Local farmers work to stay ahead of rising regulatory costs

A recent report showed that famers in Monterey County had a production gross value of almost $5 billion in 2024, and while that number may sound positive, farmers are taking a hit in profits due to higher regulatory costs. 

"It's getting less and less profitable," Christopher Dunn, manager of "The Farm," said.

 The latest update from The Monterey County Farm Bureau shows that almost 13% of production costs for farms goes towards regulatory costs. 

The regulations farmers are adjusting to span a wide variety of areas including food safety, air quality, water quality, chemicals and more. 

Dunn said that these growing costs and regulations feel relentless. 

"This is a small farm, so you extrapolate that out to the bigger guys (and) they're paying a significant chunk of their income to those regulatory burdens," Dunn said.

In 2023, the agriculture community took a hit due to floods and lost a significant amount of product. 

Now, as they recover, the loss of profits is coming from state and federal requirements. 

Norm Groot, the executive director for The Monterey County Farm Bureau, said regulations are necessary but are now going too far. 

"What we're seeing now is we're going far beyond the simple saving the environment attitudes that we had, say 15, 20 years ago," Groot said. "Now each incremental new regulatory process is far more expensive, requires much more in the way of technology and really complicates what the farmer needs to do to produce this crop each year."

Dunn said there needs to be a change in the state and that he does not feel its on a sustainable path, despite that being its goal. 

"We need to take a break on regulatory programs for agriculture at this point," Groot said.