California Farmers Struggle to Weather the Agriculture Crisis

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KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 6 April 2026

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It is a tough time to be a farmer. President Trump’s tariffs last year raised many of the costs of farming and shrunk food exports. Threats of immigration raids have caused major labor shortages. And now, the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sent the price of diesel and fertilizer skyrocketing. We talk about the new pressures on an already stressed agriculture industry in California, how farmers are coping and the impact it all may have on consumers. Guests: Dan Sumner, professor of Agricultural and Resource Economics, UC Davis; director, Agricultural Issues Center for the University of California Don Cameron, vice president and general manager, Terranova Ranch; president, California State Board of Food and Agriculture Stuart Woolf, president and CEO, Woolf Farming & Processing Alexis Maxwell, senior equity analyst, Bloomberg Intelligence Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Forum. I'm Alexis Madrigal. There was probably a time when a conflict in the
0:09.3	Middle East or global tariffs would not have had a huge effect on California agriculture. But
0:14.7	markets and things like diesel fuel and fertilizer are globally interconnected now. And a problem
0:19.6	in the Strait of Hormuz is a problem
0:21.4	in the Central Valley. And that's just the latest thing. Farmers are struggling with climate change,
0:27.1	water availability, immigration policy, which has exacerbated their labor problems, and so much
0:32.0	more. We're going to talk about food and farming with some growers and experts and joining us first.
0:37.8	We've got Don Cameron, the vice president and general manager of Taranova Ranch in Fresno, president of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture.
0:46.0	Welcome, Don.
0:47.4	Good morning. Good to be with you.
0:49.3	Yeah, great and happy.
0:50.0	So just talk to me about how your farm is dealing with these increases in cost.
0:55.9	What's the most significant one for you?
1:00.0	Our most significant increase has been the increase in diesel fuel.
1:04.6	We've seen an 87% increase in price in the last month and a half.
1:12.6	Wow. What we used to get a 7,000 gallon truckload of fuel would cost us $18,000.
1:21.6	Now we're 34,000 and possibly could go higher.
1:27.5	Wow. Wow.
1:28.5	Wow.
1:30.6	How do you see the relationship between the sort of the fertilizer, the fuel, the water,
1:39.4	like put the business model together for us if you can?
1:45.6	Well, we're seeing the increased cost in diesel has been the biggest issue we've seen.
	...

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