Western Growers’ Leader Tasks Elected Officials to Focus on Economic Realities
EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was originally published in the Q4 2026 Western Grower & Shipper. It is part of Western Growers’ President’s Notes series, written by President and CEO Dave Puglia.
Here is a portion of the article:
The elections are behind us, thankfully. No more campaign ads on our computers, phones and television screens, no more cardstock attack pieces clogging up our mailboxes. At least for a while.
Those elected, or reelected, to serve in state and national offices are hopefully turning to the task of governing. Many know Western Growers and our members well, and many don’t. In either case, I think it’s a good time to refresh for them, and for ourselves, the state of our industry and the ways they can process complex and competing policy demands.
We tend to take on policy issues in buckets, which can be helpful in focusing attention on those more critical or urgent. But with so many farmers struggling with an unprecedented deluge of challenges, it seems wise to construct a filter through which political leaders should pass every policy issue presented to them.
To my mind, the relevant question to ask — the filter through which every policy issue should be tested — is this: Does this policy build up or degrade the economic viability of American farmers?
No other question really matters when you think about it. A noble-sounding piece of legislation that would “help workers” or “protect the environment” will have entirely failed if it contributes to the further degradation of economic viability that is driving American farmers — and especially those operating in California — toward consolidation, bankruptcy, or relocation of operations to foreign lands.
Look no farther than California’s union-backed overtime wage law for farmworkers. Everyone — farmworkers and farmers alike — are being harmed due to that law’s predicted conflict with the laws of economics.
RELATED CONTENT: Western Growers Calls Out CA Governor for ‘Economically Stupid Mandate’
Another example: The tangle of state and federal regulations championed by environmental interest groups, premised on restoring listed fish species to the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, has entirely failed to achieve any of the stated environmental objectives. But the economic consequences have been robust: The picture of the future San Joaquin Valley features sweeping areas of abandoned dusty land and solar “farms.”
The rationale for passing proposed policies through an economic viability lens should be apparent, but sadly it is not so obvious in Congress and many state capitals.
Farm bankruptcies, consolidation, and dependence on foreign food production have all been increasing.
- National farm bankruptcies increased 46% in 2025; California had the most of any state in 2024.
- The U.S. lost 141,733 farms from 2017 to 2022; California lost about 10% of its farms in the same period.
- Large operations with 2,000-plus crop acres went from controlling 15% of U.S. cropland in 1987 to 41% in 2017.
- Imports now account for about 59% of U.S. fresh-fruit availability and 35% of fresh-vegetable availability.
So, with that troubling data in mind, and that lens properly affixed to their gazes, there are some of the priorities [ farm labor policy, California labor policy, water supply, and crop protection] Congress and the California legislature should tackle, if they really do believe that American farming and food production is worth saving.
For more, continue reading at wga.com.