The Association participated in a coalition of 23 agricultural organizations opposing new staggered work schedules and lowering of the mandatory masking for only agricultural workers as proposed by Cal/OSHA. In a letter to the Cal/OSHA Standards Board, the coalition commented the staggered work schedule of 20% for day 1, 40% for day 2, 60% for day 3, 80% for day 4, etc. was not only unworkable, it would force employers to pay workers for time they did not work and to hire extra people to cover the time the original workers would not be allowed to work. The coalition also commented on the lowering of the mandatory mask wearing requirements from 500 AQI to 300 AQI for only agricultural workers. The proposed changes are a result of AB 2243, legislation that was passed in 2022.  AB 2243 said CalOSHA must “consider” these changes but did not mandate the changes. The coalition included the African American Farmers of California, Agricultural Council of California, American Pistachio Growers, California Apple Commission, California Blueberry Commission, California Citrus Mutual, California Cotton Ginners & Growers Association, California Fresh Fruit Association, California Wild Rice Advisory Board, Farm Bureau of Ventura County, Fresno County Farm Bureau, Grower Shipper Association of Central California, Merced County Farm Bureau, Milk Producers Council, Nisei Farmers League, Olive Grower Council of California, Olive Oil Commission of California, Raisin Bargaining Association, Stanislaus County Farm Bureau, Tulare County Farm Bureau, Ventura County Agricultural Association, Western Plant Health Association, and the Western Tree Nut Association.

Make time now to join the Regenerative Agriculture: The Way Forward workshop on Tuesday, July 1st at UC Merced on knowledge and a dialogue session on regenerative agriculture. The workshop will be from 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM and registration is free! It will include talks from researchers and people from the industry, as well as a farmer panel to discuss their perspectives and thoughts on regenerative agriculture. Lunch and refreshments are included. Registration sign-up is linked here. For more information, please see the flyer below.

California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association (CCGGA) Board Director Kirk Teixeira has been chosen as one of eight participants in the National Cotton Council’s (NCC’s) Emerging Leaders Program for 2025-26.  Participants include: PRODUCERS – Branden Ahrens, Corpus Christi, TX; Bryce Howard, Dalhart, TX; Kirk Teixeira, Fresno, CA; GINNER – Craig Rohrbach, Farwell, TX; MERCHANT – Ashley Paddock, Olney, IL; WAREHOUSER – Matt Hennig, Amarillo, TX; COTTONSEED – Luke Flair, Elkhorn, NE, and MARKETING COOPERATIVE – Kaimi Whitaker, Lubbock, Texas.

Now in its tenth year, the NCC’s Emerging Leaders Program is supported by a grant to The Cotton Foundation from Bayer.  Overall, the Emerging Leaders Program provides participants with a better understanding of how the NCC carries out its mission of ensuring the U.S. cotton industry’s seven segments can compete effectively and profitably in the raw cotton, oilseed and U.S.-manufactured product markets at home and abroad. Specifically, participants get an in-depth look at: 1) the U.S. cotton industry infrastructure and the issues affecting the industry’s economic well-being; 2) the U.S. political process; 3) the NCC’s programs as well as its policy development and implementation process and 4) Cotton Council International’s activities aimed at developing and maintaining export markets for U.S. cotton, manufactured cotton products and cottonseed products.  The Emerging Leaders Program also provides participants with professional development and communications training such as presentation and business etiquette, instruction for engaging with the news media, and utilizing social media tools and tactics.  Class members will participate in three sessions. The first session, set for the week of June 8, 2025, in Memphis and St. Louis, will provide an orientation to the NCC, professional development and communication skills training and an agribusiness briefing. During the second session, class members will see policy development at the NCC’s 2026 Annual Meeting in February. The third session, to be conducted later in 2026 in Washington, DC, will provide a focus on policy implementation.

Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Visalia, CA Classing Office
9:00am

Please join us to review, comment, and approve the six guide boxes of the 2025 American Pima Grade Standards. Once approved, the guide boxes will be used as the reference to match all the 2025 American Pima Grade Standards. The guide box review and the standards matching will both take place the morning of July 16^th.

