Winter rains did not ease the challenges for Marin County’s agricultural industry last year.
County staff told supervisors that in 2023, the industry’s gross value of all agricultural production fell 9% to $85.3 million, compared to 2022. Last year marked the third consecutive year that production value fell.
The county’s agricultural commissioner, Joe Deviney, stressed the importance of supporting local agriculture.
“For all of us to buy local would be a tremendous thing,” he said. “To continue to support them when you go to the farmers market or the stores that sell things they do, that will be the key thing that I think will make them profitable and successful and resilient over time.”
His staff delivered the annual report on Marin’s agricultural industry. The information also will be submitted to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.
In 2023, the value of local organic milk decreased by 32% to $21.9 million and its production fell by 25%. County agricultural inspector Allison Klein noted that milk was historically Marin’s top-ranked commodity.
The gross value of livestock products fell 30% and the value of fruit, vegetable and nursery crops decreased by 5%, according to the staff report.
Some livestock and crop industries had improvements last year. Poultry was the county’s top grossing commodity, with its value rising 5% to $24.6 million. The county staff believes that the national egg shortage linked to avian flu outbreaks caused local prices to rise.
Rains also improved the value of field crops, which increased 17%. The value of Marin’s wine grapes rose 11% to $919,000, despite a smaller harvest last year.
“I was not surprised by the value drop in agricultural production in Marin,” Supervisor Dennis Rodoni said after the hearing.
Rodoni, who represents rural communities that have dairies and poultry farms in western Marin, said three local dairies reduced or stopped production in the last couple of years.
“Given that we are still recovering from a drought, dairies are reducing herd sizes and not producing, and agriculture is struggling economically,” Rodoni said. “Marin agriculture appears to be in a transition period, which may mean a fluctuation in production value for the next several years.”
Joseph Button, a vice president at Straus Family Creamery, said Wednesday that his company sources milk from six organic dairies in Marin County. He said high production costs in 2022 and last year caused organic dairies in California to decrease milk production. Button also noted the rapid increase in off-farm forage and feed grain costs.
He said organic dairy farmers adapted to the situation by reducing herd sizes and milk production. He said a local coalition of organic dairy brands and organizations worked with the U.S. Department of Agriculture to bring federal relief for organic dairy farmers.
“Fortunately, feed costs have slowly begun to migrate back to normal levels in 2024, and the outlook for most organic dairy farms in the region looks better than in 2022 and 2023,” Button said.
In his presentation to supervisors, Deviney explained “climate-smart” practices being implemented by producers in Marin and Sonoma counties to reduce greenhouse gases and to promote sustainable agriculture. His examples included producers switching to renewable power sources, planting cover crops and applying compost to revive ranchlands.
“Despite the challenges, agricultural producers in Marin County continue to show remarkable adaptability to situations that climate events present,” Deviney said.
He mentioned Straus’ plan to become the nation’s first carbon-neutral dairy.
Assistant Agricultural Commissioner Scott Wise said that an agricultural industry’s total gross value is calculated by collecting data from voluntary surveys of local agricultural producers. The agriculture department uses information about the producers’ acreage, production and product value, he said.
During the 2022-23 fiscal year, the county spent more than $119,000 on drought relief projects such as paying a portion of water hauling expenses for ranchers and covering costs from the Nicasio Reservoir and Stafford Lake water meters used by ranchers, Wise said.
