U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that President Donald J. Trump appointed Josh F.W. Cook as EPA’s Pacific Southwest (Region 9) Regional Administrator. Regional Administrator Cook will have stewardship to implement and enforce federal environmental laws in Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands, and 148 Tribal Nations.   “Josh Cook is the right person we need to lead Region 9. He understands the unique nature of the Pacific Southwest and will be a great addition to the EPA team,” said Administrator Zeldin. “Josh’s talent working with state and local partners will be paramount to power the great American comeback across our regions.”  Before joining the EPA, Regional Administrator Cook was an Advisor to the Tribal Council of the Mooretown Rancheria of Concow Maidu Indians, where he designed a decades-long large-scale forest resiliency initiative through government-to-government agreements with Tribes, National Parks, and multiple U.S. Forests in California and Nevada. Previously, Regional Administrator Cook served as Chief of Staff to the Minority Caucus in the California Legislature. His previous environmental service includes appointments to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Interior Resource Advisory Councils and tenure as a City Planning Commissioner.  Cook is a Veteran of the California State Guard and an Associate Professor and lecturer at the University of Southern California. He earned an Associate’s Degree in Languages from Butte College, a Bachelor’s of Science from Charter Oak State College and a Master’s of Science from Cal State University East Bay. Regional Administrator Cook and his wife Robin have been married 32 years and are the parents of five children and five grandchildren. They reside in Chico, California, where they actively engage in their church and community.

The two-day Agricultural Safety Certificate Program hosted by AgSafe will be held at the Western Tree Nut Association’s office on April 2-3rd. Registration is open, and there is a special discount for members of California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association and Western Tree Nut Association. Please use WTNA2025 for the special discount. For more information, please view the flyer below.

California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association and Western Tree Nut Association are offering safety training workshops in both Spanish and English. Topics include:

• Aerial Lift Safety (Train-the-Trainer)
• Hazard communication (Webinar)
• Workplace Violence Prevention (Webinar)
• Indoor & Outdoor Heat Illness Prevention (Webinar)

Check out the attached flyer for details and feel free to share this with interested growers. For questions on registration, please email Esmeralda at esmeralda@agprocessors.org or you can reach out to the association directly at (559) 252-0684.

We hope to see you there!

In support of ongoing efforts to provide maximum water supplies in California, the Bureau of Reclamation announces an increase in Central Valley Project 2025 water supply allocations that will provide farmers and other CVP contractors greater water supply certainty throughout the growing season. Initial allocations for the 2025 water year were announced Feb. 25 and are updated today.   “While most of the Central Valley Project contractors are at 100% allocation, we are very pleased to announce an increase in allocations for our south-of-Delta and Friant Division contractors,” said Acting Regional Director Adam Nickels. “Consistent with the intent of Executive Order 14181, we are able to increase south-of Delta agriculture to 40% and Friant Division Class 1 to 100%.”

Reclamation is striving to maximize water supply, particularly for south-of-Delta contracts to meet Executive Order 14181’s directives. Demonstrating its commitment to California farmers and communities, Reclamation continues its dedicated efforts to deliver more water and produce more hydropower. Reclamation will continue to maximize pumping whenever possible at the federal pumping facility to move water to parts of California where it is needed most and provide the greatest economic value to the entire country. 

Based on current hydrology and forecasting, Reclamation is announcing the following increases to CVP water supply allocations:

South-of-Delta Contractors

• Irrigation water service and repayment contractors south-of-Delta are increased to 40% from 35% of their contract total. Municipal and industrial water service and repayment contractors south-of-Delta remain at 75% of their historical use, or public health and safety needs, whichever is greater.
   

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 initial Friant Division water supply allocation for Class 1 was increased from 45% to 80% on March 14. Today’s announcement includes a further increase to 100%; Class 2 water remains at 0%. 

Aubrey Bettencourt will serve as Chief of the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS). Aubrey is a prominent leader in agriculture, water, and sustainability, most recently serving as the Global Director of Government Relations and External Affairs for Netafim, an Orbia Company. Her previous roles include serving as President and CEO of the Almond Alliance and Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of the Interior in the first Trump Administration. Her work reflects a strong commitment to water policy, agricultural support, and sustainable practices, supported by her family’s farming roots in Kings County, California. Aubrey holds a degree in History from Westmont College.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins has  announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is issuing up to $10 billion directly to agricultural producers through the Emergency Commodity Assistance Program (ECAP) for the 2024 crop year. Administered by USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA), ECAP will help agricultural producers mitigate the impacts of increased input costs and falling commodity prices.  “Producers are facing higher costs and market uncertainty, and the Trump Administration is ensuring they get the support they need without delay,” said Secretary Rollins.  Authorized by the American Relief Act, 2025, these economic relief payments are based on planted and prevented planted crop acres for eligible commodities for the 2024 crop year.  To streamline and simplify the delivery of ECAP, FSA will begin sending pre-filled applications to producers who submitted acreage reports to FSA for 2024 eligible ECAP commodities soon after the signup period opens on March 19, 2025. Producers do not have to wait for their pre-filled ECAP application to apply. They can visit fsa.usda.gov/ecap to apply using a login.gov account or contact their local FSA office to request an application once the signup period opens.

Eligible Commodities and Payment Rates

The commodities below are eligible for these per-acre payment rates:

Producer Eligibility

Eligible producers must report 2024 crop year planted and prevented planted acres to FSA on an FSA-578, Report of Acreage form. Producers who have not previously reported 2024 crop year acreage or filed a notice of loss for prevented planted crops must submit an acreage report by the Aug. 15, 2025, deadline. Eligible producers can visit fsa.usda.gov/ecap for eligibility and payment details.

Applying for ECAP

Producers must submit ECAP applications to their local FSA county office by Aug. 15, 2025. Only one application is required for all ECAP eligible commodities nationwide. ECAP applications can be submitted to FSA in-person, electronically using Box and One-Span, by fax or by applying online at fsa.usda.gov/ecap utilizing a secure login.gov account.

ECAP payments will be issued as applications are approved. Initial ECAP payments will be factored by 85% to ensure that total program payments do not exceed available funding. If additional funds remain, FSA may issue a second payment.

The California Cotton Ginners and Growers Association submitted comments this week on the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR) request for input on critical uses of paraquat and currently available, effective alternatives. Paraquat is used as a desiccant in cotton and plays an important role in the production and harvest of cotton in California. The association’s comments focused on the need for a quality and effective defoliation that is absolutely critical to that quality grade and helps producers achieve maximum value. The Association highlighted the efficacy of paraquat over sodium chlorate for effective defoliations. The Association also commented paraquat’s use as an herbicide, especially in the winter when it is used as a broad-spectrum winter weed burndown and aids in growers being able to conduct no-till or minimum-till practices. This is critically important in areas like California where there is a significant effort to reduce passes and eliminate disturbance of the soil.  In addition, its use is important as it is a different active ingredient to glyphosate, and it is important to use in a rotation to minimize resistance. The use of paraquat is a key to increased sustainability, as the cotton industry works to minimize soil disturbance, minimize chemical resistance, and producing a quality crop. And according to some farm advisors, paraquat is the only effective tool for more difficult weeds such as fleabane.  All of this will be considered by CDPR as it works towards its re-evaluation of paraquat by 2029. 

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.