainties in international markets. As I said, California agriculture is dependent upon export markets a lot.

And the uncertainties in international markets and the trade wars that are happening definitely are going to be a source of concern for our sector and which is kind of very fluid as of now to predict any concrete outcomes from those changes.

Invasive pest is another kind of problem that some of these subsectors of agriculture are facing more than the others. Citrus, obviously with the citrus greening and other issues that is increasing the cost of cultivation and the kind of control measures that we have to take, definitely that have to be taken into consideration.

And the yields are expected to go down by almost a fifth due to these invasive pests, according to some study in the citrus cultivation. And there is one more problem called, we call that in academics an asset fixity problem that is kind of locking up wealth. You know, when you are.

Somebody is growing an almond orchard or pistachio orchard the first few years, the kind of you are making an investment into the land and creating the infrastructure. So you are locking up some amount of wealth for that period of time. So the opportunity cost associated with that is kind of the issue here.

So that's kind of how to better use that wealth or create some kind of, you know, positive impact of that investment in the first few years also is a kind of topic which needs to be addressed and create a source of revenue for farmers as well as.

So that is, that is One of the kind of issues that has been also mentioned in the literature and rising costs of production. I have a few slides after this. I'm sure overshooting my time here. But they are kind of what going to be creating lot of cost pressures for farming entities and uncertainty in the markets.

The, the prices are much more uncertain given all the situations that are happening around the world and which is kind of creating some kind of uncertainty or kind of fluidity in the markets. There are some other reasons, minor reasons like the honeybee issues, pollination issues and you know, transportation related issues that are impacting agriculture.

But that is compared to these other major ones. They are kind of. I would say in my opinion they are a little minor. So some of these trends in the agriculture, farm production expenditures and receipts, these are not, certainly not for California as such, but nationwide in General.

The trends that are, you know, that are happening for various agricultural inputs, that prices are being paid by the farmers, they are. So some of them are kind of stable, some of them are more increasing. So especially the fuel prices are kind of going up a little. Fertilizers again are going up.

The actual numbers I have them, but I didn't provide here. But you have to. Basically some of the inputs are more impacted by inflation. Some of them are not as much. And these again a different way of showing the chemicals, fertilizers, labor and feed expenses for the period from 2220 to 2024, how they have changed.

And definitely the feed levels. The feed prices have gone up previously, but in the last two years they have decreased a little. But again it's quite expensive for Ali entities that are depending upon this feed crop and livestock total production expenditure. The right hand side graph.

I don't know if the numbers are too small here to see, but there has been little kind of from 23 to 24, a little decrease in the total production expenditures. But it is not that significant. Again given the prices.

If you look at this graph, the prices paid and the prices received indices, you can see the red line here on the first graph is the prices received. There is more fluctuation or uncertainties compared to the blue line which is the prices paid for all the inputs which are definitely there are.

It is an increasing trend which is not seen in the prices received for farm products in General on an average. So that is a kind of source of concern. And these are just again the indices and not the actual prices. And these are some prices received indices for various agricultural products. Again for melons and for poultry.

As you can see in the poultry 2526 that is kind of there is a increasing the prices again, they have fallen. So the uncertainty is what creates lots of issues in agriculture. As long as you maintain the stability, that's much easier for us to plan and much easier for managing.

Whereas these uncertainties create a lot of issues for planning purposes and other product categories out there. How the prices received by entities have behaved over the last 10 years, I'll, I think, hand over to my colleagues. Thank you.

Thank you, Dr. Konduru. We'll have next Caroline Danielson.

Good morning. My name is Caroline Danielson. I'm a Senior Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. We are an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit research think tank dedicated to informing and improving public policy in California. Thank you for inviting me to provide testimony today.

In this testimony, I will discuss food costs as they relate to household budgets, trends in food costs, and how California compares to the nation. I will also discuss the State of the nutrition safety net in California with a brief look at impacts in the Central Valley.

My remarks are based on PPIC research and my assessment of the broader research landscape. So first, the cost of food inflation has been top of mind recently.

In PPIC's June 2025 statewide survey, the top choice for the most important issue facing California today was cost of living, economy and inflation bundled at 37% of adults in the Central Valley, 38% gave this response, and basic needs became substantially more expensive during the pandemic.

Underscoring this challenge, in both the US and in Western states, food prices were about 30% higher in July 2025 than they were six years earlier in July 2019. In contrast, food prices rose only about 5% between July 2013 and July 2019. Wages have grown too, but the sticker shock is still real.

This is especially the case for lower income households, where 80% of spending goes towards basic necessities food, housing, transportation and health care. Among all families, housing is the largest expenditure at 38%, but spending on transportation at 15% and food 13% come next, followed by health care 8%.

Spending on groceries or food at home is, in California, $6,900 per family annually on average, or $2,500 per person. Food at restaurants or away from home totals $5,300, or $1,950 per person.

Compared to those in Western states, people in the Midwest spend 3% less per person on groceries, those in the south spend 12% less and those in the Northeast spend 11% more.

So the result is pressure on family budgets that can extend to concerns about affording enough food or cutting back on the variety or the quantity of food, collectively known as food insecurity.

About 1.8 million California households experience food insecurity in 2023, according to the most recent USDA data, which the 2024 data are due out but are delayed by the government shutdown. And that translates to a rate that's lower than the national rate by about a percentage point. So about 11% in the area US and 12% in California.

Pressure on Food due to Food Costs Rising food costs can also mean cutting back on other expenditures for families to afford food. Turning to the nutrition safety net, public programs do offer help. The largest programs in California's nutrition safety net are CalFresh, WIC and school meals, making up about $18 billion in state and federal expenditures.

Funding for emergency food, including food banks, totals another 160 million and in 2025-26 includes a one time state appropriation of $72 million to support food banks. All told, 4.2 million California households access one or more of the three largest programs to help them afford the cost of food.

These programs help with the rising food costs because they serve meals or they increase benefits when food costs rise. So nearly 1 million infants, young children and pregnant or new mothers make use of WIC benefits and all children in public schools are able to access two meals each school day at no cost.

Low income students can get $120 in grocery monies when schools are on summer break. About 5.5 million residents access CalFresh food benefits, which is 14% the state's residents. Across counties, the shares range between 5% and 27%. These programs help families balance their budgets by increasing the number who are able to meet basic needs.

And the California poverty measure shows that poverty among all Californians would be about 1.2 million people higher without the nutrition safety net. In the Central Valley, poverty would be. About. 2,300 thousand more people in poverty, which is 5.2 points higher without the nutrition safety net.

CalFresh alone, the largest program, lowers poverty by 860,000 people in the state and by 160,000 people in the Central Valley.

I do want to say that federal funding is a cornerstone of California's nutrition safety net and it supplies the vast majority of funding across the three largest programs, 99% of benefits for CalFresh, 60% for school meals and 100% for WIC. Most immediately, as the Chair mentioned, the Federal Government Shutdown risks delaying CalFresh benefits in November.

Longer term HR1, which was passed in July 2023 makes pretty big changes to CalFresh. So first, the federal share of the cost of administering the program the CalFresh program will drop from 50% to 25% in October 2026.

Second, there's some risk that the state will need to shoulder 5% or more of the cost of benefits starting in October 2027 if our payment error rate is above the 6% threshold required to avoid this cost share. California's 2024 payment rate was on par with the national average, but is above 10%.

Finally, restricting CalFresh eligibility for individuals takes effect next month in November, affecting many adults between the ages of 18 and 64, unless they are working 20 hours a week or more or they meet an exemption, for example Having a disability or caring for a child under age 14.

We estimate that about a million adults in California and 125,000 of their family Members are affected by the work requirements specified in HR1. Our past research indicates that most of these adults do have a connection to the labor market, but their work is unstable.

So More specifically, over 80% of adults newly participating in CalFresh had current or recent employment, but nearly the same share also experienced unemployment over a three year span.

And California has had a waiver to federal work requirements in place for most of the past two decades, but only three counties are expected to qualify for a waiver in the coming year. In contrast, California's nutrition safety net for school children remains strong.

The state passed AB130 in 2022, which supplemented federal funding and required districts to permanently continue universal access to school breakfast and lunch after federal pandemic funds ended. The universal meal program remains a buffer for low income California households. Thank you for the opportunity to share this information with you today.

Thank you Ms. Danielson. Now we'll go on to Ms. Susie Pryor.

Good morning. Thank you Assembly Members. Thank you public for demonstrating an interest in what I think is a very important topic. I'm Susie Pryor. I am the Executive Director with Central California Small Business Development Center Network. We're supported by the University of California Mercedes and a number of partners across the region.

