Every year, the cost to farm an acre in Ventura County goes up. The price a grower is paid has not.
We didn't lose ag land to a developer. We're losing farming to policy.
And the resulting economics are telling every farmer in this county to get out.
The two biggest costs on a Ventura County acre, taken from UC Davis's published cost studies for this county.
Source: UC Davis
Every policy decision adds to the cost of farming an acre.
Water rates have risen sharply in recent years, causing some growers to plan for future fallowing instead of planting.
Growers are meeting their SGMA obligations. What hasn't come with it is support for the local agencies working to build storage and bring new supply online.
Adapting to thin margins means new equipment, new storage, and new infrastructure to support new crops. When that adaptation takes months or years of processing permits and higher fees, it can't happen. Delay is a cost itself.
New rules, new requirements, new reporting, all applied on top of each other, to the same acre, with monitoring, reporting and staff time attached. The cumulative bill is adding up. Revenue is not.
Complaints about noise, dust and spraying, and demands for public access across working lands — each narrows the operating window of a business already earning nothing.