It’s time for the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association’s 2025 Annual Meeting! This year, Supima will join forces with CCGGA to showcase valuable industry updates. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 21^st at the International Agri-Center in Tulare, California. Please complete and submit the registration form linked below. You can email the form to Michelle Franco at michelle@ccgga.org or fax it to our offices promptly at (559) 252-0551.

There is also an opportunity to sponsor the event. All sponsorships go toward offsetting the costs, which helps us deliver our message to the industry. If you’d like to sponsor, you may do so by clicking the sponsorship link.

The cost of the event is free, but we encourage you to consider making a donation of at least $25 to the CCGGA Federal PAC or CCGGA State PAC to help protect California cotton at the state and federal levels. The CCGGA Federal PAC can only accept personal checks. Any corporate contributions must be made to the CCGGA State PAC.

Cotton producers in California may be eligible for Loan Deficiency Payments (LDP) from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA). LDPs are payments made to producers who, although eligible to obtain a Marketing Assistance Loan, agree to forgo the loan in return for a payment on the eligible commodity. The deadline to apply for an LDP on 2024 crop-year cotton is May 31, 2025.

For more information, click this link.

Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency is revisiting the Biden PM2.5 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which has raised serious concerns from states across the country and served as a major obstacle to permitting.  “All Americans deserve to breathe clean air while pursuing the American dream. Under President Trump, we will ensure air quality standards for particulate matter are protective of human health and the environment while we unleash the Golden Age of American prosperity,” said EPA Administrator Zeldin.  EPA is also announcing that it will soon release guidance to increase flexibility on NAAQS implementation, reforms to New Source Review, and direction on permitting obligations. This suite of actions advances cooperative federalism and begins to undo red tape holding back American exceptionalism. The U.S. has some of the lowest fine particulate matter levels in the world. Between 2000 and 2023, average PM2.5 concentrations in the U.S. fell by 37 percent and average PM10 concentrations similarly fell by 36 percent. This action is significant for California where at least seven areas were deemed non-attainment for the new 9 ug/m3 PM2.5 standard and would have had a very difficult time meeting this new standard. 

The Association’s President/CEO Roger Isom was a guest lecturer this past week for two (2) Ag Business 150 Classes at CSU Fresno.  Isom presented on port issues, impacts of retaliatory tariffs and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).  Isom stated “these students are the next generation of agricultural leaders in our community, and it is important to make sure they are knowledgeable on critical issues impacting agriculture.  I cherish this opportunity to contribute to their education and knowledge base.”

U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) will be hosting a webinar on Thursday, March 27^th at 10 A.M. PST to discuss the agencies’ available Disaster Program funding and other support programs for producers.  The webinar will cover a wide variety of resource programs made available, such as direct farm operating loans, loan assistance tools, and programs available specifically for new farmers and ranchers.

If you are interested in attending, please follow the instructions on the link here: USDA FSA Webinar – Registration

Today, the Bureau of Reclamation announced major steps to improve California water supply.  The initial allocation to be provided to California farmers on the west side of the Central Valley south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta is initially set at 35% and more than twice what the initial allocation was in 2024, a year with similar hydrology.  In addition, the Trump administration is investing more than $315.5 million to create new water storage at the future Sites Reservoir and at the existing San Luis Reservoir.   Reclamation, as directed through President Trump’s Executive Order 14181, has worked to maximize water supply, particularly for south-of-Delta contracts.  Reclamation continues its dedicated efforts to deliver more water and produce more hydropower as a commitment to California farmers and communities.  Water supply allocations are based on an estimate of water available for delivery and reflect current reservoir storage, precipitation, and snowpack in the Sierra Nevada, as well as contractor-rescheduled water from the last water year.  “Recent atmospheric rivers and the good condition of most of our reservoirs going into this water year have benefited our water supply outlook; however, the San Joaquin Basin has experienced critically dry conditions this winter,” said California-Great Basin Regional Director Karl Stock. “Initial allocations reflect this significant variation across the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys.”   Based on current hydrology and forecasting, Reclamation is announcing the following initial Central Valley Project water supply allocations:

North-of-Delta Contractors

Sacramento River

• Irrigation water service and repayment contractors north-of-Delta are allocated 100% of their contract total. 
• Municipal and industrial water service and repayment contractors north-of-Delta are allocated 100% of their contract total. 
• Sacramento River Settlement Contractors’ water supply is based upon settlement of claimed senior water rights. The 2025 water year is determined as non-critical, as defined in their Settlement Contracts, which allows for 100% of their contract water supply.

American River

• M&I water service and repayment contractors north-of-Delta who are serviced by Folsom Reservoir on the American River are allocated 100% of their contract total. 

In-Delta Contractors

• M&I water service and repayment contractors who are serviced directly from the Delta are allocated 100% of their contract total. 

South-of-Delta Contractors

• Irrigation water service and repayment contractors south-of-Delta are allocated 35% of their contract total.
• M&I water service and repayment contractors south-of-Delta are allocated 75% of their historical use, or public health and safety needs, whichever is greater.
• San Joaquin River Settlement Contractors and San Joaquin Exchange Contractors’ water supply is based upon settlement/exchange of claimed senior water rights. The 2025 water year is determined as non-critical, as defined in their contracts, which allows for 100% of their contract supply.
• In addition to this allocation, CVP contractors south-of-Delta are expected to reschedule approximately 180,000 acre-feet of unused allocated water from 2024 for use in 2025. 