We host five subcenters and five outreach centers and we're very, very interested in the question of supporting agriculture and food system businesses in the Fresno area and across the Central Valley. Happily, while I share the concerns of my fellow panelists, I get to focus a little bit on the solutions side of the equation.

I will say that my family too were immigrants who came to the United States as farmers and fled the potato blight in the 1850s. In Ireland. So we have a very deep history in agriculture, which continues to this day. So most agricultural families remain intergenerational farmers in some form or another.

And we certainly see this in the Central Valley. So the Small Business Development center is one solution that the state does Fund. And you provide incredible, incredibly important funding to our centers and others like us. We have five across the state. We serve all counties.

The Technical Assistance Program, tap, the Capital Infusion Program, SIP are extraordinarily important forms of funding. We do worry about the future of those funds. Central Valley experienced a 25% reduction in TAP funding this year. Really makes it tough to provide the kinds of services we need to provide in the Central valley.

We have 82 people per square mile on average. That's an expensive Proposition. So we are taking those funds and coupling them with federal funding and partner funding to attempt to meet the needs of the Central Valley. So I do ask for your support for those.

Assemblymember Salache and I were both part of the proposal for AB265, which was designed to help small businesses meet their financial needs in times of crisis disasters, as we saw in LA last year. Although that did not find appropriations, it didn't find funding. That battle will, I'm sure, continue as we try to move that legislation forward.

And that's a first for California SBDCs to actually support legislation. So I do want to point to those as terribly important programming. And I also want to describe a little bit about what the SBDC's approach is to helping in this area. So our mission is to help small businesses start, grow and thrive in the Central Valley.

This means meeting entrepreneurs where they are in rural towns, in diverse immigrant communities, and on family farms. Agriculture isn't just our region's economic engine. It is part of our culture and it's part of our households.

So when farmers, processors, small food retailers feel the squeeze of the rising costs described here, whether it's water, labor, fuel, regulatory compliance, or external impacts, these impacts ripple throughout our communities. In Fresno county and neighboring areas, SBDC advisors have been on the ground helping farm adjacent businesses weather these challenges.

We've worked with specialty crop growers adapting to water scarcity, small dairies seeking to modernize operations, and food processors struggling with supply chain bottlenecks. Our advisors help with cash flow management, navigating, financing, and pursuing state and federal grants.

For example, we've supported clients in securing over $14 million in capital in the last reporting period, funds that directly sustain jobs, keep farms operating, and help small businesses innovate.

The University of California Merced has recently committed to a capital Access center through the SBDC which is designed to help amplify the amount of capital that is available to our farmers. We also provide targeted training and this is where your TAP funding is so important.

In the past year we've offered workshops on labor law compliance, sustainable irrigation practices, value added product development. Most of our clients are first generation or limited English proficiency entrepreneurs. We have the capacity to offer services in 28 languages currently and we have 200 special specialists across our region so that we can deliver services regardless of need.

Beyond our counseling, we collaborate very closely with our partners, local economic development organizations, farm bureaus, chambers of commerce and the US Cooperative Extension to align resources. That means not just reacting to crises, but developing resilience, helping small farmers explore new markets, prepare for ownership transitions.

We are going to see significant ownership transitions and we are going to need help in that area because we do have this silver tsunami.

When I open the paper daily and I see small farms abandoned or farms without a plan for transition, I feel concerned and I do hope that that is a part of the solution that you guys work on. The universities are also very concerned with Ag Business, Ag Economics and Ag Technology to help in the Central Valley.

At its core, our work is about giving entrepreneurs choices. When a farmer can refinance debt to lower interest. When a food manufacturer can access a grant to upgrade to energy efficient equipment that directly reduces these cost pressures. We're talking about when a small Latino owned produce distributor gets technical help to expand in institutional markets.

When we focus on procurement as we are doing in the Central Valley SBDC program, it strengthens the businesses and the local food system. I want to close with this. The Central Valley's agricultural small businesses are resilient, but they cannot shoulder today's rising costs alone. Without continued investment in SBDCs and other technical service providers, we can.

With continued investment, I apologize, we can expand access to markets, streamline compliance and help our producers and processors innovate their way into the future. Supporting agriculture in the Fresno region means supporting the families, jobs and communities that make California's food system strong. We talk a lot about California having the now fifth largest economy on the globe.

99% of that economy is on the built on the backs of small businesses. And a significant portion of that employment in that economy is built on agriculture. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Prior, for those comments. I do want to amplify your comments about the solutions that you bring to the table.

In my first year in the Legislature, SBDC has done a great job being an advocate being a voice, but more importantly, bringing those solutions to local communities, not only in the Central Valley, but throughout the state, State of California. And that's why we're going to keep partnering up to ensuring that we prioritize helping these small businesses.

And I know my colleague here in the Assembly has been a big champion for that too. So it takes a teamwork and I really want to just commend you for that work and the work that you all do at all time.

Thank you. And I appreciate very much both of the Assembly Members attention to the spdc.

Thank you. And for that. Again, thank you to the panelists. For today's discussion. We're going to go into some questions. Assemblymember Sodia, thank you.

Appreciate all the comments by the panelists. I have a couple questions and I'll start off with Ms. Pryor.

Just because you just finished up your presentation, could you maybe highlight a couple of the different projects that I think can showcase the benefits of the investments that the state has made historically into, you know, the Small Business Development Centers.

Yeah, I'm going to talk first kind of at the aggregate level in terms like money. Right. So there are five SBDC regions in the state. And over the past 36 months we kind of look at post pandemic numbers because of state and federal support.

And those things are very intermingled because one cost, you know, our funding sources are matched. We have been able to assist over 313,000 small businesses across the state. Those businesses have brought in $4.6 billion in loans and equity. They have supported over 333,000 jobs and that's resulted in a tax base of almost $5 billion.

So at the aggregate level, really significant. If I think about the folks we work with on a daily basis, we see innovation. Last night it was in Modesto. Part of the evening I spent talking to a couple individuals who have one of the largest creameries in California.

I eat their cottage cheese three meals a day and I was able to tell them that cottage cheese is big. But I also sat at dinner with a young man who was working with almond waste products. He was using almonds waste. He had hoped that it was going to be a fertilizer. It turns out it's an herbicide.

That type of innovation is really critical to the Central Valley. So we work at all ends of the range in terms of the kinds of activities that we engage in. And a lot of that is about identifying innovators and helping them find capital.

And so I would say that's probably the most critical area we do have a lot of focused attention on procurement and that again, is driven a lot by the State of California. California handles a treasury grant called ssbci and they have asked us to help connect our small businesses with government contract opportunities.

I don't know if that totally answers your question. You're welcome.

I think that's great in terms of showcasing the total broad impact, but then also the specifics. So thank you for highlighting that. I think that it's important to understand one, the overall impact of the investments. Right. Because it's not just you loaning someone $2 million, but what is, what does it result and then the specific instance.

So thank you for that. I just have one other question for actually, Dr. Kanduro. Obviously you did a great job in just setting the table about ag and what we're seeing here in the Central Valley in terms of how much we benefit from our agriculture economy.

And really, it's a big piece of not just the culture but the economic viability of families across this region. And you mentioned, and you pointed several of the barriers or challenges that ag is facing with water, labor uncertainty, international markets, invasive pests, acid fixity, and, you know, other such issues that are impacting.

But from your perspective, just wanting to understand what. What do you believe are kind of the two top more pressing issues and maybe from the Legislator's perspective, what are some of those things that the legislators can focus on in terms of. To address some of these barriers that.

You'Ve pointed to water and labor and water. We have sigma going on. It takes time to get to the implementation schedules and see the outcomes of that. But definitely it is going to be impacting the sector in various ways, the amount of land that is being cultivated and the yields.

So what is the alternatives for those farmers who are going to be keeping their land fallow? How are they going to supplement their incomes? And you know, those kinds of issues are going to be lingering for some time. And labor, no matter how much, you know, it's.

Even if we provide better, make it attractive in terms of wages and all that, again, the immigrant labor cannot be substituted. So that's kind of the issue. So we need better policies to have that stream of people working in agriculture without which many of the farms would be impacted. Yeah. Technological developments are happening.

Labor substitution is happening with these other unmanned vehicles and systems. But again, it is. Yeah, it's not going to be sufficient.

Thank you for that.

Thank you, Senator. Woman as the Pocketbook tour continues from Southern California through now Central Valley, one of the things that our Committee, and we get to, again, have this discussion on economic development, development throughout the State of California.

