News
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Sign up for Email Updates
CGF In the News
Press Inquiries
Past Articles
Calendar

Making farming profitable in Santa Clara County
 
by Brian Schmidt

In Santa Clara County, one often hears the argument that “farming is doomed.” Some farmers say it’s not a matter of wanting to make windfall profits by selling out to developers, it’s that they can’t make any profits at all farming in the County.

Threatened Santa Clara County agriculture — photo by Holly Van Houten

While this sounds like an exaggeration, it may hold a kernel of truth. Farming no longer plays a dominant role in our local economy. Compared to other counties in California, local farmers face higher labor costs; more expensive and difficult access to equipment, supplies and processing plants; and more conflicts with neighbors. On the less-savory side, farmers elsewhere are probably less-scrutinized and therefore more likely to cut corners on environmental protection, worker safety and worker rights.

Agricultural mitigation
So what can we do to balance the scales? There has been increasing focus on agricultural mitigation lately: if a development or city plan involves converting land use away from agriculture, then some mitigation method such as buying development rights on other farmland has been suggested, and sometimes required. While agricultural mitigation may be necessary, it may not be enough for agricultural preservation if farmers can’t make a profit.

Agricultural preservation fees
Here's an idea to consider. Why not require developers to pay agricultural preservation fees, just as they have to pay infrastructure fees to finance the roads, schools, and services that their projects will require? Agricultural preservation fees could be used to finance local farmers’ markets — reducing distribution costs of local produce and making local farmers more competitive. Local governments could adopt agricultural preservation fees as a tool for preserving farming.

At an Environmental Forum cosponsored by CGF last year where San Jose mayoral candidates discussed their positions on environmental issues, candidate Michael Mulcahy suggested that some sort of preference should be given to locally-grown food. We hope that everyone concerned with local farms continue to pursue these innovative ideas.

Published Spring 2007 in Green Footnotes.

Page last updated August 10, 2007.