YOUR SOURCE FOR CAWG AND INDUSTRY NEWS

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This week's eNews Includes:

In Memorium: Paul Dolan - Sustainability Champion and Organic Pioneer

CAWG News:

• Lead Story: Water Rights Bill Put on Hold 
• Recreation of the Industrial Welfare Commission
• Speeding Up Approval of Pesticides
• CAWG's 49th Annual Business Meeting
• Cal/OSHA Cites Employers in Half Moon Bay Shooting

Industry News:

• Spotted Lanternfly Updates and PD/GWSS Board Meeting
• Bipartisan Working Group Formed to Tackle Agriculture Workforce Challenges
• In the News: AI-Based Farm Equipment May Increase Worker Safety But Cost Jobs
• In the News: The Cost of Insuring Against Wine Disasters
• Wine Grape Issues Review



Upcoming Events

• Pre-Harvest Safety Workshop
• Research on the Use of Precision Ag Technologies for Cropland Phosphorus Management Webinar

CAWG News

Lead Story: Water Rights Bill Put on Hold 

This week, AB 460 (Bauer-Kahan, D-Orinda) was set to be heard in the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Water. The bill is part of an effort to use various means to “modernize” water rights. AB 460 would grant the State Water Board significant new authority to issue an interim relief order to enforce water rights. This bill would also Increase penalties for certain violations from $500 per day to $10,000 per day. 

At the last minute, AB 460 was pulled from the committee’s agenda and we were informed that the bill was dead for the year. While this is great news, SB 389 (Allen, D-Santa Monica) and AB 1337 (Wicks, D- Oakland) are both still awaiting hearings and share a similar intent to AB 460. CAWG is working to defeat all three bills.  

Recreation of the Industrial Welfare Commission

What it means for ag employers.

This week, the legislature approved a new budget bill that primarily includes funding provisions related to state spending. Within those provisions is an appropriation of $3 million for the recreation of the Industrial Welfare Commission (IWC) which had been defunct since 2004. The IWC has broad authority to create wage and hour law on an industry-by-industry basis. For example, several years ago the IWC created Wage Order 14 for agricultural employers.  

AB 102 also provides that with this new funding, the IWC shall not adopt “any standards that are less protective than existing state law.” This means that the IWC could only adopt standards that are more prescriptive than existing law. These standards (i.e. new law) would be adopted without going through the legislature and without going through a publicly-noticed regulatory review.

Furthermore, the bill makes it clear that the IWC may be looking at agriculture – “The commission shall prioritize for consideration industries in which more than 10 percent of workers are at or below the federal poverty level.” Nearly a quarter of California farmworker families live in poverty, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

While the motives for recreating the IWC are likely targeted at the fast food industry, labor unions may push the IWC to take on issues in the ag industry that might otherwise be difficult to move through the Legislature.

This new law was made public in the last minutes of budget deliberations over the weekend and CAWG and other ag organizations are opposed. However, this new funding is just for the current fiscal year, and the IWC is tasked with issuing new wage orders by October 31, 2024. So, there is some reason for a modest level of hope that this is a narrowly focused and temporary recreation of the IWC that goes away quickly without much consequence for the agriculture industry.

Speeding Up Approval of Pesticides

The revamped State Budget approved this week includes a one-time appropriation of $1.9 million for the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) and $1.4 million ongoing to improve and streamline DPR’s registration and reevaluation processes. 

On one hand, this is good news, as DPR’s current process for approval of new products relies heavily on the submittal of information on paper and not information submitted to DPR electronically. So, as growers work with our partners in agri-science to develop new pest management products, this funding may help get those products approved more quickly. 

However, this increased funding can also be used to “identify alternatives to high-risk fumigants and lead strategic collaborations with stakeholders and agency partners to develop plans and programs to support implementation of sustainable pest management in agricultural, urban, and wildland settings.” Which raise the issue of how this is funded.

For the last three years, CAWG has made it a point that before engaging in any conversation about increasing the mill tax, DPR must first review its core functions to determine its real budgetary needs. If/when this new increased funding falls by the wayside, it will increase DPR’s budgetary needs. In which case, we could see a proposed increased mill tax to support the implementation of sustainable pest management in urban settings.

