On behalf of the agricultural community of Butte County, the Butte Ag Foundation will accept monetary donations that will be used to feed and maintain the livestock that have been impacted by the Camp Fire.

Large and small animals are currently being housed and cared for at the Butte County Fairgrounds in Gridley. The extensive and devastating damage of the Camp Fire has all but eliminated the pens, corrals and barns that these animals once called home. It is likely that many will reside at the fairgrounds for weeks after the fire is contained. Donations to the Butte Ag Foundation will be used for feed, supplies, and health needs of the animals that cannot easily be met through other dedicated funds.

Should funds remain after the livestock have been reunited with owners and/or placed in new homes, funds will be used to repair, replace and or upgrade livestock facilities for future crisis use.

The Butte Agriculture Foundation is a 501(c)3 Public Benefit Corporation and supports locally organized agriculture groups and committees to provide the resources and services needed to be successful in the efforts to inform and promote the value of our agrarian community. For more information visit http://www.ButteAgFoundation.org or call (530) 533-1473. You may also email info@buttefarmbureau.com.

Each issue of the Butte County Farm Bureau Newsletter includes an editorial from Executive Director Colleen Cecil. The following was printed in the September/October 2018 Issue of the Butte County Farm News which is mailed to current members of the Butte County Farm Bureau.

I can now add protester to my resume. So can the approximately 80 others from Butte, Glenn, Tehama, Colusa, Yuba and Sutter County Farm Bureaus who jumped on our two chartered busses and headed for Sacramento on Monday, August 20^th for the well-publicized Water Grab Rally that took place on the North steps of the Capitol.

It was a day with mixed emotion for me. I was excited to be participating and as I do when I am excited, I smiled. To add to the energy of the day, I saw many in our industry that I consider friends. People who I had not seen in years; people who I have grown up with and worked alongside. We were all there for the same reason and I was generally happy. But I was reminded by someone taking my picture that I probably shouldn’t look so happy. After all, the reason we were there was not a reason to celebrate. I was and still am down right infuriated over the State Water Boards plan for unimpaired flows on the San Joaquin and Sacramento rivers.

There is a more factual and detailed article about the Bay Delta Plan Amendment in this newspaper that I encourage you to read to begin to understand the complicated events that have been and will continue to unfold. I however wanted to reflect on the day itself.

More than 1500 people gathered that day. The rally was organized by Assemblyman Adam Gray from the Merced area. The event was important enough that four Congressmen and almost a dozen California Assemblymembers and Senators all addressed those who gathered. Also providing remarks were Central Valley County Supervisors and City Council members.  Each detailing how the unimpaired flows would devastate their already struggling communities.

Assemblymember Gray was the event organizer but it was County Farm Bureau’s that rallied the masses. My colleagues from Merced, Stanislaus, San Joaquin and the North State County Farm Bureaus listed above, spent about five weeks planning our participation with a weekly conference call hosted by California Farm Bureau.

We worked with CFBF’s legal team to see that fact sheets were developed and made public so we could more easily educate on the complicated topic.  We ordered charter busses and identified pick up stops in major points in our community. We blasted social media – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram – with notification of the rally and encouragement to participate. I even remember the Facebook post that joked about needing a band at the event. The joke was on them as the Merced Unified High School District made it possible for the Atwater High Marching Band to be in attendance at the rally and keep the energy high.

As much as I wish we didn’t have to participate in this rally, I can now look back and say we needed it. We needed to see farmers from the North and the South join voices for the same issue – water. We chanted, we held our handmade and printed signs, we stood with lifelong farmers and the future of our industry as many blue jackets of the FFA participated too. We showed Sacramento’s appointed regulators they can’t divide us and we are not going to just “adjust” to this new regulation like we have for so many others.

We didn’t win but we were heard. The State Water Board has now pushed their decision on the Phase One till November 7, that day after the November election. Negotiations will continue.