One of the things that we're really tackling is, you know, the rising costs, as you all mentioned, and particularly in food, housing, transportation, and how the impact of household affordability is having an impact. I would like to know what kind of trends are happening here in the Central Valley so that we could take that information back.

And, you know, as we're going back to the Legislature next year and as we introduce new bills, we want to really dive into what can we have these direct impacts to specific regions. I think my colleague has very proudly always said that this is a food basket of California. Right.

As a foodie myself, I take that very seriously because it's not just the end result of a restaurant and the great food that we have throughout our state. It's all the work that happens before that as a full process.

So I'm just intrigued to really dive into some of the trends that are happening here in this area that are concerning specifically so that we could take that information and, you know, keep working through these issues. So any feedback to any of the panelists would be great.

So from the data we have, and unfortunately the inflation data are not specific to the Central Valley. But from the data we have, it does seem like the cost pressures are similar across the state and indeed in comparison to the nation.

And I think the good news is that so far they've abated somewhat from the heights of the pandemic. So some of that uncertainty that the Professor was mentioning just creates, I think, both for businesses and for individuals, that uncertainty and that extra pressure.

And as long as those continue to abate, then I think that will help households to feel a little more confident and a little more secure in their prospects. Because it is true that wages have risen, inflation really cut into those wage rises, and the future's uncertain.

But to the extent we can get into a more stable period, I think that will just help. And I don't have data that could specifically talk about that.

I do think that just in terms of the nutrition safety net, the Central Valley relies on it more heavily than some of the coastal areas where just wage growth, wage rates are higher. And so any impacts on the nutrition safety net will be especially felt in the Central Valley. Thank you.

I would say the stability of the markets, especially the export markets where we. Depend, lots of commodities are bound for. Export markets, and we don't have that. The stability and certainty of those markets. It will definitely impact the returns for enterprises. So I know it's not pet issue. Again, but something expanding other markets or.

Finding new markets might be one of the alternatives when the existing markets are not. Are not to be depended as much as before. Yeah.

And I would just add, I think certainly the rising cost. Insurance, of course, is a concern, labor is a concern. But the exciting things that I think small businesses are looking at, and I also think that higher ed is looking at is ag tech.

So investments in ag tech, investments in artificial intelligence, how we can leverage those things for small business, we often say AI is really going to be sort of something that's going to equalize. Small businesses can now participate more fully in things like market research that were costly before.

So there are some really exciting areas that we could lean into as a state. This event I was at last night was at Volt in Modesto, and they're very excited about sort of what innovation can do for the Central Valley.

So I would say one of the positives is, although we're above the national average in terms of household prices and those types of things, economic indicators, we are also a little bit lower than other areas of California. So I think there's significant opportunity for investment in the Central Valley.

And we certainly have the raw asset of land that is really valuable. The other concern, I would say, coming out of the Central Valley are just changes in consumer preference, which is why we are so dependent on over international markets.

We see this in the wine industry where we see younger consumers not consuming at the same level as many of us in this room. And so that's why these external markets are just critical to Central Valley.

Do appreciate that feedback and information as we continue to the next panel. Before we go to the next panel, I want to say two quick things.

One, today we are here physically in Fresno, but obviously as we continue our journey back to Sacramento and back to the Legislature, you know, our doors are always open, our Committee staff is amazing.

So you know, please feel free to reach out to us as we put together priority legislation that will have these impacts in local communities like the Central Valley. And just two, on a very, very personal and personal privilege here, I want to just thank Susie for her story because these things are happening in our backyard are real.

People are concerned what's happening. And your story of being an immigrant and your family of the act story of 150 years, if I took that correctly, information from Ireland, that's empowering because our immigrant stories are across our state and across our nation. It's not just one community, it's not one region, it's throughout.

So that was very empowering to hear and how your impact in your family in the ag community has, you know, made an impact for you and your family and our Californians. So I just want to personally thank you for that story. Thank you.

With that, I want to thank the panelists for today and we're going to continue to our next discussion which is thank you again for your time. And now we're going to let our assemblywoman introduce our second panel.

In the second panel, we'll continue to discuss challenges and opportunities for Central Valley AG enterprises. We have local farmers and ag business leaders that will share real world perspectives on affordability, some of the regulatory hurdles and market access.

Also highlighting what is needed to sustain small and mid sized operations here in the Central Valley and how it affects affordability not just in, in our region, but I believe in the entire state and beyond. We have three panelists. I want to welcome the owner of MX Produce, Macy Zhang.

We have the owner of Nelia, Esperia, Gladys Martinez, and our Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobson. If you guys can all come to.

The table and as you're all welcome, as you're all setting Up.

I want to take another personal privilege to at the beginning of this panel, I want to acknowledge Ryan specifically because Ryan was a former student body President of this campus and the specific timing is very critical because he and I were student body presidents at the same time when I was at Cal State Dominguez Hills in 2001-2002.

And then we had the record of having a back to back student body President. So we served our campuses, you know, two years in a row. So I want to just acknowledge him and knowing what he's doing now in the ad community and just leaving that space. I want to thank you for having us in your backyard.

I know at 1.0 Sonia Soria and I connected about that story, but then today you reminded me that it was actually the same year. So, you know, we still look young and we're still good. Before you guys continue judging us, we are great and we look young and especially young at heart.

So with that, thank you Assemblywoman for introducing the next panel. And with that we're going to start with our first panelist.

Hi, my name is Macy Zhang with MX Produce here in Fresno county since 1990 that grows and sells high quality produce. I also graduated from here 2006. I worked as an interior designer for two years until the real estate crashed in 2008. My hours were reduced to a lack of jobs.

Then I decided to get back to agriculture since I had the experience and equipment. So our family is dedicated and supporting local farms communities through and communities throughout its farming practice itself.

So as we all know that everything has been increasing rapidly such as fertilizer, pesticide, herbicide, drips, irrigation, lay flats, seeds, PGE rates, land leases and labor which has been the most pressing financial cost for all small farmers aside from regulatory compliance such as OSHA.

While everything else is increasing, the wholesale price pricing for our commodities has remained unchanged for the last 30 years that I know of because everything's still the same. Nothing changed while everything increased. So these input pressure made it difficult for our small farmers to continue farming in the future with uncertainty how it's going to go.

Beside these challenges, we are also dealing with nature force such as extremely heat and frost. When mother nature damaged our crop, we as small producer didn't receive the aid quickly enough to put our feet together. We have multiple claims pending over a year without any progress. We have to when we had no choice.

We have to reduce our acreage to reduce cost. But at this moment everything just keep increasing and we can't sell our wholesale price higher. We don't know which corner to cut. And we are. We don't know what to do next. So we have maybe just two options.

Just sell the equipment, sell the business, and, I don't know, moved or do something. We all. We don't know what to do next. It's really, I guess because of inflation that every day I hear what they say that foods cost a lot at the grocery store.

But in my end, no, it didn't change with all the supplies that keep going up, and it can't. The cash flow is not balanced. So it's really bad for our small farmer because we don't get aid from the government like the big farmers out there. So that's the challenge that we are facing right now at the moment.

Thank you, Ms. Wong. Thank you. Thank you for sharing that. And we're going to go to our Next panelist. That's Ms. Gladys Martinez. Buenos Dias. Hola. Buenos Dias. Hi.

Gladys Martinez. I am also an alumni from Fresno State. I graduated in 2019 with a degree in business Administration with an emphasis in entrepreneurship. So I understand when I see problems in the market and I focus on bringing the solutions. Right. When I was back in school, I had started a business in the food sector.

It was called Tony's Coconut Fusion. We had a funny tagline like, going local, Tony's Coconut Fusion will have you going loco for cocos. Anyway, the pandemic hit, right? And I had to shut down because there was a distribution problem with. I was getting my product from Mexico.

And in my entrepreneurial mind, I'm like, how can we grow coconuts here, right? But I had to shut that business down. So I pivoted into creating a food product. So manufacturing a birria adobo, making your own birria, just got easier with Nellias. So. Right.

But our mission with Nelia's is really to be a catalyst of change for the future of our food system. It's not really just about selling a product. It's about creating a change for our food industry, right. In cleaner ingredients, healthier food options, etc. What I'm seeing the problem right now is with the rise of inflation, right.

It's harder for us to be able to access that. Distribution costs are going up for this smaller person here. You know, we're a little over three years with our business, but I mean, I'm having a problem with being able to scale because I've been bootstrapping most of the time. Right.

