With less than a month away, the Association is gearing up for the 2025 regional Train-the-Trainer workshops! This year the California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association along with Western Agricultural Processors Association, African American Farmers of California, California Citrus Mutual, California Fresh Fruit Association, Fresno County Farm Bureau, Nisei Farmers League and The Zenith are partnering to provide Aerial Lift Safety Train-the-Trainer. Beginning in March, the trainings will be covered in English and Spanish and will hold seven on site tractor safety workshops in the following areas: Fresno, Tulare, Wasco, Madera, Turlock, Woodland, and Chico. The Lockout/Tagout, Fall Protection and PPE safety topics will be covered via webinar. These workshops are for owners, managers, supervisors, safety personnel or those who are responsible for training. Each workshop attendee will be provided with a binder that includes the information needed for understanding the rules, regulations and conducting effective safety training. Each attendee will also receive a certificate of completion for those that participate in the full class.

In addition, the association will be conducting Hazard Communication, Workplace Violence Prevention, and Indoor & Outdoor Heat Illness Prevention webinars in the spring. Details will follow on those special events.

The cost per training is $65 per person for members and $85 for non-members. For information on registering for the workshops and/or webinars, please see flyer.

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 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.

This week the Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced an update to the State Water Project (SWP) allocation forecast for 2025. The allocation has increased to 20 percent of requested supplies, up from 15 percent in December. The SWP provides water to 29 public water agencies that serve 27 million Californians. While January has been incredibly dry across California, storm runoff into the state’s reservoirs came in higher than forecasted at the end of December allowing for a modest allocation increase. Storms in late November and early December had a positive impact by saturating the ground, allowing for storms through December to more efficiently runoff into reservoirs. “We are in the middle of our biggest months for precipitation for California, and unfortunately January has been very dry, putting a significant dent in our season,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. Despite the dry conditions, California has effectively managed its reservoirs to keep storage above average for this time of year. Lake Oroville, the State Water Project’s largest reservoir, is currently at 127 percent of average for this time of year. San Luis Reservoir, which is jointly operated by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, is at 102 percent of average for this time of year. Each year, DWR provides SWP allocation forecasts based on available water storage, projected water supply, and water demands. Allocations are updated monthly as snowpack, rainfall, and runoff information is assessed, with a final allocation typically determined in May or June. As the winter progresses, if California sees an increase in rain and snowfall, the allocation forecast may increase.

Recently, the Department of the Interior awarded the Sites Reservoir Project  $129 million in federal funding to bring clean, reliable drinking water to communities across the West through water storage and conveyance projects. This new commitment builds on the $67.5 million announced in May 2024 to Sites Reservoir, increasing the current total to $646.15 million in federal funding committed to the Project in exchange for federal benefits. As a beneficiary pays project, this funding would secure additional benefits for the Bureau of Reclamation’s water operations, which include supporting ecosystem objectives. The state of California conditionally awarded $875 million to the Project through the Proposition 1 Water Storage Investment Program for public benefits. “Sites Reservoir would not be possible without the continued support of our federal partners, who share our commitment to increasing California’s water resiliency amid a changing climate,” said Fritz Durst, Chair of the Sites Project Authority Board of Directors. “We’ve made significant progress in the last few years and this funding is an exciting start to what will be another monumental year for Sites Reservoir.” Sites Reservoir will increase water supply throughout California and provide, for the first time, environmental benefits by storing water specifically to support native wildlife and their habitat during drought periods. The Project will provide an additional 1.5 million acre-feet of storage capacity, substantially improving the state’s water flexibility, reliability, and resiliency in drier years.

December 30, 2024, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) announced the availability of two preliminary reports pertaining to the re-evaluation review of the active ingredient, paraquat dichloride. The letter further announces the opening of a 45-day comment period closing February 13, 2025.  The referenced reports included the Preliminary Report of the Potential Human Health Outcomes Resulting from Paraquat Exposure, and the Preliminary Report on the Potential Ecological Risks from Paraquat Exposure.  Given the breadth of the detailed scientific information, analyses, and references in said reports, the Association asked for CDPR to consider a minimum 30-day extension of the comment period to allow sufficient time for our teams and technical people to more completely review the provided reports and provide a more complete and thorough response.  This past week CDPR granted an extension until March 17^th, 2025.