I picked up my boys from school late that Monday afternoon and my six year old, who knew I was going to the Capitol in Sacramento for the Water Rally, asked me, “Mom did they take the farmers water today?” I smiled and told him not today, buddy. Not today.

On Aug 11, 2017, the Butte County Farm Bureau introduced a challenge to all California County Farm Bureau’s and all State and County Farm Bureau’s in the US to make a donation to the Duarte Legal fund of $10 per agriculture member of each County Farm Bureau.

Butte County Farm Bureau President Clark Becker said, “John Duarte has put his family’s entire livelihood at risk to fight for you – America’s Farmers and Ranchers. He will soon have the opportunity to appeal the judges ruling and it is our turn to support him and stand up to protect our farms.”

What is the issue?
The United States government is prosecuting California farmer John Duarte and Duarte Nursery, Inc. of Hughson California under the Clean Water Act for planting wheat in a wheat field in Tehama County, California. The wetlands in question had been farmed to wheat many times prior, were farmed in the same manner as many hundreds of thousands of other acreages, and are still fully functioning as wetlands.

Plowing is legal under the Clean Water Act, but so far the United States government has successfully argued that plowing is only legal if it does not move soil. The Duarte’s, like other farmers, have yet to understand how plowing can be done without moving soil. If this unprecedented prosecution succeeds, it threatens nearly every farm in the United States.

Who are the Duarte’s?
The Duarte Family is a multigenerational farming family in California. Their main business is Duarte Nursery, Inc. in Hughson, CA, which annually employs up to 700 people and serves over 1,500 farm customers with nursery trees and vines.

What did they do to trigger this prosecution?
In 2012 the Duarte’s planted winter wheat on the property. Wheat plantings and the shallow tillage involved have never triggered regulation, nor required permitting prior to this case. The prosecution got started when a federal bureaucrat confused the shallow 4-6 inch tillage operation with 3-4 feet deep ripping for vineyard or orchard preparation.

In February of 2013 the Duarte’s received a letter from the federal government ordering them to cease and desist all work on the property. The Duartes requested a hearing to establish facts. They were not granted a hearing. Through the Pacific Legal Foundation, the Duartes sued for a Constitutional violation of their Fifth Amendment right to due process. There is direct evidence that this destruction of wetlands suit is in retaliation for the Duartes civil rights action against the government.

What are the penalties being sought?
$2.8M in direct penalty, loss of use of their land, and $20-$30 million in additional mitigation paid to a private third-party organization. These penalties are not based on environmental harm, but rather on the government’s assessment of how much it can squeeze from the Duartes. No farmer or investor in farming could afford these kinds of penalties for a mere wheat crop.

What wetlands are jurisdictional under the CWA?
The Clean Water Act regulates “navigable water of the United States … ” Courts and agencies have greatly expanded what most would consider navigable waters, to include large areas of property that are bone-dry most of the year, except for when they pool small amounts of water in the wet season.

This prosecution is brought under the rules that existed before the Obama Administration promulgated the new rule in 2015- the “WOTUS Rule”- expanding the Clean Water Act. That WOTUS Rule has been stayed by the federal courts, and the Trump Administration has formally proposed the new rule’s repeal. In other words, Duarte is being prosecuted under the definition of “navigable waters” that existed before the Obama Administration’s rule, and which would exist if the Trump Administration is successful in repealing that new rule.

Aren’t farming practices excluded from CWA enforcement?
Yes. Originally very broadly. Federal agencies are attempting to greatly narrow the original intent to include only lands that are continuously farmed to the same or similar crops, and then only if that farming does not involve moving soil. This is unworkable for farmers who must plow their land to plant crops, and adapt to markets. Wheat prices were very low for decades until the global food shortages that occurred between 2009 and 2013. We can recall tortilla riots in Mexico City, the Arab Spring and high food inflation with low wage growth during this period. This narrow interpretation is not only unworkable for farmer; it also threatens national food security and is anti-human.