And so what I've seen, there's a need for Is like, you know what, there's all these tech hubs around the nation. Like, why can't we be the food hub here in the Central Valley? We're the food basket of the world. How are we going to create that?

So I've been asking myself the question, right, As a food entrepreneur, how could I bring other food entrepreneurs? Agriculture is like, hey, let's create some sort of coalition where it's like, how can we support one another? Because we don't have the funding right now. But it's like, you know, with small batch processing facilities, right?

I've seen a need for that. Right now I've been doing a small batch processing for my birria sauce. Because I'm a small guy, I can't go into a big manufacturing place and get thousands and thousands of pallets, right? That's my issue in being able to scale and market my business.

Because, you know, if I'm marketing and getting sales and sales and sales without the product, then that defeats the purpose. So for me, it's far beyond just being a food entrepreneur. I started a project right now called the Culinary Network, right? Because I think the education piece is very important for these food entrepreneurs, right?

And as an entrepreneur myself, with the education that I have, it's like, how can we help educate these food entrepreneurs with the fundamental tools that they need to build their business on a firm foundation, right? And that's what, aside from Nellias. And that's like my passion project right now.

Like, how can I share my wisdom with these new upcoming entrepreneurs that are trying to start in the food business? Because there's a lot of stereotype right now, zero, don't get in the food business, especially a restaurant business, right? They're bound to fail. But, you know, can we create a solution for that not to happen?

Like, how can we do that collectively together, right? Sourcing our products locally from a local ag agriculture, right? A local distribution company where we're not having to get our products from across the nation, right? Like bottles. Like for my product, I have to buy the bottles and I only find them across the nation.

It's costing me more because we don't have anything local here. So those are some of the issues that I'm seeing as far as my perspective being a food entrepreneur, right? And how can we really come together collectively as a state and other food entrepreneurs where it's like, hey, let's put ourselves on the map as the, the.

The agricultural hub of the United States, right? So that's all I have for you all.

Thank you so much for sharing. And we're going to go to Ryan next.

Yeah, thank you so much. Good morning and welcome. And I like how you guys both said it, but we're talking agriculture. But we are the food capital of the nation. So often people disconnect the agricultural and the food part. But agriculture is what we eat 3, 4, 5 times a day, depending on how hungry we are.

And so it's an important nexus to what this conversation is there. I want to give just a very brief thing about my background because I'm fourth generation California farmer on both sides of my family. So I'm here today and my representation hat of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, but I still farm on the side.

I'm a small farmer, have almonds and raisin grapes. Both my great sets of great grandparents came over for the same exact reason and that was to grow the Thompson seedless grape for raisins and so many. This area is obviously made up of so many immigrants that came here for the same reason and that was growing agricultural products.

And we have so many different flavors and colors and everything today because of those folks that came here and settled this region. I think it's an extraordinarily interesting time in agriculture right now. Not just in California agriculture, but American agriculture. There's numerous things that are going on that's worth talking about.

You guys saw the economics earlier, but just to break it down very simplistically, we're in a 40 year lull right now. I mean, essentially the conditions we're looking at are extraordinarily similar to what we saw in the early 1980s. You go back to higher interest rates, commodity prices down, some input costs increasing.

There are some sincere difficulties going on on farms. Something not to be proud of. We're obviously so proud of everything we lead on when it comes to agriculture. But the thing that's not to be proud of is in 2024, California led the nation in farm bankruptcies.

And that's an important note in the sense that there is a lot that's gone on that. I know this is focused on both mid and small size.

But here locally we saw giants that went under simply because of the pressures that exist externally going on in the ag side right now, you know, we talk about why did it and how did we get to this point. There's numerous reasons why. So you first look at what happened post Covid.

So during COVID we saw markets that were shuttered that were changed. You had children that went from school and little things of milk to now the Parents needed a gallon of milk because they were at home. And so there was a shuffle that went on and took place.

And there was great demands for agricultural commodities at that time. We saw a precipitous drop off going into 2021, where a lot of those. We saw market corrections that either went towards average or below average. But our input cost, as you guys just heard a little bit ago, have shot up during that time.

I would like to think in the last four years, we've seen a stabilization for some of those input costs. So. But the stabilization was much higher than the average that we saw prior to 2020. And so there's been this really huge increase across the board when it comes to fuel to any other input.

The crop protection tools to. You heard about the fertilizers, the drip hose, and everything else has really significantly went up during that time. And yet commodity prices are average or below average. For most of our commodities. We have 350 different ones. So there's going to be some that are up, some that are down.

But General, generally everything is either at lows, historic lows. We've seen a lot of our commodities in the last five years at historic lows. And then you take some of our things that we're famous for, I mentioned the raisin earlier, and some of those prices are very similar.

The exact same price they were receiving back in the 1970s. Yes, we've gotten way better when it comes to the efficiencies as well as the production we got for the same acre of raisins that are out there. But nevertheless, the price is still the same.

And it's very hard to go into the future knowing that those are the same. You know, I also think this is interesting when you start looking nationwide. I mean, I know we're focused on California, but nationwide right now you're looking at potential huge loan defaults come the end of the year.

That's really being driven by the soybean crisis and other things that are happening in the Midwest. We're probably not going to be as bad as that in California here. But not to say that this is truly an American thing that's going on as far as what's the. The pressures that are on agriculture.

I loved what was said just a bit ago here about what's happened in the supermarkets is that the American and California consumer thinks that the farmer is doing extraordinarily well during this past five years. Absolutely false. In almost every case, our commodities have remained the same or went down in price.

And yet what you're Paying as a consumer has went up. And that's going to the other segments of the value chain. The transportation, refrigeration, processing, packaging, marketing, sales, the store, etc. Has increased all those areas. But we truly are market takers, not price setters when it comes to what's going on with the supermarkets right now.

And so, please, I think that's the biggest key to take away from the day is not to tie those two together, because the health, for the most part for farmers has went down during this time and not up comparison to what we've seen with those food prices there.

It was mentioned earlier during the economic side of things about the ag exports and what's going on there. So California AG is 40 to 43% of our ag commodities that are produced here are exported. Our export markets are extraordinarily important to the health of this industry there because it really does take some of.

I don't want to call it excess, but it takes our products and is able to ship it to countries throughout the world. It's amazing that Fresno county by itself ships to over 90 countries on an annual basis. And then you go statewide, and that's well over 100 different nations that this state is sending food to.

So I look at this as not just a California issue. And I know that's the cost pressures we're looking at today, but this is a worldwide significance. This region is one of five Mediterranean environments found throughout the world, the only one in North America. There is a reason we grow 80% of the world's supply of almonds.

It's because we can and they can't in other places, because I guarantee you, if they could, they would. And there are many other commodities like that in which California is either the sole producer or the majority producer when it comes to so many of these things we're doing there.

And so when it comes to those ag export things, it just happened to coincide to where our prices did start to slip. Both the, you know, domestic side was slipping as well as the foreign side. And I know that the tariff issues and everything else get the big prominent issue, but that's not it.

There's a lot of other things and a multitude of issues that are going on right now. If you guys remember going back to 2021, we had the great container shortage.

We couldn't even get our commodities overseas because the commodity, the containers were being returned back over to those other foreign destinations to get more products to the US and we weren't able to get our ag commodities out. There was the Shortages and the slowdowns and the stoppages that were going on at the ports.

And as far as the COVID relatedness, that really slowed things down as well. And then one thing that's not highly talked about but really influences what's going on, it's the strength of the American dollar.

You know, I know it's counterintuitive, but typically the American ag economies kind of countercyclical to a degree to what's going on in the General economy.

And so when that dollar is very strong here, it makes it more difficult and expensive for foreign consumers to purchase our products, which obviously led to some, you know, slippages when it came to buying and some of those other things there.

But there's a whole host of other things that have gone on that have really affected those foreign markets. But it's important to really focus on what those are.

But another thing that's important to talk about when you talk about food, and I'm not saying this is right, wrong or indifferent, but the reality is, is that we have a lot more importance today. Imports. As far as competition, when you and I were growing up during the 80s, it was single digits.

It was somewhere between 7 and 9% of the food we ate in this country was imported. Today, that number is in the 40s. It depends on the varying type of year there. And again, I'm not saying that's good, bad or indifferent. We get mangoes because of it and other types of products that you would not have.

But the seasonality of fruit and vegetables is gone. You can go to get a peach at the supermarket any time of year now. It's not going to be the quality of what a California peach is, but nevertheless, you have that opportunity to go get it year round.

