At a California Department of Water Resources event marking the 10th anniversary of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, some of state officials who developed the legislation talked about what they would change in the language of the law.
Karen Ross, California Department of Food and Agriculture secretary, said she realizes small farmers should have been included in stakeholder conversations at the time SGMA was drafted.
Roger Dickinson, the former assemblymember who wrote a portion of SGMA, said he does not recall why the legislature did not emphasize small farmers or disadvantaged communities when the law was enacted in 2013, but that he would add that explicitly if he could go back.
Ross added that she wishes SGMA had a required economic impact analysis to demonstrate how the legislation would impact the state over time. Such documentation would help local boards with land use decisions or what happens if seasonal jobs get fewer hours, she said.
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“I think [that] would have been very helpful and would have documented better the public benefit that comes from this annual activity of planting and the services and the inputs and the value added,” she said.
Lester Snow, former California Natural Resources Agency secretary, argued that California Farm Bureau had to find “the sweet spot” with this bill, while acknowledging that they regularly have to “throw themselves on the grenade” while working on legislative issues.
On a positive note, Ross said she’s enjoyed seeing innovation across agricultural communities while adapting to a dryer future with less available water. She called out the F3 initiative and UC Merced for driving sustainable food production and technology.
