Although she hails from the nation's leading agricultural state, Vice President and now presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has not staked out strong positions on most national food and farm issues in her political career.
Reactions from farm groups to her nearly unanimous selection by delegates to the Democratic National Convention ranged from mildly critical to non-committal to supportive.
Her highest visibility in agricultural issues came during her tenure as California attorney general from 2011 until 2017 when she successfully defended two state laws that address animal welfare — one that banned foie gras and one that set space requirements for egg-laying chickens.
As a U.S. senator from 2017 until she became vice president in 2021, Harris was generally in the shadow of then-Sen. Dianne Feinstein when it came to agricultural issues. Feinstein, a long-time member of the Appropriations Committee and an advocate of farm labor reform, was the go-to contact for California farm groups.
Harris introduced legislation to increase farmworker protections and was a co-sponsor of the Agricultural Worker Program Act, a bill championed for years by Feinstein that would have provided a path to citizenship for agricultural workers who are now undocumented.
Both in the Senate and as a presidential candidate in 2019, Harris pushed ideas for addressing climate change. She was one of 14 Democratic Senate co-sponsors of a Green New Deal resolution that laid out a sweeping plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
As attorney general, her office successfully defended a law, Assembly Bill 1437, that prevented the sale and consumption in the state of eggs coming from hens that were not kept in enclosures compliant with Proposition 2, a ballot initiative that had passed in 2008.
The bill faced legal challenges from Alaska, Alabama, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Iowa and Missouri attorneys general.
Harris also successfully appealed a federal judge’s ruling that had struck down California’s ban on foie gras — a dish that requires the force feeding of ducks — in 2015. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with Harris and reversed the lower court. The Supreme Court of the United States ultimately declined to hear the case, leaving the ban in place.
Former California Farm Bureau Federation officials offered mixed reactions. Farm Bureau “had a great relationship with Senator Feinstein,” and “tried to develop something with Harris, but to no avail,” former president Paul Wenger, a Modesto farmer, said in an email to Agri-Pulse.
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He said CFBF was the first farm organization to successfully schedule a meeting with Harris when she was elected but had little interaction with her office beyond the introduction. Wenger was succeeded in late 2017 by Jamie Johansson, who said he had no interaction with Harris.
Harris campaigning in Iowa in 2019But Sara Neagu-Reed, who was associate director for federal policy for CFBF in 2020 when then-candidate Joe Biden chose Harris as his running mate, told Agri-Pulse at the time that Harris had been helpful in addressing several of the group's policy concerns.
Harris “was very helpful during the [2018] farm bill negotiations on many fronts, mechanization research funding being one,” said Neagu-Reed, who now is with the International Fresh Produce Association. Harris voted for the 2018 farm bill, which passed the Senate 87-13.
Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren, whose district includes the Salinas Valley, one of the most agriculturally productive regions of California, told Agri-Pulse that Harris “had an open door to the ag community, was always advocating for California agricultural interests.”
“I mean some of the things that are being talked about by the former president, you know, sound like a great bumper sticker, but they're very injurious to the community,” Lofgren said.
The California-based Western Growers Association didn’t respond to a request for comment.
As a senator, Harris sponsored the Water for Tomorrow Act of 2020, which included language that would have required the Interior Department to aid projects that supply safe and adequate water to agriculture, among other uses. The bill also would have required the Fish and Wildlife Service "to develop, and update every three years, a plan to sustain the survival of critically important fisheries within western states during future periods of extended drought.”
Near the end of her Senate tenure, Harris introduced the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act of 2020. This bill required safety standards for indoor and outdoor workers dealing with “excessive heat.” It also included provisions for education and response to heat illness and protections for whistleblowers.
Although that and the water bill died in the 116th Congress, the Biden administration proposed a rule this month that would require employers to develop heat illness and injury prevention plans and take certain actions to protect workers at two heat triggers — 80 degrees and 90 degrees.
In addition to co-sponsoring the Green New Deal resolution, she also expressed support during her presidential campaign for educating the public on the impact of food choices on climate change. She said federal dietary guidelines should encourage consumption of foods that are better for the environment and called for food labels to disclose the food's environmental impact.
"The balance we have to strike here is about what government can do around creating incentives and not just banning something," Harris said when asked during a 2019 CNN town hall if meat consumption should be reduced to combat greenhouse gas emissions.
She also told the questioner, “To be honest with you, I love cheeseburgers from time to time.”
Harris has also been outspoken on the effects of climate change on rural and disadvantaged communities, expressing her commitment to investing in community banks to provide small-business loans for electric vehicles and energy-efficient technology.
During the 2020 campaign, Harris attacked then-President Donald Trump’s trade war with China, saying it was bad for agriculture and manufacturing. She was one of only 10 senators to vote against the bill that put the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement into force.
United Farm Workers issued a statement Sunday endorsing Harris for president, saying that as vice president, Harris advocated for legal protection for H-2A workers. This refers to the Farmworker Protection Rule proposed in April by the Department of Labor.
UFW added that Harris supported COVID vaccines and relief payment eligibility for undocumented workers.
Chuck Conner, president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, told Agri-Pulse that it's too early to tell what Harris's impact atop the ticket will mean for Democrats. "I'm confident that if she's the nominee, the Democratic Party is going to rally around her. And, you know, this is, as it was really from the get-go, going to be a very, very close presidential race.”
Rebekah Alvey contributed to this report.
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