I bring all this up because we all know that that is not being grown with the California standards, and whether that's environmental labor, on and on and on, that food does not have it. And less than 1% of food that actually comes in this country is inspected.

And so they don't have the same restrictions and cost and other things that are associated with it. So American agriculture, but very specifically California agriculture, has done amazingly well the last four decades in this very competitive market, having stricter standards and still producing a reliable, safe, affordable food supply.

But we are at that crossroads where that's becoming more difficult. The costs that are associated with growing this food, as you guys have heard multiple times, has gone up, but there are specific reasons why. And again, I'm not here to bash the regulatory, legislative side Regulation can be good. It helps us produce that safe food supply.

But there's a cost with every single one, and I think this is important. About a decade ago, one of my counterparts at a local AG organization or Statewide AG organization and I worked on a list of of regulatory agencies, governmental agencies that a farmer may come in contact with in growing their products during a certain year.

That list at that time was over 70 agencies throughout the State of California, both at the federal, state, local and regional level that a farmer may come in contact with. One of my farmers updated his own list here recently.

That's now in the 90s as far as number of organizations, governmental agencies that that farmer may come in contact with in a given year. Not to say that's bad, but that's complexity, that's cost. Every single thing, whether indirect or direct, has cost associated with that. And that's on the bottom line impact when it comes to farmers.

I'm going to give you just a couple of examples with that. I mean, you guys are very well aware, I'm sure, of the ag burn restrictions we have in the valley now. That's great when it comes to air quality, but the costs that are associated with that is huge.

You guys heard about the wine market just a second ago. It is literally in the tank. It is horrendous what's gone on in the wine market in the last two to three years.

And yet those farmers right now that want to take those vineyards out are facing a cost that is somewhere between four to five times more expensive than it was just three years ago to remove that same vineyard.

And so those dollars that we had, very fortunately through the Legislature and the Governor two years ago, have now just about ran out. And without those dollars, I am extraordinarily concerned about the pest pressures and other things that come with taking out vineyards but not being able to dispose of them properly.

There's Esmeralda, you know, obviously extraordinarily well what's going on with our farmer program and the equipment replacement that we've done. Arguably the most successful air quality program in the nation when it comes to the success that we've had with that program.

But again, I know it's tough economic times when it comes to California, but definitely don't want to see the underfunding of that program when it comes to the success of farms up and down the valley here and what we've been able to do with that, the labor side of things, I think is really important.

We talk about, you know, what could be done there, but it's just a continued investment. California has remained competitive because of our investment in the technology, robotics and everything else.

Mechanization infrastructure that both the University of California, the CSU programs, all these have worked collectively together and do so, I would argue, better today than they did 50 years ago in trying to come up with those new and better technologies. Food grows where water flows. I mean, we can't do any of this without water.

And so whether it's, you know, know, making sure that we have appropriate ways that we're trying to find new water, but most importantly trying to invest in the infrastructure that we need so sorely throughout the State of California, both on the farm at the district level and at the statewide level when it comes to conveyance and the ability to move all this water up and down the State of California is extraordinarily important to what we do there.

Land use. I can't say enough about protecting this extraordinarily valuable land that we have here in our backyard. This is, I think this is important. So Fresno county was the number one agricultural county from the late 1940s until 2001. We lost the title for one year in 2001. We regained it for the next 10 years.

And over the last decade it's been back and forth between Kern, Tulare and Fresno in regards to who's the top ag accounty. It's just more of a fun game. But there is a direct result why that's taking place and it's the availability of water if we don't have water.

When you talk about water issues and the crosshairs of what happens in California water, it's on the west side of Fresno County, is the first impacts you're going to see statewide. And so when we can't plant, obviously that affects our bottom line, hence the reason we slip in that.

But this all ties back to land use for one particular reason is. Would you guys like to guess what the number one AG county was prior to Fresno county back in the 40s? Los Angeles County.

It was significant back in the day and obviously today I would argue, I think we could all argue Los Angeles has a very successful industry in other areas. But I would like to say that I want to protect what we have here.

It's magical what we can do here, particularly in some of these soils, the water, the sunlight and everything that blends together here to grow crops that you can't grow anywhere else. There's a reason for that.

And so this all ties back to, you know, whether it's the Williamson act and the Protection and importance of that and trying to just find ways to make sure that the land remains economically viable in agriculture is extraordinarily important. I just want to end with just the overall perspective of. I mentioned myself, I'm a farmer.

So as they sometimes say, maybe my day job, I may sign the front of the check, but also sign, when it comes to the back of the check, to what's going on on my own farm. And so I'm writing the bills, everything else.

And it is very dramatic, what even I've experienced and as a small farmer over the course of the last couple of years there.

And not to say that there's a silver bullet for any of this, I think that's the most important thing to walk away from the day, is that we're not going to solve this by a single thing. But it's important to continue these conversations.

I can't say enough how much I appreciate that it's been a statewide tour, not just a singular area. And really finding ways to know that, whether big, medium, or small, that there is a role for all these different types of agriculture. And it's important when it comes to feeding our nation and feeding our world.

I mean, Ryan, I have like 10 things I want to say about your.

First and foremost, amazing job, Fresno State, three alums in front of us, doing great work. So just give them a hand for that. Come on. Two, you're the reason, another reason why I'm so excited to be. I'm trying to lobby myself to get into the AG Committee, and I will do that one day.

But I think just to amplify all the importance of what the ag community contributes. I think I said it earlier. You know, we see the end result when we're having our amazing, delicious meal in California, but it's all that work that happens. Right?

And what a way to uplift some of the realities, that it's not your community, the farmers that are raising the cost. Right. It's a combination of things. The transportation, the way it takes to get to the food, to that end result. So thank you for amplifying that. That voice. Yes. To your point.

You know, this tour is not just about to Southern California. It's not about the Bay Area. It's about everyone that matters, from the bottom to the top, in between. Right. And so that's why that was the priority of this Pocketbook tour, to ensure that those voices are amplified throughout the state.

And we are such a great state, y'. All. I mean, it's beautiful. Beyond all the rhetoric that we Hear at the, at the national, local level, it's amazing. The people that we represent, the people that we work with. To your point, we're going to continue these conversations. The work is not done.

And I think Speaker Rivas, who is from not too far from here, has prioritized affordability and how do we really combat this? Because that's what Californians told us in the last cycle when they went to the ballot box and said this is important, affordability and really what matters. So I think these components are critical.

So I just wanted to kind of end that part of the discussion. Thank the full panelists. For today's discussion. We're going to have a couple of questions and then there will be a public comment opportunity after this panel is over. So I want to make sure that I amplify that for the public.

So with that, my colleague on the, on the Committee, but also chair of the acum, you know, she's our chair and has been a strong voice for this community. So I know she has been a champion for a lot of things that you've mentioned today. So Ms. Soria.

Yeah, thank you to the three of you because I think that you guys all provided some very necessary perspectives, you know, from production to being a small farmer, to being a farmer, but also representing a whole slew of ag stakeholders here in Fresno County. And so thank you for all of the information that you guys shared.

I have a couple questions. I'll start with Ms. Zhang because I'm interested in understanding, you know, obviously all the issues that you guys, that you shared. I've heard it across from, from every single farmer, no matter how small or, or big. So obviously those issues are pretty consistent.

But wanted to understand in terms of, for you, one, what do you think we can do to help small farmers specifically? And then the other issue that I'm interested in to hear from you is on land access.

I know that the state Legislature did some work in trying to figure out how many of our small farmers, rather than leasing farmers farms because you know, in some instances people have to invest infrastructure and if you don't have certainty with even the ownership or the lease of your land, how that can impact your long term investments and what you're trying to build as a small farmer.

So if you could speak to kind of some of those issues, that'd be great.

I would say 90% of the small farmers, they don't own the land. So they do like year to year lease. So with that it's hard to say if they will be able to get the lease continue for next year. So it's hard.

So I would like to see if we can get grant, maybe buy land and have the small farmer work on that so they don't have to worry. All they need to do is focus on growing the food. But I don't know how.

I mean, because the land lease keep increasing and with everything that going up, we don't make any profit. So I think that if nothing's going to change, not everybody is going to continue farming. Yes. They can just stop and rely on government help and that would be really bad for the communities. Yes.

Thank you for sharing that. As I mentioned, I know that there's been efforts at the legislative level and specifically this last cycle and also during our Prop 4 for the climate bond discussions to figure out a mechanism to be able to essentially give opportunities of small farmers to own their piece of land.

So I think that there's still some work and obviously with the budget constraints we are faced with that challenge. But I know that there's a lot of conversation around that.