Industry participation is key to this process, and we hope you all can come and be a part of this important annual event.

For additional information please contact:

Ryan Phillips, Acting Area Director 
E-mail: ryan.phillips@usda.gov
Visalia Classing Office                                 
7100 West Sunnyview Avenue                                            
Visalia, CA 93291                                         
Phone: (559) 651-3015

or

Monte Mutchler
E-mail: monte.mutchler@usda.gov
Standardization and Engineering Division
3275 Appling Road
Memphis, TN 38133
Phone: (901) 384-3030

The Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology is proud to announce the prestigious appointment of Dr. Margaret Ellis as the incoming J.G. Boswell Endowed Chair in Plant Science at Fresno State. Established through a generous $1.2 million gift from the James G. Boswell Foundation in 2004, the position has created a vessel for groundbreaking research and transformed student experiences in plant science. Dr. Ellis’ passion for agriculture began in her hometown in Illinois, where she participated in a local 4-H program. With a biology degree from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she began bridging her scientific background with her love of plants. She was introduced to the field of plant pathology when she started a position in a soybean pathology lab as an undergraduate student. Afterwards she completed her master’s and Ph.D. programs in Plant Pathology at Michigan State University and The Ohio State University, respectively. Upon joining Fresno State, Dr. Ellis embraced a new path, shifting her focus from Fusarium diseases in soybean to cotton. That pivot allowed her to continue working in Fusarium research—an area she continues to specialize in today. One of her earliest collaborators was the J.G. Boswell Company, which supported her initial survey work and played a key role in launching her research in California.  “The disease I study is very important to growers in California,” Dr. Ellis explains. “Being named the J.G. Boswell Endowed Chair means a lot to me because it tells me the work I do matters. I love working one-on-one with students, and this position allows me to do even more of that.”  Dr. Ellis’ impact resonates through her students, many of whom have gone on to pursue careers in research, university extension, and industry leadership. Several now work as technicians or farm managers within the University of California system and beyond. In her new role, Dr. Ellis will continue her work in cotton pathology, focusing on pathogen interactions – an area that desperately needs further exploration. For Dr. Ellis, the J.G. Boswell Endowed Chair in Plant Science empowers her to continue nurturing both of her passions: teaching and research. “I came to Fresno State because I wanted to teach. I love teaching and I love research. Getting this position is a happy marriage between both worlds.” Congratulations to Dr. Maggie Ellis, and a huge shoutout to the J.G. Boswell Company for their contribution to the future of the cotton industry in California.

On May 27, 2025, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) issued an advisory regarding the implementation of its Zero-Emission Forklift (ZEF) Regulation. The advisory clarifies that CARB has not yet sought authorization from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under section 209(e)(2)(A) of the Clean Air Act. Consequently, CARB will not enforce the ZEF regulation against privately-owned or operated fleets, manufacturers, or dealerships until such authorization is granted or deemed unnecessary.
 
CARB is encouraging all manufacturers and fleets to voluntary report and the adopt zero-emission forklifts. This advisory provides temporary relief from enforcement. However, the Association remains concerned about the long-term implications of the ZEF regulation. The transition to zero-emission forklifts poses significant challenges as our state has not addressed the state wide infrastructure constraints with converting to all electric. We will continue to monitor this regulation and will keep you updated.

The Association as part of the Modern Ag Alliance expressed major concerns with the release of the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission report that questioned American farmers’ use of crop protection tools. “Farmers are already facing a host of challenges—uncertainty about their access to critical crop protection products shouldn’t be added to the list,” said Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, Executive Director of the Modern Ag Alliance. “Crop protection tools are not only safe, they are essential to food security, affordability, and the survival of family farms all across this country. Losing access to these critical inputs would be a devastating setback to American agriculture.”  The Association’s President/CEO Roger Isom was quoted in the Modern Ag Alliance press release as saying “Crop protection tools that have been registered through EPA, have gone through the most rigorous, scientifically based, and health-protective process in the world. They have been analyzed to ensure there are no impacts to humans, workers, plants, animals, air quality, and groundwater. Application rates have been limited and buffer zones implemented to ensure the safest application possible, and where safety concerns could not be met, those chemicals are not registered for use in the United States. American agriculture already has far less tools than the rest of the world, and we cannot afford to lose any more and still produce the world’s best food and fiber.”

