Carrot Country

California Specialty Crop Growers Feel the Weight of Government Regulations

Carrot Country
Winter 2006

More than 45 percent of California specialty crop producers interviewed during a recent survey say they have considered leaving agriculture because of the regulatory
environment. So notes a report from the California Institute for the Study of Specialty Crops. The fi nding is based on a study which incorporated an examination of the impact of government regulation on specialty crop as well as nut and tree fruit growers.

The study identified several areas of special concern: Duplication: In any given year “producers have contact with an average of 2.18 local agencies, 2.00 state agencies and 1.44 (federal) agencies.” Fully 70 percent of producers report duplication at the local level and more than half see regulatory duplication at the state level.

Cost: “In the last fi ve years producers invested one in every nine dollars (of) capital investment for regulatory compliance.” The largest proportion of that investment went
for worker safety at 16 percent with water discharge and emission control following.

Eighty-seven percent of the growers surveyed see no effi ciency gains in their operations as a result of these capital expenditures. And, of the remaining group that
did see some improvement, 70 percent say the cost exceeded the benefits.

Growers estimate the cost of compliance has grown by nearly 70 percent over the past five years.