So it's really striking that about 90% of small farmers to your point, and you guys, when we're talking about small farmers, they're really, really tiny because I know the definition kind of fluctuates. But anyhow, thank you for, for that. Just one other point.

I know that also there are farm to school projects that are happening more and more. Are you guys participating in those? Farm to school?

I did one time, but I guess it has to do with processing the package because they don't have the labor. I sold some green beans to Fresno Unified, five pallets and it took the whole team to clean and prepare it. So they stopped buying it because we don't have the resource to prepack and ready to use.

Okay.

Yeah. So it just time consuming for them too. Yes.

Okay. So it didn't probably make sense for them. So. Okay. Right. Maybe some things to think about as we think about farm to school opportunities. Perfect.

The last. I have one last question for Ryan. Obviously similar to, you know, what folks I think across both panels have mentioned in terms of the challenges, and it's not one thing that we can point to.

I'm also glad that you explained kind of the fact that farmers are price takers, because I don't think a lot of people understand that. I think I didn't even understand that.

I think when I first was kind of trying to figure out, okay, well, we are seeing, you know, at the grocery store, we're paying a lot more, but yet we're still hearing from our farmers that they are struggling significantly. And so thank you for making that very clear.

Agburn farmer obviously being a solution to some of the challenges that we're seeing, the water infrastructure challenges that we have.

What are, I think, you know, from your perspective in terms of, from all those slews of challenges that some of the ag folks here in the region are experiencing, would be some possibilities and opportunities to work together to advance, you know, in this next legislative session.

I'm interested in hearing more about the ag burn and what folks are thinking about because I think that in Sacramento, people don't understand how critical this is. And there's myself and maybe Assembly woman Aguiar Curry or Majority Leader Aguart Curry, who has also been talking about it.

But I don't think enough people understand what is really happening on the ground with the ban on ag burning.

No, I appreciate that. Let me begin with, I kick myself for getting this in my main presentation here. I do want to give a salute also to the incredible farm employees that we have out that allow us to do what we do.

It's worth, you know, as we talk about the challenges and everything else, the greatest bright spot is the fact that we have these amazing individuals that go out on a daily basis, 365 days a year.

Cows need to be milked and citrus and, you know, a combination of stone fruit to peaches, plums, nectarines, whatever else all happens because of the amazing individuals that we have in our industry. And so I talked about the amazing amount of sunshine and soils and everything else, but we don't pick a peach with a machine yet.

And nor do I see that happening in the next five years. It's the employees that allow us to do that. So I really want to thank them for allowing this industry to blossom here as well.

But as far as when it comes to the air quality side of things, I would argue it's one of our top issues that we deal with on the farm from an expense perspective there, you're very familiar with the farmer program. We've invested as farmers ourselves, billions of dollars in this farm.

Now, when it comes to the upgrading of technology, there's a lot of emphasis today when it comes to the tractors and the equipment and stuff. But you go 20 years ago, we were replacing the stationary diesel engines and other things there.

The air today in the San Joaquin Valley, and again, I'm not saying we're there yet or finished, but it's 85% cleaner today than it was in 1990. I'm hugely proud of the fact that agriculture, Central Valley agriculture has been a major contributor to that overall. But we need that continued investment for that to continue to go forward.

When you talk about the burn side of things, you guys were very fortunately just passed a Bill that was signed by the Governor when it came to trying to deal with the pest concerns that come along with these left orchards or the orchards that have been taken out or the Vineyards have been taken out, because it's not something that we want to force upon any farmer.

But the reality is that there are issues that come with this on the ground level. I mean, we're talking tens of thousands of acres potentially here in the San Joaquin Valley that have been bulldozed or just walked away from because there's not the readily available capital to go in there and remove that. That's the greatest of ironies.

Is typically you're taking this out either a, historically, it's at the end of the life cycle and there's market changes. But right now we're looking at down markets that are some of the worst that we've seen in many decades.

And yet you're now, you haven't been paid for a crop or there's been no home for your crop for the last two to three years. And now you need to take it out of the ground. You don't have the income to do that. No bank's going to lend on it because there's not great alternatives right now.

And that's another thing we didn't talk about. But historically, when you take a crop out, I mean, California, because of our diversity, we're able to typically go in there and replace it with another crop that might be doing better right now.

Across the board, there's not many alternatives because you take an almond tree out, there's not a lot of other things that are doing much better. Even the illegal crop from 10 years ago is not doing very good right now.

So, I mean, there really is truly very few opportunities for A farmer to go in and remove that and have that available. So they're just, I don't want to say they're not giving up ownership of the land, but we're taught, you know, you hear the term, you know, fallowed or walked away from.

It's just simply, it's a lack of capital to being able to go in and do that.

And the burn regs that, you know, that we now have are a real big part of that because what used to be 5 to $600, maybe $700 an acre for the removal of a vineyard, that could be now 2000, $2500 depending on how much hand labor has to go in and remove some of that infrastructure in previous to the equipment coming in there.

And so this is by far, I think one of the top issues that we're dealing with. I mean there's water issues and everything else that are significant, but when you come to the cost to the pocketbook, definitely the burn regs have a, have a big issue there.

The only thing that I will also mention, I know that water obviously water reliability, especially in our area, given Sigmund, I represent the western part of the western part of my district is the area one of the areas that is mostly challenged and in times of drought we see not just the impacts of the lack there of jobs in that community because of the lack of water, but then also the human impact and you know, increased food lines and so forth.

We see that out in, you know, I know historically like out in the Mendota fire bar area and so on the water side. Could you just make any, some additional comments in terms of what are some potential opportunities?

Obviously Sigma is going to, is here to stay, but what are some of the things that we can potentially do to address some of the water uncertainty?

Obviously it's probably arguably the most, one of the most political issues in California. And the frustration is for those of us that are involved in it on a day to day basis, there are real world solutions to these issues.

And so I know I was very optimistic, particularly in the early part of the governor's term because there seemed to be a very significant headway trying to focus figure out these issues. Covid took a lot of steam out of that just because of the priorities of where the state had to shift at that point.

But I'm still optimistic that we can find these solutions that will be a win win for everybody. I'm a complete realist. We have to solve the ecosystem and the issues when it comes to species in the delta. The Sacramento San Joaquin Delta is by far the linchpin of what goes on in California water.

It's been generally said 2/3 of the water in the State of California falls north of Sacramento, but 2/3 of the need is south of Sacramento. And so our ANSW infrastructure that we have in existence here in California is by far the envy of the world. But it doesn't work the same way it worked 20 years ago.

And knowing that you have limitations in certain areas, you want to try to build those up. And so there are certain ways that we could probably do pumping much better in the delta that would protect species.

And obviously a supporter of trying to come up with conveyance to the delta because we know that there's issues when it comes to mixing the water. So there's real world ways that the Governor and others are trying to get there.

But we really, truly have to have a holistic approach and try to go in there and realize that we need. There's no silver bullet. We're not going to solve everything by doing this one project. As you know sites. Is Fresno county going to be a huge beneficiary to sites?

Unlikely, but it's a huge key piece to the overall state supply. And so we're extraordinarily supportive of doing projects like that here on the local level. One of my other side gigs I do is I'm President of the board of the Fresno Irrigation District.

We've invested heavily when it comes to recharge basins and trying to put water in the ground in years in which it's available. That continued investment and doing those kind of projects is extraordinarily important because we want to be able to save drops.

Like 2023 was absolutely incredible when the bounty of water received, but you're only able to capture small parts.

2023 was a weird year in the sense that there was so much water, but you have a lot of years going Back to like 20192017 that there are availabilities to be able to capture that water and being able to do more with it. And so really it's the, it's the investment, the continued investment in infrastructure.

I will say this, I mean, we have infrastructure that is predominantly was built between the late 1940s and the early 1970s. So now it's not just building the shiny new stuff, but it's also going back and fixing the stuff that is starting to have its issues now. So it's that investment as well that's extraordinarily needed here. It's.

I think it's I can't stress enough the partnership, you know, whoever. I mean, whether there's bickering and back and forth and everything else, we still have to rely upon our federal partners and work with them very significantly behind the scenes because here in Fresno county we rely upon that federal water.

And so making sure our state partners, federal partners, local partners are all hand in hand, hand working together for these solutions, I think is the biggest thing we can do for trying to do the long term reliability for this region.

Thank you, Assemblywoman. Like I said earlier, I had 10 responses to your comments and one of them was that burn issue that you mentioned. I sat on AQMD in South Coast in La and that gave me about two years of experience with that. So I would be intrigued to learn more about that issue here.

