Food And Farm News
12-24-2025
Almond board votes to stop funding USDA crop forecast
The Almond Board of California’s board of directors voted this month to discontinue funding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Objective Measurement Report, which is a pre-harvest forecast that can affect market behavior. Many growers complained that this year’s USDA forecast overestimated the size of the crop, causing almond prices to plummet just as the new crop was hitting the market. “I know we’ve all been frustrated with the market volatility we’ve experienced as an industry, especially following the release of the objective estimate this past July,” ABC President and CEO Clarice Turner said. Turner acknowledged the USDA objective forecast has been a useful tool for the industry. “However, when the crop shifted from growing to consolidating and declining acres, like we’ve seen over the last four years, the calculation started to become problematic,” she said.
Hemp producers weigh potential fallout of new law
A new federal law that revises what qualifies as legal hemp has California growers, regulators and other stakeholders assessing what impact the changes could have on the fledgling industry. Signed into law in November as part of a broader spending package to reopen the federal government, H.R. 5371 narrows the federal definition of hemp by imposing strict limits on intoxicating hemp products. The new law, which takes effect November 2026, adopts a total delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, limit of 0.3%, a threshold so low that hemp advocates say the new federal limits could criminalize hemp with trace amounts of THC that naturally occur in the plant but are not enough to be intoxicating. The trade group U.S. Hemp Roundtable has asked the federal government for more time and to meet with hemp stakeholders to talk about “robust” regulation of industrial hemp rather than a product ban.
Marin County ranch honored with top conservation prize
Stemple Creek Ranch of Marin County is the 2025 California Leopold Conservation Award recipient. The $10,000 award honors farmers, ranchers and forestland owners who go above and beyond in their management of soil health, water quality and wildlife habitat on working land. Loren and Lisa Poncia, owners of Stemple Creek Ranch in Tomales, were presented with the award during the California Farm Bureau Annual Meeting Dec. 8. The ranch raises organic, grass-finished beef and lamb and pastured pork, which it sells directly to consumers, grocery stores, restaurants and butcher shops. The 650 acres they own and much of what they lease has Marin Agricultural Land Trust agricultural conservation easements on them. This ensures that the land will be conserved as open space and in productive agricultural use in perpetuity. “We’re trying to dance with Mother Nature within our fencelines,” Loren Poncia said of his family’s approach to conservation.
California Christmas tree farmer reports surging demand
Douglas firs have practically flown off Robert Criswell’s Christmas tree farms this year. Since mid-November, the Santa Clara County farmer has sold more trees than in the prior four years combined, he told Ag Alert® in a field report. “They’re coming out early for trees, even in almost constant rain,” Criswell said early this month. “If it goes the way the early season is going, it’s going to be wild.” Christmas tree shopping typically peaks the weekend following Thanksgiving before tapering off throughout December. At Criswell’s farms, customers can purchase a tree this year for $80, a price he said was set in consultation with other local farmers. “It’s very important to me that customers go away happy rather than feel that they’ve been overcharged,” Criswell said. “Happy customers will come back, and that’s how I’ve grown my clientele.”
For more information about any story in Food and Farm News, contact the California Farm Bureau Marketing/Communications Division at 916-561-5550 or email news@cfbf.com. Connect with us on Facebook, X, or Instagram: @CAFarmBureau.
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