(dramatic music) - So Bill, I come across on Instagram, an article that you wrote about the a 100-Mile Circle here in California.

And so this is pretty awesome that you and I get to meet in person.

And, and talk about that.

- Yeah.

Your background.

Likewise, one of the creators of my job depends on AG, so, pretty amazing.

Glad we have the chance to spend a little bit of time together.

And the fact that you have been making your living in the 100-Mile Circle for some time, it's great to get to know you a little bit better.

- We kind of are all on the same page as far as trying to get the public to understand that the importance of having national security reasons and supply chain issues, a homegrown food supply, and there's this location is just, I mean, effects marks the spot on place to do it.

This is it.

- Yeah.

The home security topic has become a lot more important over the past, you know, couple years first we have COVID, there are certain countries that restricted exports, and now we have the Russian Ukraine war, with commodity prices spiking, and a lot of countries looking inward, it's become an extremely important topic.

And I don't know if you're seeing it in your business, in your community to as well.

- Oh, absolutely.

The supply chain issues hit us hard even last year during COVID, but also it just brought the light.

We need to reexamine.

The importance of having not only your homegrown food supply, but the supporting industries here at home, your fertilizing manufacturing, you know, the stuff that makes things grow.

We've offshored a lot of that dependent on a lot of countries for those supplies.

And the question is asked why, why can't we do those things here?

And if we don't have those resources, that's understandable, but we do have those resources.

- Yeah - And I think there should be some reexamination.

(funky music) - Production funding for American grown.

My job depends on AG, provided by James G Parker, insurance associates, ensuring and protecting acro business for over 40 years.

(dramatic music) By Gar Bennett, the central Valley's growing experts, more yield, less water, proven results.

We help growers feed the world.

By Brand Professional Agriculture, proudly discovering manufacturing and supplying the AG inputs that support the heroes who work hard to feed a hungry world every day.

By Unwired Broadband, today's internet for rural central California, keeping valley agriculture connected since 2003.

By Hodges Electric, proudly serving the central valley since 1979.

(airplane engine revs) by Picket Solar, helping farmers and ranchers save money, by becoming energy independent, and by valley air conditioning and repair, family owned for over 50 years, proudly featuring Coleman products, dedicated to supporting agriculture and the family that grow food for a nation.

(funky music) (soft music) - So Bill, when you wrote that article, in your opinion, what is the response been about the perception of agriculture and the importance?

Is it, you know, the supply chain issues and the price of food?

You think people are reexamining and paying closer attention to where their food comes from.

- At the time that we wrote it, it was more of an observation of looking at Bakersfield, Fresno, Modesto, Salinas, and those communities look at themselves as individual communities.

And we looked at it as the most unique growing region in the world, and we had the data to back it up.

So, at the time that we wrote it, it was less about the security of the US as related to events at that time, just a general observation, that it's only a matter of time before something happens based on, you know, the history of, you know, wars, pandemics, strife.

So, after COVID hit and people started looking Countrywide a little more inward and at their own food security, there was a lot more attention brought to this region and people questioning well, what if COVID was a lot worse and most people believe that it's only a matter of time before there's the next pandemic?

How do countries react?

- Yeah.

- And then, with the war that's going on, it's actually accelerated that, and really seen it on a global basis now.

And this is not just anecdotal.

So, Larry Fink, who's the founder of BlackRock.

They're one of the largest money managers in the world.

They managed $10 trillion in his public statement just recently.

He said that after 30 years of globalization, he's seen a reverse.

So, you're seeing more populism.

You're seeing more people globally focused on, how do they survive in the case of a global war or major pandemic.

And can you feed your people?

And if the answer is no, then a lot of countries right now are looking inward saying, how do we solve that just in case?

And we have this national treasure here, in the 100-Mile Circle, which solves that for the entire United States, but it's not being addressed.

So yes, people are now looking at this region saying, we need to give it more attention.

We need to give it the resources.

It needs to feed this country because it's only a matter of time before something bad or worse happens relative to what we've gone through over the past couple years.

(soft music) - Well, my husband passed away, but we've been in the cattle business.

I still have all the ranches and I rent the land out for livestock.

