There are three policy issues particularly important to California’s farmers that Trump wants to change. If he does what he has promised, one might benefit the industry and two might damage it. The beneficial change is what California Farm Bureau President Shannon Douglas, in a post-election statement, calls “securing a sustainable water supply.” For years, state officials have been trying, either through regulatory decrees or negotiations, to reduce the amount of water San Joaquin Valley farmers take from the San Joaquin River and its tributaries to enhance flows through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, thus improving its water quality to support fish and other wildlife. Farmers are miffed that after two wet winters filled the state’s reservoirs, state federal water managers still limited agricultural deliveries. … The two pending issues that could backfire on farmers who voted for Trump are imposing tariffs on imports from China, which could invite retaliatory tariffs on agricultural exports, and deporting undocumented immigrants, who comprise at least half of the state’s agricultural workers.
—Written by Dan Walters, columnist for CalMatters