CAWG's 49th Annual Business Meeting

CAWG's Annual Business Meeting will be held on Thursday, July 13 at 10 am. The meeting is open to all CAWG Members! Register today to explore key issues of importance to California winegrape growers and updates on CAWG activities throughout the past year.

This year's guest is Dan Dunmoyer, President, and CEO of the California Building Association. Dan brings a wealth of experience in both the public and private sectors. Before working at CBIA, Dan served as senior vice president and head of government affairs for Zurich and Farmers Insurance companies. During his tenure, Dan has held many legislative caucus staff leadership and policy committee roles in the California State Assembly. He was president and CEO of the Personal Insurance Federation of California and served as deputy chief of staff and cabinet secretary for Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

During his presentation, Dan will talk about the current challenges surrounding commercial property insurance, how we got here, and the broad coalition pushing for reforms to the crisis.

A special thank you to this year's Annual Meeting Sponsors!

Cal/OSHA Cites Employers in Half Moon Bay Shooting

Following up on the tragic shooting in Half Moon Bay where seven agricultural workers were killed on January 23, Cal/OSHA cited two employers and fined them a combined total of more than $170,000 earlier this week. CAWG sent an eAlert on Monday notifying members, but identifying workplace safety threats and taking preventative measures must be a significant consideration in every workplace.

Read CAWG's eAlert here.

Industry News

In Memoriam: Paul Dolan - Sustainability Champion and Organic Pioneer

This week, fourth-generation California vintner, Paul Dolan passed away after a long battle with cancer.

Paul is best known for innovative leadership in the organic, biodynamic, and regenerative wine movements. He spent 27 years of his career with the Fetzer and Bonterra brands, ending as the company's vice president. In his time, he helped grow their business from producing 5,000 cases of wine to three million cases of wine.

Pioneering the sustainability movement in the winegrape industry was a priority for Paul. He was the first chairman of the California Sustainable Winegrowers Alliance and wrote a book, True to Your Roots, Fermenting a Business Revolution. Paul helped host the first biodynamic symposium in the U.S., collaborating with vintners from Australia, France, and California. After leaving Fetzer and Bonterra, Paul showcased his entrepreneurial spirit, starting his own brand, Paul Dolan Wines with Tom and Tim Thornhill. Paul also formed Truett-Hurst with friend Phil Hurst. This company owns a winery in Sonoma County and explored many new ideas including the first paper bottle in the wine industry.

As published in Wine Business Daily, Glenn McGourty, the former UCCE advisor for Lake and Mendocino County and editor of U.C.’s first organic wine growing manual, describes Paul. “His contributions were numerous. He was a leader in the whole process of scaling up organic and biodynamic agriculture and regenerative organic.”

“He was always ahead of the curve. He was always that early adopter. And he was comfortable working pretty much in all sorts of different places…He made the people around him feel good. He was just amazing."

In 2009, Paul was quoted as saying “I”m committed to passing on a legacy to my kids, my family, and the community,” It goes with saying that his legacy and commitment to sustainability will continue to inspire future generations.

Read more in Wine Business Daily about Paul's contributions to the winegrape industry.

Spotted Lanternfly Updates and PD/GWSS Board Meeting

This week at a meeting of the Pierce's Disease/Glassy-Winged Sharpshooter (PD/GWSS) Board in Sacramento, the PD/GWSS Board heard a report on the USDA's Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) Spotted Lanternfly (SLF) Strategic Planning Working Group. SLF has spread to 13 additional states outside of Pennsylvania where it was detected in 2014.

SLF can be catastrophic to winegrapes. USDA and state agriculture departments are working hard to stop the spread.  “Over the next five years, Federal and State partners will work to limit the spotted lanternfly’s advancement as we further scientific research that will help us develop better pest management tools and options,” said USDA Marketing and Regulatory Programs Under Secretary Jenny Lester Moffitt.

The group also released an SLF Five-Year Strategy for fiscal years 2024-2028 which prioritizes the following goals:

• Effectively limit the advancement of SLF and efficiently respond to its introduction within Federal and State authority and resource availability.
• Support continued scientific research towards practical management and risk mitigation.
• Establish a consistent national and State-level outreach message and educational campaign for the public and industries at risk for spreading SLF.

