Facing the new abnormal: San Francisco North Bay agriculture must step up to the microphone
Tawny Tesconi is the executive director of the Sonoma Count Farm Bureau
A key ingredient to what makes our county “Sonoma Strong” is our agricultural heritage and the farmers and ranchers who care for our beautiful landscape, safeguard our natural resources and provide defense against one of our county’s greatest threats - wildfires. Agriculture has always been key to climate change adaptation and environmental sustainability.
But with the annual occurrence of wildfires, 2020 will begin a decade where agriculturalists have a leading role in fire resiliency through expanded land management.
Over the last few years, our county’s resiliency has been put to the test and with every trial and tribulation. Best management practices are discovered, and lessons are learned. People might not realize that grazed pastures and vineyards saved countless structures and reduced loss during the several fires that have burned through our county. Farmed and managed lands reduce fuel loads, provide fire breaks, barriers, and defensible space, and collectively, help to safeguard Sonoma County.
Farmers want to help share this information and better prepare our lands should another fire plague our area.
In 2020, one of our goals at Sonoma County Farm Bureau will be centered on providing our members tools to adapt to the “new abnormal” and to communicate our effective land management practices to a wider net of landowners in both the public and private sectors.
In a related effort that will be expanded in the next ten years, there are countless examples of how agriculture exemplifies environmental stewardship. Farming practices optimize soil health, increase plant biodiversity and water quality and the resulting benefits include carbon sequestration, improved watershed health, wildlife habitat, and open space.
Working closely with local resource conservation districts, ranchers like Joe Pozzi of Pozzi Livestock and Loren Poncia of Stempel Creek Ranch have demonstrated how healthy soils programs and rotational grazing reduces carbon footprint and increases crop yield.
In addition, Jackson Family Wines through years of study is demonstrating the benefits to local watersheds and groundwater resources through water recharge on vineyard properties. These efforts not only lead to a healthier environment but also produce healthy food for Sonoma County families.
In the upcoming year, Farm Bureau will be working on advocacy related to processing facilities needed for various crops and livestock grown in northern California.
We all enjoy the open space and economic vitality offered through agriculture production. But with production comes a need to process the crops cultivated in Sonoma County.
Once processing facilities such as canneries and harvesting facilities were abundant in our area, but we have lost most of these plants because of the high cost of doing business. Sonoma County residents proudly support the concept of our food shed being a “slow food” mecca, however, the absence of local harvesting facilities leaves our livestock producers with no alternative but to truck their animals hundreds of miles for processing. This is a big problem.
Trucking animals out of the county does not help us reduce our carbon footprint. These same challenges are felt by our small animal farmers and our crop producers as well. We hope to find collaborative solutions that will allow our agricultural products to be raised, processed, and enjoyed right here in Sonoma County.
With the listing of hemp as a federally-approved agriculture crop, our local community is wrestling with how to manage hemp cultivation. As leaders in the agricultural industry, the Farm Bureau will work closely with regulatory agencies and our farmers to educate the community and our industry about the nuances around hemp farming.
Hemp production may be an avenue for our traditional farmers to diversify their operations which could infuse much-needed resources into the vast working lands that define our county.
Throughout the decades, Sonoma County citizens have continually shown their support of agriculture from a standpoint of quality food products.
But with the lessons learned from the recent fires, and the role farming and land management plays in ensuring the safety of all of us has been enhanced, I predict this next decade will see stronger collaboration between government and the private sector to lift the agriculture industry up even higher. With this greater awareness, farmers and ranchers will be heralded for the dedicated land stewards that they are. In many ways, our ag community are environmentalists – always improving management practices to protect the quality of our natural resources.
