Tax dollars should buy California peaches, not fruit from overseas, for local schools

A third-generation peach grower in Escalon, I was born and raised on our family farm and knew that I wanted to farm when I was still a young kid. My son and daughter are involved in our family farm operation today.

Sadly, I have seen the California cling peach industry decline significantly over the last 30 years. The state’s bearing acreage is down by nearly 50% and we’ve seen our cannery customers shrink from five down to just two: Del Monte Foods and Pacific Coast Producers.

My own peach farming operation is feeling the impact of these changes as some of my peaches do not have a processing contract for the 2021 season and could potentially go on the ground at harvest time if no buyer emerges.

One of the biggest threats that peach growers face today is the increasing volume of foreign canned peaches entering our country, primarily from China and Greece. Adding insult to injury, some of these foreign peaches have been purchased with taxpayer dollars and served in school feeding programs in California and other states.

I was especially upset to see Greek peaches served to students at Magnolia Elementary School in Modesto less than 18 months ago when there were several warehouses full of peach products within 60 miles of the school.

While I am not able to stop the imported peaches that are displacing California growers and cannery workers, I can express my strong support for Assembly Bill 1025 (Robert Rivas, D-Hollister). This would improve the quality and safety of meals served in our state, provide nutrition programs, protect jobs for workers in processing plants and packing houses, and safeguard California’s agricultural industry by strengthening existing Buy American procurement policy.

California’s farmers and producers work hard to grow and produce safe, healthy food, as well as to implement environmentally friendly stewardship practices. California-grown food is produced under strict regulations to ensure food safety, reduce environmental impacts, carefully manage pesticide use, protect the health of our workers, and provide some of the highest farm wages in the nation.

AB 1025 supports California’s agricultural and food processing jobs and ensures safe, healthy food in schools and other public settings by closing a loophole in existing federal Buy American law. It will prohibit all California state-owned or state-run institutions from purchasing food products grown, packed or processed non-domestically unless the price of the non-domestic product is more than 25% lower than the same quality domestic food product.

Simply put, spending taxpayer dollars on food from foreign countries that is grown and processed under very different standards does not reflect our state’s priorities and is extraordinarily discouraging to California’s farmers and ranchers.

In addition, California is known worldwide as a leader on climate change and continues to demonstrate a clear commitment on this issue in the Newsom administration. California should not undermine existing efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by spending taxpayer dollars to import food products from nations with less-stringent emissions standards.

I am hopeful that the California Legislature recognizes the importance of spending our taxpayer dollars on American-grown food and takes action to pass AB 1025. The future of my peach farm may depend on it.