Ag Alert December 2, 2020

Delta farmers express doubts on ‘carbon farming’ ByKevinHecteman

think the farming community has been engaged in this discussion,” said Osha Meserve, an attorney representing delta landowners and reclamation districts. Meserve took issue with one claimbe- ing made by the conservancy: that the deltaproduces one-quarter of California’s agricultural carbon emissions. “I have a big concern that the math that the conservancy is using is based on some really limited data, and it’s over- stating the contribution of delta agricul- ture in particular to carbon emissions,” she said. Bruce Blodgett, executive director of the San JoaquinFarmBureauFederation, objects to the idea of converting somuch delta land to rice and tules. “There’s no value to anyone other than the individual landowner. … That’s not what’s best for the community, andmore importantly, that’s not what’s best for the region,” Blodgett said. Meserve echoed this, noting that “growing tul es, even i f you could get paid for i t , doesn’ t create any other jobs.” Blodgett doesn’t so much take issue with rice planting as he does with the

idea of paying people to do it—especially when other rice farmers, in San Joaquin County and elsewhere, are paying their own way. “Rice product ion has long been a par t of the del ta,” he said. “You shouldn’t have to subsidize it, or it doesn’t make sense.” Blodgett pointed out that the delta is protected under state law, the Delta Protection Act of 1992, aimed at ensur- ing the region doesn’t disappear under a lake of asphalt. “This area is preserved for agricultur- al production,” Blodgett said. “You can’t build subdivisions in the delta in the pri- mary zone. You can’t go in and reinforce levees in the middle of the delta and say, ‘We’re going to build a new community out here, and it’s going to be all houses and shopping malls.’” Melinda Terry, executive director of the California Central Valley Flood Control Association, said the Delta Protection Act came about because the state did not want to see delta agricultur- al land developed. “In this case,” she said, “the conversion will still take place. It won’t be develop- ment, but it would be wetlands.” This is where communication is key, she noted. “The program relies on landowners volunteering to convert their land,” Terry said. “If this program is depen- dent on that, then you need to go meet with them now to get buy-in, that this is something they’re interested in be- yond just the couple of landowners that they do have currently participat- ing in pilot programs.” One challenge that has arisen,Meserve

said, is that tules have their own green- house-gas issues. “There’s a lot of methane emissions that come in when you grow tules,” she said. “We don’t think that the calcula- tions that the conservancy has been us- ing really take that into account.” The Nature Conservancy, which owns Staten Island, is conducting a studymea- suring methane coming from the tule fields it’s planting, Meserve said. “That will be really important infor- mation, because before we push farm- ers into changing crops to tules or some other crop, we need to make sure we’re not creating some other issue,” she said. Blodgett said the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers makes the delta region ideal for farming. “A lot of the water that flows through the state flows through the delta,” he said. “That was why it was developed for agriculture, and that’s why the state Legislature protected it for agriculture.” Meserve pointed out the wide array of crops grown in the delta—more than two dozen, according to a 2016 LandIQmap of the region. “That’s one of the cool things about the delta, is that there’s this whole vari- ety of crops,” she said. “Some of that is making its way to the local markets and restaurants. It’s kind of the richness of our region. I think that’s another con- cern I would have with converting a lot to this carbon-market type farming, is that you would lose some of the bene- fits of having those crops coming out of the delta.” (Kevin Hecteman i s an ass i stant editor of Ag Alert. He may be contacted at khecteman@cfbf.com.)

Plans to convert nearly 200,000 acres of Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta farm- land into rice production or tule-based carbon farms are being greeted with skepticism among representatives of delta farmers. The De l ta Conser vancy , a s tate agency, has partnered with environ- mental organizations and universities on pilot projects aimed at stopping or slowing ongoing land subsidence in the delta under a California Wetland Protocol . The protocol , cur rent l y certified through the nonregulatory American Carbon Registry, is being used to quantify carbon sequestra- tion from growing tules or rice on sea- sonally or perennially wetted lands in the delta. A few thousand acres of experimen- tal rice in the delta are being studied to better understand any contribution to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. If proven, the conservancy’s goal is to pres- ent its nonregulatory protocol for adop- tion by the state Air Resources Board as a formal protocol for use in California’s existing cap-and-trade program. “The big problem I see is that I don’t

Survey tracks pollination fees paid by state’s almond farmers

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Average pol l inat ion fees paid by California almond farmers rose 5% during a recent five-year period, accord- ing to a University of California survey. Assistant UC Cooperative Extension Specialist Brittney Goodrich and UC Davis postdoctoral researcher Jennie Durant conducted the survey in late 2019 and early 2020, along with colleagues at Duke University inNorthCarolina. More than 300 almond growers responded to the online survey. Wr i t ing in the Agr i cul tural and Resources Economics Update , Goodrich and Durant said lower almond prices have encouraged farmers to reassess their pollination expenses. “Tight profit margins mean almond operations will closely scrutinize their pollination expenses as they estab- lish contracts in the coming months,” Goodrich and Durant wrote. When averaged for inflation, polli- nation fees increased 5% from 2015 to 2019, the researchers said, with fees ris-

ing an average 9% for the highest colo- ny-strength requirement. Among the survey’s other findings: Farmers generally paid higher pollina- tion fees for bees acquired through a broker, and paid $7 more per colony for bees originating outside of California— which represented nearly 80% of the colonies used for almond pollination this year. Goodrich and Durant concluded that almond farmersmust consider the value associated with pollination decisions in addition to the cost. “Contracting for colonies through a pollination broker, from an out-of-state beekeeper or above the 8-frame colony strength were associated with higher fees. However, each of these may pro- vide benefits to the grower in excess of the premiums paid,” they wrote. The full article may be found at the Giannini Foundation of Agricultural Economics website, giannini.ucop.edu/ publications/are-update.

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6 Ag Alert December 2, 2020