This past week the Association submitted comments to US EPA to address questions regarding the potential use of plinazolin on cotton. Plinazolin is a potentially important and necessary tool for use against lygus on California cotton. The Association understands there may be limitations related to aerial application that would severely impact the use and effectiveness of plinazolin for several reasons. The Association highlighted growing conditions in cotton fields, impacts from irrigation and the ability to cover a lot of ground quickly. Plinazolin is a potential critical tool to control lygus going through the registration process at US EPA with the hopes of having it available in 2026 or 2027.

Cal/OSHA has numerous rulemaking projects planned for 2025. Here’s a summary of the most significant issues that can impact the cotton industry, set for resolution this year.

Ultra-High Heat Standards and Wildfire Smoke – Under AB 2243 (2021), Cal/OSHA must consider adding an “ultra-high heat” provision to its heat illness prevention standard and require employers to distribute their heat illness prevention plans to employees. Additionally, Cal/OSHA is tasked with considering revisions to the wildfire smoke standard to lower the air quality threshold for mandatory respiratory protection from 500 to 301.

Walking Working Surfaces – Cal/OSHA is actively working on updates to the Walking Working Surfaces regulation, which intends to enhance safety standards for workplaces across various industries. The Association is playing a key role in this process, participating in the Advisory Committee as the sole representative from the agricultural industry. Two advisory committee meeting are set for 2025 in March and October of this year.

First Aid Kit – Efforts to simplify first aid kit requirements, dating back to 2006, are anticipated to progress this year. The revisions aimed to allow kits to meet national standards, such as ANSI, rather than requiring sole approval by a physician. The board plans to publish this proposal by June for a public hearing. A new proposal is expected to be presented for a public hearing in June 2025.

Autonomous Tractors – One key area under consideration is the regulation of autonomous agricultural equipment. Historically, Cal/OSHA required driverless tractors to have an operator present in the vehicle. However, as of October 2024, the agency has indicated a shift in this stance, expressing openness to regulatory reforms that would allow autonomous vehicles to operate without an onboard operator. The advisory Committee meeting is anticipated for June 2025.

Workplace Violence – Cal/OSHA plans an advisory hearing to be held in 2025 to gather input on a proposed workplace violence prevention standard for general industry, as required by SB 553. The goal is to collect feedback from stakeholders on the draft workplace violence prevention standard currently being developed by Cal/OSHA. Cal/OSHA must submit the proposed workplace violence prevention standard to the Board by December 31, 2025 and the Board must adopt the standard by 2026.

The Association will closely monitor the progress of these proposed rulemaking initiatives as they move forward.

In a stunning development, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) has withdrawn its request for a federal waiver to implement the state’s Advanced Clean Fleets rule. In a brief letter on Monday to Jane Nishida, acting administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Steven Cliff, executive officer of the California Air Resources Board, said CARB was withdrawing the waiver request that it made in late 2023.  Historically, CARB has been granted waiver to implement regulations on engines, and most thought this was a slam dunk. But then President-Elect Trump won the recent Presidential election. Liane Randolph, the CARB chair, was quoted stating “Frankly, given that the Trump administration has not been publicly supportive of some of the strategies that we have deployed in these regulations, we thought it would be prudent to pull back and consider our options” in the New York Times.

Some further explanation is needed here though. The Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) rule would have required drayage trucks and certain fleets to replace their trucks with zero emission trucks by certain dates.  The Advanced Clean Truck (ACT) rule is an OEM mandate on new trucks coming into the marketplace and that rule has already been granted a waiver.  Furthermore, the ACF rule and other rules that have waiver requests into EPA have NOx emissions reductions associated with them. If those are withdrawn those emissions reductions will have to be made up somewhere.  And that is a concern as to what other emissions sources may be brought into focus. Stay tuned!

It’s that time of the year again! This is a reminder to electronically submit your 2024 Form 300A data by March 2, 2025, through the Federal OSHA Injury Tracking Application (ITA) website. Additionally, the Cal/OSHA Summary 300A must be completed and posted on your bulletin board from February 1 to April 30, 2025. Refer to federal OSHA’s Injury Tracking Application website for information and instructions on electronic submission, visit: https://www.osha.gov/injuryreporting/ita/.

The 2024 hulling and shelling season concluded just before the holidays. Sanger completed operations on November 27 and Kerman finished on December 15. The 2024 volume recorded an increase from the 2023 season. The Association hulled and shelled 131,903,505 meat equivalent lbs. In 2023, one of the Association’s lower years, totaled 107,314,863 meat equivalent lbs. The average yield per acre was 2,167 lbs. Our average overall turn out increased 2.15% from last year to now 25.78%.