About The Modern Ag Alliance

The Modern Ag Alliance is a diverse coalition of more than 100 agricultural organizations advocating for U.S. farmers’ access to the crop protection tools they need to ensure we have a robust and affordable domestic food supply. To learn more, visit MODERNAGALLIANCE.ORG

This past week, the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association hosted its 2025 Annual Meeting in conjunction with Supima at the International Agri Center in Tulare, California.  More than 120 participants attended the informative meeting with speakers covering a multitude of important issues. The morning began with the financial report from the Association’s auditing firm Spafford and Landry. Then the group broke into two sections: ginners and growers. The ginners were provided with updates from the National Cotton Ginners Association and its activities by current NCGA President Larry Black, the USDA ARS Southwest Cotton Ginning Laboratory and the research they are conducting by Dr. Jaya Shankar Tumuluru, and finally a presentation on the USDA classing of the 2024 cotton crop by Ryan Phillips of USDA AMS.  Meanwhile the growers were briefed on the Cottonseed Bug by Chad Brewer of the National Cotton Council. Then the growers received a series of research updates by Dr. Margaret Ellis of CSU Fresno, Michael Rethwisch of UCCE, Giuliano Carneiro Galdi of UCCE and Ian Grettenberger of UC Davis. Then both groups came back together to receive an update from the Association staff led by Assistant Vice President Priscilla Rodriguez, Assistant Vice President of Technical Services Christopher McGlothlin, and President/CEO Roger Isom on some of the important issues the Association is tackling. Then, the meeting was turned over to Supima to have their Annual Meeting. Following lunch, special guest speaker, Assemblyman Heath Flora provided his perspective on Sacramento and how things are going at the State Capitol.

The University of California Cooperative Extension is hosting a free workshop on building resilient cotton systems.  More information can be found on the flyer below.  The event will wrap up with a Q&A session.  Lunch is provided.  Space is limited, so please sign up at the link below.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to list the monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  While recognizing the monarch’s ecological and cultural importance, the Association submitted comments respectfully opposing the proposed listing for several reasons.
 
First, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Herbicide Strategy and Draft Insecticide Strategy are designed to minimize potential harm to the monarch and other non-target organisms by implementing mitigation measures that reduce spray drift, runoff, and collateral pesticide exposure. These strategies rely on refined risk assessments and population-level evaluations rather than individual-level restrictions, and they provide practical guidance—such as establishing buffer zones and adopting drift-reduction methods—that enable farmers to maintain effective weed and pest control.
 
Second, voluntary and targeted conservation programs are already succeeding. Multiple conservation programs, including the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP), have shown success in improving pollinator habitats across private and public lands, as documented in the Mid-America Monarch Conservation Strategy.
 
Third, if the monarch butterfly is listed as threatened, the agricultural sector may face additional regulatory burdens and uncertainties. For many commodities support hundreds of thousands of jobs and provide major economic value across multiple states, new restrictions could raise compliance costs and disrupt long-established practices.
 
In written comments submitted this past week, the Association commented that it believes USFW should focus on targeted habitat management instead of listing. Monarch butterfly declines are linked to factors such as habitat loss, changing land-use patterns, climate variation, and threats at overwintering sites, indicating that localized or targeted responses are more appropriate than a sweeping threatened listing. Encouraging strategic habitat enhancements, such as planting milkweed in priority locations, sustaining overwintering grounds, and funding pollinator-friendly crop rotation practices, will likely produce more direct benefits for the monarch. Given the effectiveness of existing pesticide strategies, proven voluntary programs, and targeted habitat improvements for monarch butterfly conservation, listing the species as threatened under the ESA is unnecessary at this time.