What are the civil rights issues?
The case started with a Fifth Amendment Due Process claim that asserted that the Duartes had a right to an impartial hearing before they could be deprived of their right to farm their land.

The destruction of wetlands counterclaim was justified by a Federal attorney with the statement, “They’re suing us so we are suing them back.” This is a First Amendment free speech violation against the Duartes.

The Eighth Amendment is usually noted for protection against cruel and unusual punishment yet also protects us from ruinous fines. The prosecution’s stated penalties in this case are clearly aimed at being ruinous.

What has the Judge ruled so far?
That Duartes shallow tillage violated the Clean Water Act, and that the federal government is immune from suit even when it violates constitutional rights.

This doesn’t sound right. Is there more to the story?
No. It really is just a wheat field with 4-7 inch tillage. Field tours are available.

Activities
The Duarte Nursery, Inc legal and lobbying teams are in full operation. In California, the legal team is preparing for trial, which begins August 15, 2017. This will be a $500k effort alone.

In Washington DC, the Duarte Nursery Inc. lobbying team is working to access multiple agencies in the Trump administration. This is an additional costly effort.

Partners
The Pacific Legal Foundation is prosecuting the Constitutional claims against the U.S. government.

The California Farm Bureau Federation has created the Duarte Defense Account, which has received over $100K in donations from Farm Bureaus and other agriculture advocacy groups nationwide. The Butte County Farm Bureau Challenge will ask for funds to be submitted to the California Farm Bureau Federation for collection and distribution.

If you wish to donate via the Butte County Farm Bureau/California Farm Bureau, donate online here or mail your donations to :
California Farm Bureau Federation
2300 River Plaza Drive
Sacramento, CA 95833
Check Memo Line: Duarte/Tehama Wetland Defense Fund

Protect the Harvest Foundation will be coordinating additional private donations to the Duarte Nursery, Inc. defense.

Donations are being accepted at Go Fund Me.

Resources: Duarte Tehema – Duarte Stands Up Facebook Page

 

Farm Bureau members get involved for various reasons. For some it’s benefits, others it’s
the advocacy or even the networking opportunities. Current Butte County Farm Bureau President, Clark Becker joined Farm Bureau for the discount he received on his Worker’s Compensation Insurance. However, he quickly learned there is much more to Farm Bureau than discounts.

“The biggest benefit of being a Farm Bureau member is all the resources that we have to keep our industry in the fight,” said Becker. “Without Farm Bureau, the regulations that we all complain about now would be so much greater and we would not be able to stay in business. Whether it be at the local, State or Federal level Farm Bureau is there fighting for us.”

His passion for agriculture began as a child growing up on a small walnut ranch in Gridley. Before he started farming on his own, Becker attended California State University, Chico where he earned a bachelor of science in agriculture business. After college, he and a friend started farming rice and a custom spraying operation.

“My father farmed rice until I was five and the farming bug was stuck to me,” said Becker. “I enjoyed working in our orchard and often couldn’t wait to get home from school so I could go drive some type of equipment on the ranch.”

Becker relies on Farm Bureau to be an accurate resource of information for his daily farming operation. He often calls Butte and California Farm Bureau Federation staff for help in addressing issues and knows there is always somewhere there to answer his questions or take the time to find the right answer.

“The resources that Farm Bureau brings are endless and will be a huge asset to you if you so choose to use them,” said Becker “All of us pay some type of assessment on the crops we grow that goes to supporting only that commodity. Only Farm Bureau is there fighting for all of agriculture.”

Though being the president of Butte County Farm Bureau takes a lot of his time, Clark, his wife of 20 years Kourtney and their three boys, Jackson, Charlie and George farm walnuts in Gridley and rice in Butte, Colusa, Yolo and Yuba counties. He is also partners in a wetland restoration and land leveling business that works on duck clubs and ranches across Northern California. In his spare time, he also enjoys spending time with his family snowmobiling in the winter, Jeeping in the summer and hauling his son George to High School Rodeos.