My family is proud of our farm in Kerman. At VF&B Farms, we’ve grown just about everything over the years — cotton, tomatoes, almonds, sugar beets, cantaloupes, barley, and wheat. If it grows in the Valley, we’ve probably had a go at it...read full article
Thanks to your support, the California State Assembly voted 66-5 to advance Assembly Bill 1156 (Wicks), legislation that gives California’s farmers a new tool to adapt to water scarcity by making it easier to temporarily repurpose farmland for clean energy production...read full email
BUTTONWILLOW, Calif. — Faced with water shortages, some California farmers are turning to solar energy as a sustainable way to use fallow land. READ FULL ARTICLE
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — AB 1156, a bill designed to help Central Valley farmers navigate water challenges and embrace clean energy solutions...(READ FULL ARTICLE)
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks narrowed her bill to facilitate converting farmland into solar developments to remove opposition from the Rural County Representatives of California, but the bill is still dividing farming groups. READ FULL ARTICLE
I’ve owned farmland and grown almonds here in Fresno County for nearly two decades, including for the last eight years in Cantua Ranch, a beautiful stretch of land that has been the backbone of my operation and my family’s livelihood. But now, the land I’ve poured years of labor and love into is at risk […]
It sounds like a climate solution everyone should be able to support: Let’s make it easier and cheaper for farmers with dwindling water supplies to convert their lands from crop production to solar energy generation, if that’s what those farmers want.So what’s stopping such a bill from sailing through the California Legislature?“Change can be difficult,” […]
Proposed state legislation to modify California’s longstanding farmland conservation law could pave the way for large swaths of farm acreage to be repurposed as sites for renewable energy projects. The California Land Conservation Act of 1965, commonly known as the Williamson Act, preserves farmland by assessing property taxes based on the land’s agricultural value rather […]
Stuart Woolf, president and CEO of Woolf Farming, stands next to land the company leases for solar-power generation. The farm is near Huron on Fresno County’s west side. / Contributed Some Bee colleagues and I recently took a tour of Westlands Water District — the nation’s largest agricultural water district, located on the western edges […]
The sun was shining and blue skies reigned over the 57th World Ag Expo in Tulare County Tuesday. But inside seminar trailer No. 2, the mood was gloomy to dismal as panelists discussed the San Joaquin Valley’s water outlook. The upshot is that, with surface supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta shrinking and increased groundwater […]