California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass, in her first annual meeting address, celebrated successes of county Farm Bureaus and promised changes in the year ahead.
Douglass introduced Dan Durheim, who was hired in July as CAFB’s first chief operations officer. She described an extensive international search that drew nearly 1,100 applicants. Durheim was the board’s clear choice, she said, for his time developing a close relationship with CAFB while at Nationwide Insurance and his 18 years as an American Farm Bureau Federation executive.
The year brought other fresh faces into the organization, including the San Francisco Farm Bureau, the first regional bureau added in some 60 years. Douglass recognized SFFB Executive Director Seth Doulton for signing up 104 new members.
After the California Department of Pesticide Regulation's participation in the Toxic Tour of Santa Maria-based farms, she said Doulton showed up at a similar tour in Santa Barbara. He and the SFFB provided "feedback to the governor about our concerns about what that event meant,” Douglass said.
Sonoma County Farm Bureau led a long fight this year to defeat Measure J, a proposed ban on concentrated animal feeding operations that could have shaken the region’s economy and cost roughly 1,400 jobs. The "No on J" campaign received resounding support from agricultural groups across the state and $1.7 million in donations, much of it from CAFB, she added.
“Sonoma County did not just defeat measure J, they absolutely destroyed it,” Douglass said. “I would say, perhaps, slaughtered it.”
She credited Imperial County Farm Bureau with supporting new Assemblymember Jeff Gonzales, a Republican, who won the Coachella seat previously held by Democrat Eduardo Garcia.
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“When the votes were very tight, Imperial said, ‘What is this ballot curing thing? And how can we help?’” Douglass said. Imperial County "posted ballot curing events to help get Jeff the votes he needed to get over that threshold, and they have a new friend in the state house,” she said.
Douglass notably did not talk about the year’s regulatory challenges but during breakout sessions CAFB officials spoke at length about the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and Cal/OSHA’s indoor heat standard.
She also recognized her two immediate predecessors. Douglass was elected president at last year's annual meeting to replace Jamie Johansson.
In July, Douglass told Agri-Pulse that CAFB was “keeping a watchful eye in general” on the legislature, particularly the state budget for program funding and how a deficit is closed.
The Legislative Analyst’s Office announced a forecast of a $2 billion deficit for the 2025-26 budget, which comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced an 8% spending cut. CDFA Secretary Karen Ross said during a June State Food and Agriculture Board meeting that the cuts will come with some pain for a department “that's always operated on very lean resources.”
A CAFB-sponsored bill on tracking health impacts of wildfires was shot down in August, which may have been a lost opportunity to illustrate the importance of wildfire mitigation strategies, Douglass said. SB 945 was one of many bills oriented around wildfire risk this session.
She also said that listening sessions hosted Monday during the conference are a starting point for policy recommendations the Farm Bureau would advance in the coming legislative session.
“Maybe there's an issue we haven't seen, maybe there's a relatively minor detail in a regulatory issue that’s giving you a hurdle,” Douglass said. “We are a grassroots organization. The best way for us to find that out is to listen to you, and that's what we hope to do today.”
She also said that discussions over specific commodities would inform CAFB’s commodity advisory committees, which starting in February will travel the state to visit with growers, rather than requiring members to travel to Sacramento.
Douglass also announced that CAFB’s “advocacy month” will be pushed back to May to allow advocates more time to understand legislative issues before bringing them to their members.
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