So I'll talk to my colleague about that to respect of time. But I want to talk three quick questions. One, the scale issue you talked about, Gladys. Really it's intriguing to me because I ran a Chamber of Commerce before coming to Legislature as my day job.

And working with small businesses was something that I did for seven years. And so I was intrigued to understand that, you know, you could take your business, you're doing A, B, C and D now, but you could do even more if there was more of a.

So what would that look like for you in the sense of that scaling issue? Do you want to kind of dive more into that?

Yeah. So like, I mean, again, because of, you know, I'm considered a startup still, it's like, how can I have access to these small batch processing facilities where the labor is not as high, Right. The production cost is not as high where. Because I'm having to do it myself right now. Right.

So it's like if I have access to these, then this will allow me to be able to scale and then also the compliance, right. The CPG world is like new to me. Right. I mean it's like a real estate market out there, right.

And learning, you know, how to be compliant with, you know, your, your nutritional labels and all of that. Because there's other small businesses, right. They have a, a family recipe. They ask me all the time, how do you do it? Right. So I think there's that educational piece that needs to be instilled in the process too. Right?

Okay. You want to package your crops, right? How do you do that? Right. How do you go about getting that done? What's the, the requirements for that? Right. Do we have to go through the usda, through the Fda? What does that look like? And I think there's a disconnect right there.

So again, you know, learning from experience but also being able to help other entre food entrepreneurs that are wanting to get into the world of, you know, process manufacturing or getting a sauce out in the market. How can we facilitate it it for them, right.

At a small batch where it's, you know, the small batch processing facility acts as a hub for these individuals. Right. Because they still have to test the concept. Right. You can't go and spend thousands of dollars and, and going to a big manufacturing company just to test the concept.

If you're able to produce it at a smaller scale, then you're building your brand, you're, you know, making your connections with wherever it is that you're going to sell your product. But it's like baby steps, right, that we have to take to get to there. So yeah, I've navigated it. Appreciate that.

I was very intrigued when you mentioned that. So it was interesting to learn more about that. So thank you. One of the things that we've heard recently and I think, you know, you amplified that was a labor situation within the industry.

You know, I specifically one of the many hats we wear is I'm a big fan of higher education, right. And not just the CSU being that I'm part of that system, but you know, the UC system and just higher ed, including our trade schools. Right.

So one of the things that I'm interested to see, how can the state help, right. Either partnering with the community colleges, the different systems we have, how do we get more folks in the ag industry and farming specifically.

So I would be intrigued to know more of what your perspective of that would be on, you know, not actually the exact solution, but what other opportunities are there maybe that you foresee in your everyday life we could do to help promote that. Because it's not going to happen from one day to another.

But it's the investments that we could do as a Legislature possibly to see where specifically we could recruit more folks to, you know, because I know that there is an overseas kind of, kind of perspective, but there's also how do we impact more youth that we have here and get them into the industry.

So just curious to see your perspective on that.

Absolutely. Just like you a fan of higher ed, but that includes, includes the trade side. And I cannot stress enough how much I'm excited to know that we seem to see a resurgence of that going on right now. We're in the midst of it. I like to think on the early side.

I happen to have an 8th grader right now who we're looking at the options when it comes to high school. And even within this local area in the Fresno Unified, how many options are available when it comes to the trade or going for specific areas is amazing compared to what it was just a few years ago.

And another part of this that I'm actually excitedly saying this is that we actually are a little bit farther probably than the rest of the state because as Esmeralda knows, we have the investment on the F3 that's going on that's partnering with the community colleges to get farm employees that want to upgrade their skills and have other options available to them.

They're able to go through these different certificate programs that get them the resources they need. And so that is in, currently in existence. There's people that are currently going through that program. It's only been in the Last probably year 218 months or so that that's been ongoing. And so that's great.

But I just can't stress enough that the state's investment when it comes to the trade part and whether it's, I mean I'm very. A huge promoter of the FFA program and what they've been able to do for. I mean there's this misconception, it's just the kids showing their animals.

I mean beyond that, I mean the public speaking opportunities to the different judging and ag mechanics to welding to on and on, the hands on just. I can't stress enough, I'm a kid of it.

Even in high school, you know, I'm the guy that had the great gpa but also took welding and loved every aspect of it because it was something that I was able to do. Hands on and able to. Yeah, really? That's awesome. And, and because it's one of those.

And I was going to talk, I was going to catch her afterwards and tell her I'm a Craig School MBA in entrepreneurship as well. And so because it's, it's those types of hands on opportunities that creates entrepreneurs. I really do believe that.

And whether it's a business type of, you know, direction they go or whether it's the hands on, you know, we have, you guys keep hearing the next millionaires are going to be plumbers, electricians, H. Vacs, everything else because of the shortage that we have nationwide there.

And so I think ag is a part of that whole system there. And as we move to robotics and mechanization, everything else there is not. I really truly mean this. I don't think there's going to be a displacement of ag workers.

They're just going to be upgraded to these other additional jobs that exist within the industry as we continue to move down those routes there. And so the F3 has helped to prepare of those individuals for those jobs on the water and ag side of things.

Appreciate perspective again, trades. I cannot agree with you more. That's going to be a critical point that we continue to invest and support. So it's not just your traditional higher ed, you know, four year college, it's those, those opportunities for our youth. And I said that from firsthand.

I have a 19 year old godson that I thought, you know, we had this career path for college and that was what he wanted to do. And it's okay, right? But it took a shifting, a pivoting to do something else.

So I say that from the context of there is that prepare our youth for higher ed and specifically a four year college, but also the opportunity to do something else. And he's a bright kid, he's good and he just likes to work. He's like I want to do something with my hands, I want to do labor. Right.

Of course he goes to the gym and thinks he's Mr. Fit Guy and thinks that. But nonetheless there's a different something that motivates him differently. And that's why I asked what can't we do it combining our ad conversation and of course our higher ed spaces to do that. So thank you for that.

The last thing that I was very intrigued with your comment and I should say, I think that was maybe nine of 10 things. The land use thing you talked about. Right. I think one of the things we're so proud individually out of 80 Assembly Members, we proudly represent our districts.

You know, hearing from the food baskets to you know, my higher, my southeast Los Angeles district. And so that's what we need to do as some Members that represent our districts and never forget who we represent, but also understand our state.

I think that's one of the new jobs that I have is to understand how our state works. And so for me it's how do we educate each other on the importance of land use and the water issue. And these things are happening that have an impact in that again in the result of our meal at the restaurant.

Right. Or at home. And so the importance of what happens here and how it connects to our la.

We have a lot of Members in LA and so I think part of what we could also do is, you know, use part of like your knowledge and your background and that passion that you truly have and you all have. I think that's what I want to just highlight the passion and it's encouraging, it's motivating.

And how do we translate that to helping other folks understand the importance what's happening here. Right. I know Soya does a lot good with that, but how do we amplify her voice as well with people like yourselves and do that?

So I just want to kind of invite all of us to continue doing that because beyond the Member here, there's, you know, 79 of us throughout the state have a voice.

And also as we invest and we prioritize and you know, we'll have a Governor, a new Governor soon too, just next year, so that will have a conversation too. And these things have an impact. You know, the decisions have the consequences. Right. Good and bad ones.

So for that matter, I think elevating that discussion and how that has an impact throughout our state. And we do live in our little bubbles, I have to admit. Right. Because we have, we have in our districts. But how do we. How do we interconnect each other? So on that note, I want to end with that.

That I'm very happy to, to just what you mentioned about that importance.

And one thing I can't stress enough is the partnership. I really think that exists for all 80 Members right now is the fact that I'm a huge believer that I want to see us get healthier as a society and as Californians.

Central Valley and California agriculture is the answer to that because we are producing the fruits, vegetables, nuts and lean meats and everything else that America needs. And so I really hope that we can partner from a health perspective and seeing how food, our California food plugs.

Into that huge opportunity for food entrepreneurs in that area. Right. As more people are going towards cleaner eating, healthier ingredients, how can we create that?

Yeah. And it's good to hear the small business, the small farmers to then the larger farmers. So it was good to see both perspectives. So. And now we wanted to thank this panel. I appreciate your work. We're going to continue with our public comments. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I know, I didn't get that.

We didn't get no Birria maybe. But you know, so with that, we want to now move on to open up to public comment. At this point, we have a microphone over here. So we're going to do is have anyone that wants to address the panel. I mean, sorry, the. The Committee will have two minutes per individual.

And at that point, the mic is here. And please state your name and who you represent.

