Seed For Thought: Save The Farmers
January 13, 2012 
Environmental groups are always talking about running out of resources, and some of the facts and figures are open to argument, but there is one that is indisputable: There is a finite amount of land on which to farm. Even more scarce is the land — with the attendant climate and resources, such as water — on which to grow vegetables. Taking the argument further, the land that can produce more than one crop per year, such as in California’s San Joaquin Valley, is definitely a precious resource that needs to be treasured.
For that reason, I was more than a little gratified recently when the California Farm Bureau Federation took a strong stand to preserve prime farmland and protect the integrity of the Golden State’s main farmland-conservation program. The Farm Bureau filed a lawsuit charging the Fresno County Board of Supervisors with overstepping its authority when it authorized construction of a utility-scale solar power project on prime farmland. Fresno County is one of the most productive agricultural counties in the nation, much of it fruits and vegetables.
The county supervisors had voted to cancel a Williamson Act farmland conservation contract on 90 acres of prime Class I soil, to allow the parcel to be developed for a large solar power plant. California Farm Bureau President Paul Wenger, whom I’ve interviewed at his ranch west of Modesto where he and his boys farm almonds and walnuts, said the organization filed suit to assure that large-scale solar power facilities are located in appropriate places.
Preserve The Farmland
“Farmers recognize the potential of solar power, and California farmers lead the nation in the installation of on-farm solar power generators,” Wenger said. “But pressure to build utility-scale solar plants has touched off a land rush that threatens thousands of acres of prime farmland. There are millions of acres of marginal land in California. That’s where these power plants should go, so we can conserve prime farmland to grow the crops that sustain our state and nation.”
I was reminded of the importance of preserving farmland again recently in reading an item from the American Farmland Trust, which noted Fresno today bears an uncanny resemblance to Los Angeles County in the early 1900s. And there’s a reason Orange County has that name — it was once an agricultural paradise. One of the first interviews I conducted for American Vegetable Grower was with Bob Grimm — he and his brother Rod founded the giant Grimmway Farms — and he said they got their start growing sweet corn on land where Angel Stadium of Anaheim now sits.
That was less than 50 years ago. The irony is the Grimms moved to the San Joaquin Valley to start their successful carrot business. Hats off to the Farm Bureau for taking a stand for the San Joaquin Valley, one of the richest agricultural regions in the world.
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