This week the PD/GWSS Board also adopted the 2024 assessment rate of $1.25 per $1,000 of value which is unchanged from 2023. The PD/GWSS Board has already identified SLF as a designated pest of winegrapes and is funding research and public awareness of this terrible pest. 

Bipartisan Working Group Formed to Tackle Agriculture Workforce Challenges

Last week, the House Committee on Agriculture Chairman GT Thompson (PA) and Ranking Member David Scott (GA) announced that a bipartisan working group was formed that would focus on issues including the H-2A program.

In a joint statement, they said, “The Committee on Agriculture has heard loud and clear from producers across the nation that one of the biggest challenges confronting the agriculture industry is a lack of reliable labor. Though not directly in our committee’s jurisdiction, we have a responsibility to be a voice in Congress on the issues and policies impacting farmers and ranchers. This is a complex problem that deserves the focused attention of the Members who hear from producers every day rather than the partisan grandstanding that has plagued these efforts in the past.”

Congressmen Rick Crawford (AR) and Don Davis (NC will co-chair the working group. The group's priorities are:

• Seek input from stakeholders, employers, and workers, particularly emphasizing the H-2A visa program for nonimmigrant agricultural workers;
• Produce an interim report detailing the program's shortcomings and the impacts on food security, and;
• File a final report with recommendations to address the flaws within the program.

Read More

In the News: AI-Based Farm Equipment May Increase Worker Safety But Cost Jobs

New technology, including that of autonomous equipment, has been challenging in the regulatory arena because of a 1970s-era Cal/OSHA law. CAWG has been working effortlessly on this issue and will continue to do so.

Bruce Rolfsen, a reporter for Bloomberg Law, writes about the gradual acceptance of autonomous equipment in agriculture and how it has been adopted throughout much of the United States and other counties. He also writes about the antiquated legislation in California and how the transition to AI-based farm equipment would improve farm worker safety.

Read More

In the News: The Cost of Insuring Against Wine Disasters

As extreme weather and natural disasters are becoming more prevalent, the cost (if you can get it) for insurance policies is on the rise. Seven Fifty Daily reports on the insurance challenges in the wine and winegrape industry and how it reflects the price we pay for the wine itself.

In addition to the sudden profusion of 100-year events like fires, frosts, and hailstorms, the pandemic has also impacted insurance claims. “It’s affected labor and rebuilding costs,” says Chasin, “so where you might have scheduled [insured] a building for a million dollars before, it could very well cost two million to rebuild in this environment.” Wineries are discovering they need greater coverage than before if they want insurance that will make them whole after a loss. But with disaster stories becoming an annual happening, wineries are biting the bullet.

The scale of the claims is putting strains on the system. In places like Napa and Sonoma, the risk is highly concentrated, and the insurance industry is becoming reluctant to cover risks that could result in huge claim payments. Michael Terrien, the cofounder of Obsidian Wine Co. in the Santa Cruz Mountains, another area considered higher risk, says insurers have twice dropped coverage on his project U.S. Grant Wines, each time resulting in higher premiums with the new insurer. It’s a cost that eventually has to be factored into the price of the wine.

Read More

June Wine Grape Issues Review

Bryant Christie Inc. (BCI) has released the June Wine Grape Issues Review. This report is developed in collaboration with BCI and the Wine Institute to provide the wine industry with helpful updates including international pesticide and MRL information.

Read the June Report

Upcoming Events and Trainings

Pre-Harvest Safety Workshop



Join Vineyard Team for this train-the-trainer workshop to head into harvest prepared. The workshop will cover machine operations, hand harvesting, tool safety, tractor safety, and personal protective equipment. 

When and Where:

• July 14, Vineyard Industry Products, Paso Robles

Register

Research on the Use of Precision Ag Technologies for Cropland Phosphorus Management Webinar



Dr. Douglas R. Smith from USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Grassland Soil and Water Research Laboratory will present research on the use of precision ag technologies to improve cropland phosphorus management.

When and Where:

• July 20, Virtual

Register

JULY

13 - CAWG Annual Meeting (Virtual)

November

8 - CAWG Board of Director Meeting & Outgoing Chair Dinner

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