I've lived here since 1961, 60 years.

When we moved out here, the water table was at 40 feet.

Today I believe I'd have to look at my notes, but I think it's at 255 feet, two years ago, it was 230 feet.

It dropped like 35 feet in two years time, which was alarming.

(soft music) So, 30 years ago they started planting trees out here, and right over here was the first orchard that went in.

And that man just didn't have enough water for trees.

He was kind of experimenting.

So, he sold to a doctor down in Los Angeles who had it for a few more years, then some more big investment company came in and bought from him.

And then they started planting the trees.

And it's just been one orchard after another.

(object clunks) It's a way of life.

And you just don't want to give that up.

You know, you might, (woman chuckles) it's hard to explain.

- Well, I see you know, what though?

It's less difficult for people to understand when you think, if they actually come out onto these ranches that's on top - Well, a lot of people just would hate it.

You know, some people, this isn't for everybody, you know, some people would think, oh my gosh, this is just what I just, I'd hate to be stuck way out there.

And of course I've been asked that myself, you know, or you gonna stay on the ranch, but I don't wanna leave.

(soft music) - It's the other day, I had a conversation, just it thought that crossed my mind.

And here we are in California.

And it feels like if you backtrack to when JFK was president, that the United States was looking across the map of our own country and saying to itself, what can we do to ensure food security, national security, and what things can we build to secure this?

And he was instrumental at building the California Aqueduct and bolstering California's waters.

We bolstered it, we improved it.

And climate change has changed some of our ability to store water, but it shouldn't change our intelligence to overcome some of these obstacles.

We, California has plenty of water, if we think wisely and manage the resource in a more precise manner.

But even then imagine, I said this kind of sarcastically, imagine a tree or a plant that produces a very dense form of protein.

It does not require refrigeration, which is enormous cost as far as energy can be stored for long periods of time.

And at the same time, it's storing climate changing carbon out of the atmosphere.

You would think with that, And the precarious situation we are in with climate change, that our government would want trees planted all throughout the San Joaquin valley floor.

If in fact, you get dense form plant based, you know, protein, and you're storing the carbon.

And it's weird that, there's not a word about that from people who are in the situation to make those changes possible.

It's like dead radio silence.

- And another thing that's I find disappointing, is that the resourcefulness, the ingenuity, and the venture capital in this country, is unlike anywhere in the world, and the free markets right now, are starting to address the issue that our food supply chain needs to be enhanced.

And by we have identified about a thousand companies in North America that are focused on AG tech as referred to it.

But as technology, being developed to improve the food supply chain, use fewer resources, have a greater productivity, lower cost, and these other free markets coming up with a solution.

And it appears that people don't believe that farmers gonna be able to fight through global warming.

So, global warming appears that in the earth has increase one degree C over the past a hundred years, and the general belief is going to increase.

But over the past a hundred years, farmers have produced more with less addressing a growing population, addressing and facing global warming.

And, you know, you look at the history of the dust bowl and other challenges they face.

- Yeah - They've always fought through it.

- Yeah.

- And even if the temperature of the earth increases one degree C in the next 50 years, the next 20 years, farmers are gonna figure out a way in particular with the amount of capital that's going into the space right now through AG tech.

And to think that the solution is industrial farming, and, you know, bringing everything indoors once again, it's not gonna work.

The solution is free sun.

- Yeah.

- More class, one soil than anywhere in the world.

Best micro climates, smartest farmers in the world.

It's the a 100-Mile Circle.

So, this area really needs to be reinvigorated.

And I do believe that the byproduct of COVID, and the unfortunate war with Russian Ukraine, is that people are starting to recognize that, we need to have a food supply within this country, that is trustworthy.

And we can count on in good times and bad because there in periods of prosperity, people forget the fact that this treasure is here.

- Yeah.

- And now that we face challenging times, a lot of people are questioning where can we get our food?

And what can we do to lower food costs?

And it's right in our backyard, it's right in the central valley of California.

(soft music) - Well, with Sigma and all these other regulations and inflation, and now price of volatility when it comes to crops, it's the next 20 years is gonna be a big turning point.

