In December 2014, the Los Angeles Times published a series of articles exposing widespread labor abuses on some Mexican farms that supply produce to the United States. This type of “investigative journalism” often ignores positive examples that would lessen the dramatic impact of the negative ones, and that may have been the case here. Nonetheless, ...
In truth, we should be allies. The environmental and agricultural communities share more in common than conventional wisdom might suggest. Both desire to preserve our planet and its resources for future generations. I am not shy about saying farmers are the original environmentalists. To a person, every farmer I have ever met is driven by ...
In February of this year, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia passed away suddenly. In the months since, I have often paused to think about the way the judiciary has changed in my lifetime, especially in my years as a lawyer. Legal scholars point to the Warren Court of the 1950s and ‘60s as the turning ...
A siege mentality is taking hold in California’s agriculture community. The state’s farmers have never confronted so many existential threats at one time. The most well-known to people outside the industry are the lack of a legal and stable workforce to harvest crops, and the lack of water that has been brought about by a ...
Heated presidential elections are nothing new in the annals of American politics. Consider one of our earliest contests in 1800 between incumbent John Adams and challenger (and then-vice president) Thomas Jefferson, two of the most highly-esteemed Founding Fathers of our country. During the campaign, Adams asked voters if they were prepared to see their “dwellings ...
You and those who farmed before you are not industrial polluters. It seems odd to have to say that, but thanks to the state of California, which evidently believes otherwise, we must repeat this truth, and we must retrace some very important history to put the problem of nutrients in groundwater into the proper framework. ...
Contrary to the predictions of some “sages” of consumption preferences, organic produce sales are still soaring in the United States. In many instances, there are double digit increases with produce equaling 40 percent of ALL organic sales. So who are the visionaries that foresaw this continued upsurge in consumer desires for organics? That answer is ...
In his seminal essay, Civil Disobedience, the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau stated, “That government is best which governs least.” Written 168 years ago—after spending two years, two months and two days at Walden Pond—Thoreau was expressing the belief that governments are typically more harmful than helpful, and that people are at their best ...
On May 25, 1961, one month after Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space, President John F. Kennedy stood before a joint session of Congress and urged that “this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him ...
With several initiatives and numerous statewide and Congressional offices up for grabs, 2018 will be a busy political year. I recently wrote about Arizona Governor Doug Ducey, whose strong economic policies and sensible approach to regulation have set him on course for a successful reelection campaign. California, as always, is a different story. Much has ...
Several years ago, I opined in this column about the need for fewer politicians and more statesmen; individuals who are willing to look at more than ideology; individuals who are willing to roll up their sleeves and reach across the aisle; individuals who are willing to take political risk for the greater good that can ...
“California fruit will die on the vine after ICE raids.” “Immigration raids scare California farmers, not just their workers.” “Farm leaders say California’s sanctuary status makes them a target for ICE raids.” These are just a few of the headlines that have splashed across regional and national news outlets in recent months. They remind us ...
Back in April, President Trump was quoted as saying to Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue: “You can assure your farmers out there that we’re not going to allow them to be the casualties if this trade dispute escalates. We’re going to take care of our American farmers. You can tell them that directly.” This statement ...
When the lawyer awoke from surgery, he asked, “Why are all the blinds drawn?” The nurse answered, “There’s a fire across the street, and we didn’t want you to think you had died.” As a recovering attorney myself, I can appreciate a good joke at the expense of my barrister kind. Quite frankly, the reputation ...
On November 6, Gavin Newsom rode into the California Governor’s Mansion on a blue wave (which some are dubbing a “blue-nami”) that all but wiped out Republican relevance in the state for the foreseeable future. At 61.8% of the vote—which included a victory in Orange County, which went for a Democratic governor for the first ...
The upcoming midterm elections are significant. While President Trump is not on the November ballot, citizens across the country will be casting their votes for congressional representatives who will either aid or impede the administration’s agenda. In large part, the success of President Trump’s next two years will depend on the political makeup of the ...
If the recent, record-setting partial government shutdown is any indication, it may prove difficult to achieve much in the way of policy substance during the 116th Congress. Despite President Donald Trump’s call for an end to the “political stalemate” in his State of the Union, there is likely little chance of that happening in advance ...
The “football gag” was a recurring joke featured in the comic strip, Peanuts. In the skit, Lucy van Pelt tells Charlie Brown that she will hold a football for him while he kicks it. After Charlie expresses some initial skepticism, Lucy always manages to persuade him to give it a try. Of course, every time ...
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus is quoted as saying: “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also.” As a man of faith, ...
In 1908, President Teddy Roosevelt formed the Commission on Country Life to provide recommendations on ways to preserve rural life, which he considered to be the backbone of our nation. At the time, the American economy was in transition, and children were leaving farms for the cities in record numbers. More than 100 years later, ...