Congressman Panetta's Agriculture Priorities: Opportunity and Access

I grew up on a small walnut ranch in a home built by my Italian immigrant grandparents in Carmel Valley, California. It is a modest piece of land with a very small harvest. It is, however, where I obtained an appreciation of the work necessary to nurture crops and a connection with the land and our country's values.

Growing up, I did not fully comprehend what that ranch meant to my grandparents. However, I learned that that slice of land on the central coast of California gave them the chance to give their children and grandchildren a better life. That is why I firmly believe that in America, no matter where you are from or how you got here, people can achieve the American Dream, given the opportunity to work hard.

My family instilled in me the importance of hard work as well as the obligation to always give back to the community and country that gave me so much. That is why I served as a prosecutor, an officer in the U.S. Navy, and, now, as a member of the U.S. Congress I am honored to represent my home the Central Coast.

My district is one of the most bountiful in the nation and aptly called "the Salad Bowl of the World". The growers, shippers, and farm workers of the Central Coast give back to our community in their own way by providing our nation with some of the most nutritious food in the world. That is a great responsibility, but it also provides an even greater opportunity for our community. There are economic opportunities for farm workers and their families, research topics for scientists, educational experiences for children, nutritious options for consumers, and a chance for growers on the Central Coast to become leaders in agricultural innovation and sustainability. The federal government should encourage those opportunities by continuing to demonstrate its commitment to the agriculture industry.

Agriculture research must be a priority in the federal budget. In the Salinas Valley, we are fortunate to have a USDA funded research station. Scientists and students at the facility focus on improving specialty crop varieties, advancing environmentally-conscious pest management tools, furthering organic agriculture production, and ensuring food safety. As the Representative of the Salinas Valley, and as a member of the Agriculture Committee's Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research subcommittee, I will push to provide the funding necessary for scientific advances so that our growers, shippers, and farm workers have the most efficient, economically, and environmentally sound tools available.

We also must encourage and support technology and agriculture industries working together to create sustainable agriculture practices. Just north of the Salinas Valley is Silicon Valley, our nation's hub of innovative technology. We must continue to build bridges between the two valleys with collaborative efforts aimed at developing technology to solve some of agriculture's greatest challenges, including the implementation of sustainable water-use practices and contending with a shrinking and aging labor force. In my district, there are several organizations that already are working to cultivate productive relationships between our agriculture industry and technology firms. Those types of partnerships between Salinas Valley and Silicon Valley and their potential for research and development will be critical to the future of our economy and community.

At the same time that we develop our ag-tech, we need to work on and pass bipartisan immigration reform, including the expansion and simplification of the H-2A visa process. Most of the fresh fruit and vegetable growers rely on a skilled workforce to pick their crops in a timely manner and to ensure that the produce is fresh and aesthetically pleasing to the consumer. Unfortunately, our government has failed to pass any type of immigration reform since 1986 and our labor force is suffering. Farmworkers are thinking twice about coming to our country in order to have opportunities due to the anti-immigrant actions and rhetoric of the current administration. Growers are not able to source the labor they need to harvest crops, leaving highly perishable produce rotting in the field. The federal government's inaction on immigration reform threatens the economic viability of the agriculture operations and production in all of our communities.

Finally, we need to make sure that the nutritious food produced by our agriculture industry is accessible, particularly for our society's most vulnerable, such as children, seniors, and those living on fixed incomes. I support programs and partnerships aimed at integrating healthy products into federal nutrition programs, as well as those that seek to connect consumers with local and regional produce. On the Central Coast, many farmer organizations donated over one hundred salad bars to our local schools. That type of access and exposure to our produce has allowed and influenced our children and even their parents, many who work in the agriculture industry, to eat healthier. Moreover, there is the California Thursdays Initiative, which is a partnership between the Center for Ecoliteracy and a network of California public schools so that they have nutritious meals from locallysourced ingredients every Thursday. Working to incorporate nutritious products into our local schools provides producers with more options for direct marketing and benefits the health of our children and, ultimately, our community.

I am honored to advocate for California's central coast in Congress, especially for the growers, farmworkers, and consumers that support our agriculture. When we provide our agricultural industry with the appropriate political and financial investment in research, technology, and a workforce, it not only helps farmers, it helps the health of our communities and country and provides that opportunity for the American Dream.

Congressman Jimmy Panetta represents California's 20th District in the U.S. House of Representatives. He is a member of the House Committee on Agriculture's Biotechnology, Horticulture, and Research and Nutrition Subcommittees. If you would like to contact Congressman Panetta's office, please call 831-424-2229 or visit /