Friant Division Contractors

• Friant Division contractors’ water supply is delivered from Millerton Reservoir on the upper San Joaquin River via the Madera and Friant-Kern canals. The first 800,000 acre-feet of available water supply is considered Class 1; Class 2 is considered the next amount of available water supply up to 1.4 million acre-feet. The Friant Division water supply allocation is 45% of Class 1 and 0% of Class 2. 

Wildlife Refuges

• The 2025 water year is determined as non-critical, as defined in their contracts, which allows for 100% of contract supply for wildlife refuges (Level 2), both north- and south-of-Delta. 

Make plans now to attend the 2025 Cotton IPM Meeting sponsored by BASF with guest speakers from the University of California and University of Arizona. It will be held on March 12^th and 13^th at different locations from 8:00 AM to 12:00 PM. The meeting will cover many topics like weed management, pest management, and so forth. DPR CEUs and CCA hours are pending. For more information on registration or the location of each meeting, please view the flyer below.

The 2024 legislative year was another busy one, introducing a wave of critical updates that every employer needs to understand. The Association is partnering with Fisher Phillips to join us for an informative seminar covering important legislative and legal updates that will affect agricultural employers in 2025 and beyond with an overview of important new laws impacting workplace policies, compliance, and employee management. The webinar will be hosted on February 24, 2025 at 10:00 am.

The legislature has remained busy by enacting new legislation for 2025 that greatly impacts employers of all sizes. This webinar will analyze significant new legislation that will affect agriculture employers in the new year. You’ll learn how to protect your operations, plan, and be ahead of the game.

Click here to register for this free webinar.

The firm is submitting this webinar for HRCI/SHRM credit.

Speaker:

Rebecca Hause-Schultz

Partner, Fisher Phillips

A partner in Fisher Phillips’ Sacramento office, a native Calaveras County and Future Farmers of America alumna, Rebecca draws on her deep roots in agriculture to defend farmers, food processors, manufacturers, and ag-tech businesses in employment litigation lawsuits and provide on the ground solutions. Rebecca litigates cases in federal and state courts, as well as state administrative agencies including the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), Civil Rights Department (CRD), Agricultural Labor Relations Board (ALRB), and Department of Labor (DOL). Rebecca assists employers navigating the complex H-2A temporary foreign agricultural worker program, and has significant experiencing in defending H-2A employers in all venues. Rebecca’s practice includes defending employers in Class/PAGA and single plaintiff litigation.

The National Cotton Council directors for 2025 were announced at the NCC’s recent 2025 annual meeting in Dallas, Texas.  Included in the list of Directors was the Association’s own Tom Pires, Past Chairman and current board member of the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association (CCGGA).  Elected to the NCC Board during segment caucuses were:

Producers

• David Dunlow, Gaston, N.C.
• Lewis Everett, Capron, Va.
• Gerald Rovey, Buckeye, Ariz.
• Matthew Hyneman, Jonesboro, Ark.
• Sutton Page, Avoca, Texas.

Ginners

• Ben Evans, Douglas, Ga.
• J. Bradley Williams, Burlison, Tenn.
• Larry Black, Roscoe, Texas.
• Tom Pires, Riverdale, Calif.
• Gary Feist, Anthony, Kansas.

Warehousers

• Shane Stephens, Greenwood, Miss.
• Ray Doroff, Memphis, Tenn.
• Scott Mitchell, Donalsonville, Ga.
• Eric Wanjura, Lubbock, Texas; and
• Robert Swize, Corpus Christi, Texas

Merchants

• John C. King, III, Richardson, Texas
• Darren Long, New York, N.Y.
• Azeez Syed, Richardson, Texas
• Tommy Hayden, Cordova, Tenn.
• Krista Rickman, Memphis, Tennessee.

Cottonseed

• Aaron Pena, Harlingen, Texas
• Fred Serven, Chattanooga, Tenn.
• Joe Gribble, Altus, Okla.
• John Chisum, Lubbock, Texas
• Brad Chapman, Tipton, Iowa.

Cooperatives

• Reid Nichols, Altus, Okla.
• Kevin Brinkley, Lubbock, Texas
• Paul Bush, Glendale, Ariz.
• Wayne Boseman, Garner, N.C.
• David Camp, Greenwood, Mississippi.

Manufacturers

• Anderson Warlick, Gastonia, N.C.
• James Martin, Gastonia, N.C.
• Dan Sistrunk, Spartanburg,S.C.
• William Bowen, Jr., Inman, S.C.
• Marc Doyon, Salisbury, North Carolina.

As the unifying force of the U.S. cotton industry, the Memphis-based NCC brings together industry representatives from the 17 cotton-producing states to establish policies reflecting the common interests and promoting mutual benefits for its broad membership and ancillary industries. The NCC’s mission is ensuring the ability of all industry segments to compete effectively and profitably in the raw cotton, oilseed and U.S.- manufactured product markets at home and abroad.

It’s time for the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association’s 2025 Annual Meeting! This year, Supima will join forces with CCGGA to showcase valuable industry updates. The meeting will be held on Wednesday, May 21^st at the International Agri-Center in Tulare, California. Please complete and submit the registration form. You can email the form to Michelle Franco at michelle@ccgga.org or fax it to our offices promptly at (559) 252-0551.

There is also an opportunity to sponsor the event. All sponsorships go toward offsetting the costs, which helps us deliver our message to the industry. If you’d like to sponsor, you may do so by clicking the sponsorship link.

The cost of the event is free, but we encourage you to consider making a donation of at least $25 to the CCGGA Federal PAC or CCGGA State PAC to help protect California cotton at the state and federal levels. The CCGGA Federal PAC can only accept personal checks. Any corporate contributions must be made to the CCGGA State PAC.