The Farm Wire

March 2025

Are you ready? It’s Drive-Thru Dinner season! Butte County Farm Bureau invites you to purchase tickets for our 2025 Drive-Thru Dinners. All proceeds of the dinners benefit the Gerald M. Geiger Memorial Scholarship Fund. BCFB is very proud to be able to offer graduating seniors who plan to major in agriculture, the opportunity to apply for the Gerald M. Geiger Scholarship. Each year BCFB awards approximately $9,000 to local Butte County Seniors!

The Drive-Thru Dinners will be on Wednesday, March 19 in Gridley and Thursday, March 20 in Chico. The cost is $25.00 per dinner and includes BBQ tri-tip, rice, coleslaw and dessert all packaged for you to take home; you won’t even have to get out of the car. So enjoy a night off from cooking for a great cause!

Gridley

Wednesday, March 19

5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Coe Orchard Equipment

(Next to Les Schwab Tire Center)

1742 State Highway 99, Gridley

Chico

Thursday, March 20

5:00 to 7:00 p.m.

Papé Machinery Agriculture & Turf

(Former Valley Truck & Tractor)

489 Country Drive, Chico

Tickets are available at the link below or from any BCFB Director. You can also stop by the office and buy tickets.

It's MEMBERSHIP MARCH and we're celebrating by offering everyone who joins BCFB, renews their membership, or signs up their existing membership up for auto renew between March 1-31st will receive an entry into our MEMBERSHIP MARCH Mega Drawing!

Everyday Butte County Farm Bureau is working for its farmer, rancher and rural landowner members – people like you – by representing their interests at Board of Supervisors meetings, sitting on stakeholder committees and working with county, state and federal officials. We would like to thank you for your continued support of the Butte County Farm Bureau and encourage you join, renew, and sign up for auto renew.

There are three ways to join or renew:

1 - Visit HERE

2 - Download a membership application or use your renewal invoice and mail with your check to 3688 Durham Dayton Hwy, Chico, CA 95928.

3 - Visit us at 3688 Durham Dayton Hwy, Chico, CA 95928, Monday through Friday, 9 AM - 5PM.

Sign Up for Auto Renew:

Call the BCFB office at (530) 533-1473 or email danielle@buttefarmbureau.com.

Already a member and signed up for auto renew?

Refer a friend to sign up as a BCFB member and we will add you to the raffle to have a chance to win the Mega Prize!

BONUS GIFT- Get a FREE Butte County Farm Bureau hat or cup if you join or renew in person.

We understand and respect the work that our members do, so help us help you. By signing up for auto renew will ensure that your annual membership will not expire. Farm Bureau strives to protect and improve the ability of farmers and ranchers engaged in production agriculture to provide a reliable supply of food and fiber through responsible stewardship of California's resources. Since 1917, BCFB has been working to protect agriculture’s interests, but we couldn’t continue our work without the support of our members. Membership dues not only provide funding for fighting issues that are important to the agricultural community, but also for educational and charitable opportunities in the area.

The Air Resources Board (CARB) and California Energy Commission are working along with California Farm Bureau on the 2025 Agricultural Vehicle, Equipment, and Infrastructure Survey.

This survey will continue to support incentive programs, air quality planning efforts at CARB, and can help inform energy and infrastructure planning at CEC and CPUC for future electrification needs across the state. The 2025 agricultural survey covers all on-road vehicles and off-road agricultural equipment of all fuel types, including electric equipment, used by producers in the field, custom operators, and first processing facilities.

Receiving accurate and representative data across the state and from different commodities is critical to painting the right picture for CARB and others about energy needs. The data will be modeled by the Energy Commission and then used by utilities for future planning around grid upgrades. Be prepared the survey will take approximately 30 minutes and requires input of your equipment, etc.

Results from the previous survey informed the distribution of hundreds of millions of dollars of subsequent incentive funding across California, including state, federal and regional incentive programs. As before, all of the data is anonymous and confidential. Identifying information will never be seen by a government body.

The Gerald M. Geiger scholarship is presented in memory of former Butte County Farm Bureau President, Director and member, Gerald M. Geiger. We are proud to honor Mr. Geiger's tremendous support of agricultural education with the awarding of this scholarship each year to Butte County High School Seniors. The main requirement of this scholarship is that the recipients must pursue a college degree in agriculture. The Butte County Farm Bureau selects individuals who have shown interest in agriculture with involvement of FFA, livestock animal projects, and agriculture entrepreneurship's, all while being academically successful in the classroom.

The Gary Griswold scholarship is for students that plan to major in Ag Business, Ag Communication, Ag Finance or closely related subject. This scholarship is in memory of Gary Griswold's devotion to the Agriculture Community.

Applications are due, in the Butte County Farm Bureau office, by Friday, March 28, 2025 at 4 pm and should be hand delivered or mailed to (postmarks will not be accepted):

Mail to or Drop off at:

Butte County Farm Bureau

Attn: 2025 Scholarship

3688 Durham Dayton Hwy

Chico, CA 95928

Six Northern California women will be honored for their extraordinary contributions to agriculture and their communities during the 2025 Common Threads North Award dinner to be held at the ARC Ballroom, UC Davis on Wednesday, April 2nd in Davis, CA. All recipients have deep roots in agriculture, and each has demonstrated a history of service to agriculture and her community through volunteerism and philanthropy.

Receiving the 2025 awards will be Cheryl Foster of Siskiyou County, Christine Ivory of Sutter County, Nicole Johansson of Butte County, Karissa Kruse of Sonoma County, Sheryl Morris of San Joaquin County and Sara Reid Herman of Sacramento County.

Rising costs of regulatory compliance for lettuce growers indicate a 63.7% increase in the past seven years in a study commissioned by Monterey County Farm Bureau prepared by CalPoly San Luis Obispo professors Lynn Hamilton, Ph.D., and Michael McCullough, Ph.D. 

This new study updated their regulatory costs study from 2017 with additional regulatory program requirements implemented in the intervening years. 

Increased regulatory compliance requirements through 2024 bring lettuce grower total costs of regulation to $1,600 per acre, an increase of 63.7% from the 2017 study and a 1366% increase since 2006 (date of the original study).

This indicates that regulatory costs are now 12.6% of total production costs, while farmgate values for lettuce increased only 0.37% from 2017 to 2024.

Increased regulatory compliance mandates since 2017 come from the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, Irrigated Lands Program, equipment emissions regulations, and minimum wage and workplace mandates.

Costs of regulatory compliance expenditures were studied for food safety practices and inspection audits, air quality, water quality, crop protection reporting, labor health and safety, and labor wages. Most significant cost increases were in labor health insurance requirements and water quality compliance, while food safety costs remained relatively steady.

While regulatory costs continue to dramatically increase, the farmgate value of crops has only marginally increased to cover the additional costs.

The study “Two Decades of Change: Evolving Costs of Regulatory Compliance in the Produce Industry” was formally released by CalPoly San Luis Obispo today (copy attached to this press release).

Monterey County Farm Bureau, founded in 1917, represents family farmers and ranchers in the interest of promoting and protecting agriculture throughout Monterey County, CA. We strive to improve the ability of those engaged in production agriculture to provide a reliable source of food and fiber through reasonable stewardship of our local resources.

FARM WIRE - Butte County Farm Bureau | info@buttefarmbureau.com | www.buttefarmbureau.com

3688 Durham Dayton Highway

Chico, CA 95928

(530) 533-1473