Commentary: How a difficult year revealed our farmers' resilience

By Norm Groot 

Early in 2023, the Salinas Valley and Pajaro Valley regions of Monterey County experienced extensive flooding during a series of atmospheric river storms.

Along the Salinas River, floodwaters flowed over levees, washing away valuable topsoil and leaving substantial amounts of debris and trash. The Pajaro River levee system experienced a catastrophic failure, inundating the Pajaro community and flooding vast acres of strawberry fields and other farmland.

More than 20,000 acres of farmland went underwater during these flood events. Fields needed remediation. Levees needed rebuilding; debris needed clearing. Pathogen testing for food safety compliance had to be completed before fields could be replanted. For many of these acres, growers lost their first crop of the season because of the extensive process needed to get fields back into production.

Then, the region experienced cooler spring and summer season weather, delaying crop growth and harvest. In particular, the winegrape harvest season was delayed into October and November due to the cool weather pattern that persisted.

Recently, the 2023 County of Monterey Crop and Livestock Report was released. The report noted a decline in production value of nearly 7% due to weather conditions that growers faced. While the value of crops produced exceeded $4.35 billion in 2023, it was a decline of nearly $300 million in crop production from 2022.

Overall, the drop in production impacted vegetables and leafy green crops the most. A majority of the top 10 crops lost production value due to the uncooperative weather. Added together, the weather assumed control of how much farmers could produce for much of the year. In addition to the reduction in crop value, the loss of production and costs of remediation from this extraordinary year impacted the bottom line of many farming operations.

But despite the disappointing figures, farmers in our renowned vegetable growing region—critical for America and the world—showed their resiliency in cleaning up, renourishing their fields and continuing their vital agricultural production.

Even with reduced output, this past year’s production values highlighted the diversification of our local agricultural economy. Monterey County farmers and ranchers produce more than 150 different crops each year, managing market demand dictated by consumers in California and far beyond. As a result, Monterey County’s agricultural sector balances out crops that are underperforming each year with those that have improved production and marketability.

Not only is our nation’s marketplace important, Monterey County growers export more than 268 million pounds of products to countries as diverse as Taiwan and Saudi Arabia. Monterey County is a global marketplace that contends with multiple risks and market fluctuations each year.

Producing a wide range of crops each year tends to even out the fluctuations in the individual crop pricing, demand and production challenges. What farmers and ranchers experienced in 2023 was a perfect storm of weather-related challenges. Impacts of weather have always had control over production values, and when multiple weather disasters happen in one year, the result is a wider economic impact.

It goes without saying that farmers cannot control the weather, but they can do their best to manage some of the risks involved in growing quick-turn crops each season. Last year demonstrated that management of these risks can overwhelm the best of farm production practices.

The Monterey County crop report takes a theme of “Together We Rise” by highlighting the recent decade of challenges that farmers, ranchers and viticulturalists have endured—drought, wildfires, flooding and the pandemic. But those are not the only challenges. California’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act forces increasingly difficult conversations about water use, farming practices, crops produced and resource development projects. The long-term costs and impacts of SGMA have yet to be fully realized.

Also, there is the ongoing battle that farmers must wage with exotic pests and diseases that evolve and plague our crops each year, challenging the viability of farms throughout our state.

While our crop report shows a decline in production values, the character and resolve of our community is evident in the continued optimism of our farmers that the next year will always be better. Yes, farmers may be eternal optimists. But that lies in their determination and innate ability to adapt.

Our farmers in Monterey County and the Salinas Valley are renowned as leaders in employing new technologies that enhance the agronomics of farming. They are innovators in implementing smart-farming practices in the face of a changing climate and extreme weather events. They instill pride in specialty crops, producing foods that enhance our daily diets and health.

Our farmers do it all, no matter how fickle the weather patterns or how furious the storms may be. They keep farming—for all of us.

(Norm Groot is executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau. He may be reached at norm@montereycfb.com.)