Hi, good morning. My name is Mckay Duran. I am with the Central California Food Bank and I want to thank you all for being here in Fresno to have such a timely convening on these issues. And I of course am representing Central California Food Bank.

We represent the five county region of the valley for food insecurity, that's Fresno, Madera, Tulare, Kings and Kern counties. Each month we partner with about 240 organizations that school pantries, faith based organizations and schools across our valley to serve over 300,000 neighbors each month. About 100,000 of those being children each month.

And our pantries and faith based partners are seeing an incredible need right now and that has been the trend for the past few years before the Federal Government shut down right now.

And so currently our organization is currently holding emergency food distributions for local IRS, tsa, faa, Federal correctional facilities and their employees who may be furloughed or working without pay through this time.

And that's nothing to say of SNAP and WIC and here in our valley programs like both of those, specifically WIC, that's 142,000 families receiving collectively about $1 million a month. I say a month because as the shutdown continues we kind of know the ballpark of what that could actually look like.

And then for SNAP, that is 720,000 neighbors across our five counties at about $137 million a month for those delayed benefits. And so I want to thank you for being here, for hearing from all of us here today.

And like was mentioned at the beginning of the hearing, we are super thankful for the state support in the way of the advance for Cal food funding to support our work. And so thank you for being here in this opportunity to share the impact of the continued need and food insecurity in our valley and the government. Check.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for your work. Next.

Welcome. Hi, my name is Don Wright. I publish water rights.net I'm pretty water centric on AG and I know it's cliche to often say thank you for coming here, but thank you all for taking time to come to this valley.

I often feel like we're the Appalachia of California when it comes to the Bay Area especially there's that, well, I'm not going to let me get off of my soapbox and I do. But I also want to thank you for including some farmers.

I don't know you've been to more of these Committee things than I have, but I've been to a few and they often talk ag and ag labor and there's no farmers in the room. So I'm glad to do that.

All these issues, by the way, I can give you three steps the state could actually do to improve the water, but we can do that afterward if you like. But did you hear how much was talked about regulatory pressure? California's GDP, 20% almost is the State of California government expenditures. And where does that money come from?

It comes from the folks in this room that are working and the entrepreneurs. So I would like to ask you what innovations can you all do legislatively to reduce the regulatory compliance burden? That is just as big a problem as a lack of water or. Well, that's all due to regulation. We've got enough water in California.

Even with climate change, we have enough water. It's about getting it where it needs to be. So I'd like to, I'd really like to hear and Ms. Soria, I know you said at the APD pistachio thing that the other Members on your Committee often felt that farmers were just a bunch of millionaires exploiting. Has that changed yet?

What can we do to change that?

That's what we're trying to do.

Yeah, I know you are. And I don't mean to be pulling my pants down in Sunday school and put you on the spot or anything, but. And you do, Mr. Salashi. Did I pronounce that? Love to have a talk with you later because I believe there's a whole lot of disconnect in Sacramento itself.

I think you all know that. So. Yeah. And I'll tell you three ways to fix the water thing too. Thank you so much for joining. God bless.

Appreciate it. Next Speaker. Welcome.

Hi. Thank you for having us today. My name is Kang Vang. I'm the owner, founder of Fresno Bipoc Produce Inc. Which is a food hub here in Fresno. And I serve a lot of the farmers, especially Bipoc farmers in different counties, many different counties. I'm here to listen. And also I heard Esmeralda Esmember Esmeralda Sodia.

You asked Macy earlier about land axes. I wanted to share my story and a farmer's story. Earlier this year, I bought three acres of land which cost $294,000. And that just goes to show how much the price has gone up for land and how hard it is for small farmers to even purchase land.

And it'll be great to see more resources out there to help farmers purchase land and to find a way to keep the cost of purchasing land down. So that way it's more affordable for small farmers. And another story, I work with a. There's a Hmong couple farmer who bought two pieces of land right next to each other.

They lost one of the parcel to the county because of, long story short, because of the miscommunication between the county, the title company and the farmers. But you have to take in effect that the small farmers, the two farmers, they don't really speak English that well.

And so that just goes to show the challenges and the struggles that farmers face. But I'm still trying to figure a way out by talking to some of the partners that I work with to see how we can help these farmers out, to see if we can get the land back to them.

Because they lost the land to the county and the county sold it to Habitat for Humanity for $8,000, which is unbelievable. So we're working on a way to help the farmers out. And then also, which also leads to, back to my problem that I bought.

I bought the 3 acres of land, 2.67 acres of land because my long term goal is, or my short term goal is to build a cold storage warehouse to help provide access, provide coast storage access to small farmers and also to buy processing equipment to process produce so that way we can sell to school districts easier.

Which also is another thing that you guys talked about with Macy of how Farm to School is going. I am a Farm to school recipient. You can wrap up. Okay. And I would just like to see more infrastructure and equipment grants out there so that way small farmers and food hubs like myself can access it. Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Okay. Thank you. Welcome. Your name.

Thank you. Assembly Members Annalee Augustine here on behalf of Consumer Brands Association representing consumer packaged goods and the foods that Californians depend on every day.

We want to thank you for this hearing and also want to underscore the importance of packaging for getting the great products grown and produced here in the Central Valley really to the rest of the world. And regarding affordability, just highlight that implementation of SB 54 will rise, will raise costs.

We appreciate this year's action from the Administration and attention to the added costs pressures and the improvements that have resulted this year. However, it just still will be significant and complex for compliance. While the industry does continue to prioritize safe, safe packaging for California's agricultural products. So thank you.

Thank you so much. Next Speaker.

Good morning. Brianne Vandenberg, Executive Director, Merced County Farm Bureau. Thank you for making your way down to Fresno county for this hearing. I will say that as you made your way down from Sacramento, you probably somehow passed through Merced county and just wanted to mention we are there as well.

I won't cover the issues because Ryan did a fabulous job along with the other counterparts on your panel, but know we also are there happy to provide tours, happy to go in depth on those questions that each of you had. And I think Soria may be able to vouch for some of our tours as well.

So thank you for the time.

Thank you so much. Okay, with that, that ends public comment. Thank you all who lined up today and contribute to this discussion. I just want to say I do love taking tours. So actually the Assembly woman is taking me some places after this, showing me her district.

So that's actually very motivating because we get to see firsthand some of the work that you all do. So looking forward to do that with that as we end. I want to just extend my deepest gratitude to Summer Sori again for hosting us in her home.

She talks a lot about her area, so I was just happy to finally come here and talk and see the region more in depth and have conversations with you all.

Cal State, Fresno, thank you all for hosting us and the Alumni House for all the work that you do in ensuring that your alums are doing good work like the one, the three that we have here today and the many more that are part of the family, our partners, stakeholders and community Members whose dedication and collaboration made today's hearing possible.

The perspectives shared here today are instrumental in guiding the Legislature's approach and ensuring our policies remain responsive to the everyday realities of those we serve. I'm encouraged by today's dialogue and look forward to continue this important work together as we pursue lasting, impactful solutions. Senator Soria, please share any closing remarks.

Thank you so much, Assemblymember Solace. I want to thank first and foremost all the panelists for your participation, for your insight, for being real and sharing the, the real challenges that our farming community, that the Food Network really and stakeholders are experiencing as a result of a number of factors, inflation, what's happening also internationally with the markets.

But I think that today we also had an opportunity to learn about some of those things that California does have control over.

And so I hope that out of this hearing we can continue to have the conversations as, as we lead to the next legislative session of those things that we can control to help mitigate or at least keep some of those prices down for the various stakeholders that are being impacted.

And so I do want to just say sincerely, thank you to Assemblymember Solace for his interest for understanding and connecting the dots because believe it or not, I think most people outside of, you know, our region forget and don't even realize how much happens between when something is planted, harvested, you know, gone into a production facility and then, you know, out to the store, into the grocery store.

I don't think people understand the incredible amount of work that happens, who's involved and then, you know, in the aftermath, who can get impacted. Because decisions that we do make in Sacramento impact somewhere in that timeline from the time that something is planted.

And so I look forward to working with my colleague and other colleagues that have interest in ensuring that we're addressing the affordability crisis and that we start with food, which is what we all need to survive. So, again, thank you so much for your time.

Thank you so many woman last last thank yous to all the staff that made this here today, folks. Thank you so much, our IT Department, our community staff, for your great work as always. Thank you to also the Assembly woman's district staff. They're here as well, and they are very engaged in this process as well.

So thank you all for your time today. With that, this hearing is officially adjourned at 10:58 a.m.