A budget trailer bill attached to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised budget plan could help to expedite a set of voluntary agreements for Bay-Delta flows, now known as the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Program.
The bill would exempt water quality plans from the California Environmental Quality Act. Opponents of infrastructure projects often use CEQA as a litigation tool, delaying construction for years as the court mulls the case.
The state water board is gearing up to approve a contentious update to its Bay-Delta Plan, with the Healthy Rivers alternatives potentially incorporated into it. The holistic approach would not restrict agricultural diversions as much as the standard unimpaired flows pathway. But it has faced fierce opposition from environmental groups, tribes and Delta communities, groups that would certainly attempt to block the plan in court.
Family Farm Alliance Executive Director Dan Keppen provided insights into the state of western agriculture during the Association of California Water Agencies spring 2025 conference in Monterey.
CDFW releases online wolf mapping system
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife is taking on livestock depredation threats with the new Wolf Location Automated Mapping System. The online tool shows location information on GPS-collared gray wolves across the state.
California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglass said the tool builds transparency and helps ranchers navigate the state’s expanding wolf population. California Cattlemen’s Association Vice President of Government Affairs Kirk Wilbur echoed her sentiment. He hopes the access to location-specific information will give ranchers time to adjust their herd management strategies before attacks can take place.
The map only provides information on the 14 California wolves wearing collars. The population is estimated closer to 70. The locations populated online are not real-time but are based on daily morning location data.
CDFW notes the resource can be modified or canceled if they suspect wolves are being harassed as a result of the map.
California food banks ask for nutrition program prioritization in state budget
The California Association of Food Banks is calling the governor’s budgetary attention to nutrition and health programs. The association has been vocal over federal funding cuts to food bank services. Acknowledging that certain school meal programs will maintain current levels of funding, CAFB is also asking for continued state investment in the California Food Assistance Program. Newsom’s current proposal includes a trigger that could delay CFAP dollars based on General Fund conditions in spring 2027.
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CAFB is also hoping for a $52 million increase in committed funds for CalFood. The program made up 37% of food bank purchases by state food banks in 2024.
Ways and Means chair: After reconciliation, it’s time for trade
For now, congressional Republicans are focused on their struggle to pass President Donald Trump’s “one, big beautiful” budget bill. But House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith, R-Mo., already is eying legislation on trade and further tax provisions.
Smith told the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., on Thursday that the priority would turn to opening new international markets, particularly for U.S. agriculture.
“We grow rice, corn, cotton, feed cattle in my district. And so we need more markets. You need to eliminate those nontariff barriers,” Smith said. “There's a lot of trade problems that we're going to have to discuss.”
Smith also said he hopes to secure bipartisan legislation to enact some tax provisions that didn’t make it into the reconciliation bill because of Republican opposition.
Take note: Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chair Adrian Smith, R-Neb., told Agri-Pulse Thursday that Congress can buttress Trump’s efforts to open new markets. “I think he understands that what he's doing can only last the length of his administration,” Smith said. Durable trade policy, he added, “will require legislative action.”
MAHA critics don’t understand pesticide use, Senate ally says
Sen. Roger Marshall, a Kansas Republican who leads the Senate’s Make America Healthy Again Caucus, says he’s in communication with Casey Means, the controversial nominee to be surgeon general who links pesticide use to a long list of human health problems.
“The great news is, I can push back” on claims like the ones she makes, Marshall tells Agri-Pulse Newsmakers this week. “They have no idea what we’re doing out there when it comes to using less pesticides,” he says of pesticide critics.
Marshall says he also talks regularly with Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
This week’s Newsmakers is available today at Agri-Pulse.com.
FDA commits to revamp chemical post-market review process
FDA plans to ramp up its review process for chemicals already on the market.
Speaking at the Food Safety Summit outside Chicago, Kyle Diamantas, acting deputy commissioner of the FDA’s human foods program, teased some of the department’s plans on chemical safety.
A new post-market review plan will include a modernized, evidence-based scheme to prioritize reviews of chemicals already in the food supply. FDA says that will be released soon for public comment.
Diamantas said the agency will also be updating and releasing a final systematic post-market review process based off over 70,000 comments received last year. Finally, he said FDA will update the list of chemicals in the food supply prioritized for review.
EU officials want a better US deal than the UK
European Union officials are warning that a U.S.-EU deal along the lines of the U.S.-U.K. pact won’t be enough to stop the EU from retaliating.
“If the U.K.-U.S. deal is what Europe gets, then the U.S. can expect countermeasures from our side,” Benjamin Dousa, Sweden’s trade minister, said ahead of a trade meeting in Brussels on Thursday.
At a press conference, Polish official Michał Baranowski stressed that any agreement “needs to be fair and balanced.”
“We are frankly too big, too important to the U.S., to have a trade deal that is deeply unbalanced,” Baranowski said. But he added both sides are making “clear progress,” and that the EU now has a clearer understanding of what the U.S. wants.
Why it matters: The EU has indicated a slate of U.S. agricultural products will face new tariffs if the U.S. and EU can’t come to an agreement to prevent the return of a 20% reciprocal tariff.
Final word
“Here in California, my old stomping ground in Sacramento Valley, farmers, ranchers and irrigation districts … they're kind of like heroes right now working with conservation groups, fish and wildlife agencies, and waterfowl organizations to create a model of how farming, waterfowl, fish and other wildlife can coexist and thrive.” — Dan Keppen, executive director of the Family Farm Alliance, said during his Association of California Water Agencies keynote address in Monterey. Keppen is gearing up to retire from FFA after more than 20 years of farmer advocacy.
