We need to change that completely.

Well, again, it's back to that urgency.

Uh, we know, you know, up here in Butte County in the last decade, we've had, uh, 12 declared disasters, one of them being, you know, the failure, the potent- the almost failure of the Oroville Spillway and dam.

Uh, the rest are all wildfire related.

You know, th- there, there's so many of them, you know, the Camp Fire in Paradise and killing over 80 people.

Uh, holding people accountable who are standing in the way of, uh, managing our forests and those entities.

For example, really quickly, we were supposed to do a controlled burn, which takes, can take three to four years to even get permission to do it, and on the day of the burn, the, the local air quality board called off the burn because three people called and, uh, called and complained.

How are the wolf situation up there?

Could that ever change? Could we take some off the plate?

Yeah.

It would be, it would be nice, and that's something that, you know, that comes back to the review and where we're at.

You know, in California, we, we do a lot of bragging about the size of our economy being the fourth largest economy in the world, or in agriculture, and certainly I am proud of this, um, that, you know, that we're the sixth-largest ag economy in the world.

Um, but the reality is this: we could be so much stronger in terms of what, uh, you know, economic strength of our California agriculture if it wasn't for a lot of these regulations, uh, and the cost of doing business in California.

You know, we, we, we brag a lot about producing half the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in the United States comes, you know, half the fresh fruits and vegetables, uh, that are produced in, in, in America come from California.

But in reality, half the fresh fruits and vegetables, uh, consumed by Americans, um, are coming from across the border somewhere, being imported, and that's a, that's a change we've seen in the last generation that has to, has to reverse.

Could that ever change? Could we take some off the plate?

Yeah

... uh, in there.

But our, our point was this, because we're also dealing with the Sustainable, Sustainable Groundwater Management Act now coming into play and everyone having to have, yes, their groundwater sustainability plans, uh, submitted, uh, so that they can continue to use their groundwater and, and use it efficiently.

You know, we, we know we can recharge some of that groundwater with these excess flows, and we had no access to it without, again, endless paperwork, a state water board who did not view groundwater recharge as a priority, uh, action when it comes to using our surface water.

But we were successful if you...

And when that's, when those heavy flows were coming down in 2023, the governor actually wrote an executive order that streamlined the process and said, "Open the gates up, flood every field you can, um, if you know that you, it, you're a recharge zone."

Yeah.

You know, whoever it is that, hey, you know, I, I...

And that's not the only way that you've been involved in agriculture, not just as a producer, right?

Right.

Now, you know, one of the things, and I grew up in Humboldt County and a dairy farmer that I used to work for during the summers.

I was back up there visiting some friends, and he found out that I was a farmer, had started farming.

He didn't congratulate me, and I understand now, because it's a lot of work, but he said you need to join the California Farm Bureau.

because it really is one of those associations that is that mediator between the farm and Sacramento, brings the information back to rural communities in terms of what Sacramento's doing or what we need them to do.

So I got on the Butte County Farm Bureau Board.

For people who think of farmers as just being super wealthy and, you know, subsidies and all that, and they know nothing about farming and local agriculture, how would your experience and policies that you'd push for benefit just the regular person? And the success of agriculture, how does that impact just the normal person?