I mean, I believe that over the next 20 years, we're gonna continue to see the trend of family farm shrinking.

This is the number of 'em.

Have we been seeing the last 20, 30 years, and is gonna be maybe mostly be, all these investments firms coming in, insurance groups coming in, endowment funds, and they're gonna be buying up more and more acreage.

And you'll be left with some big, either managing companies or family farm managing companies who will be controlling all these farms.

And you'll be more of commercial type of farming, compared to how it used to be the family farm, where you can go down the street and then you keep running to farmer John over here, and farmer Joe over there, that's gonna be sadly a thing of the past.

(soft music) Well, the thing is, when these guys make decisions on crops, they make 'em all on a spreadsheet.

They don't really think of the long term in five, 10 years.

So for some farmers, yeah.

They know that, hey, for the next two, three years, we might be taking a loss on this certain crop, but you know, they understand that they need to continue to grow it, 'cause for multiple reasons.

But if you have all these east coast people making decision is they're gonna be like, well, hey almonds, look good.

Let's go all in almonds, or let's go all in statues or vice versa.

They might be going, hey, almonds look bad right now.

We think it might be bad for next few years.

Let's turn 'em all out vice versa.

So, that's what it's gonna be.

It's a lot more reactionary and short term thinking compared to how farmers always been long term.

And they understand that, hey, with the farm comes ups and downs and the volatility, but you gotta stay through it and take the punches, to survive through it.

(soft music) - If global warming is manmade, and it appears that it is, then the right thing that we should do as a society is control the production, because we have the most efficient production here.

We have the best technology, and we have the lowest carbon footprint, as opposed to outsourcing it to another country where they don't have the same regulation.

So, we should, for the benefit of our own food supply and for controlling global warming, have it in the central valley, provide the water that's needed, and actually work with environmentalists to make sure that what we're doing, is the most efficient, lowest carbon emission farming in the world.

And we're already headed there.

And if you look at farming production and standards in other countries, it's not.

And on top of that, if you look at some of the fruit that we import, the latest FDA study, shows that when they do their random study, that imports tested nine times higher for pesticide and domestically produced fruit.

So, not only is it produced less efficiency efficiently, they don't have the same standards.

They don't have the same regulation, and the stuff that we're eating , already has more poison on it.

- Yeah.

I've often said to myself, frustration that virtue signaling is not a public policy that we should enforce.

(man chuckles) But what I mean by that, is the general public likes to see, I want this, you guys need to do XY and Z, because it's good for the environment.

It's good.

But the thing is when a good part of the population, when they go into the grocery store, when they see my grow cantaloupes or honeydrews, when they see this fruit there's no story there, they don't see it.

They're looking price.

- Yeah.

- And at that time, all that stuff goes out the window about who wrote it, and how it was grown in a lot of cases.

And this is the story I wanna ask my California citizens and the rest of the country.

You want these things, then it's not virtue signaling then to get it done.

It's action that will get it done.

And that means understanding that homegrown food can accomplish the goals that you desire.

- Yeah.

- For your climate.

Offshoring it and pretending that I'm gonna buy this and this and that.

And you want us to be involved in it in changing, then you gotta be in engaged with it as well.

Or it can't work because the grocery change and stuff like that, for now, they pick up the phone say, hey, what is a box of California canes cost?

What the box of canes cost somewhere else in the world.

And for them it's by low sell high.

- Yeah.

- Because, right.

- Yeah.

- And that's and so if they can get it for cheaper in stock, that's we lose shelf space.

- Yeah.

- But that's a conversation that I want people to examine.

We can accomplish these things.

- Yeah.

But there needs to be a discussion there about what that really means.

It's not just words.

(soft music) - Farming is in our blood.

It goes back probably four or five generations.

I had my father's side of the family came here from Tennessee in the 1930s.

And my grandpa started in the grain business in Eastern Madera county.

My mom's side of the family, where we're here at today from Kerman area in Dinuba area.

And my grandparents moved to Madera in the mid fifties.

And that's how we ended up in Madera.

And I'm the third generation to farm this ranch with my son Mason, out here being the fourth.

And so I just kind of, I've been around almonds my whole life.

We've been in the almond industry since well, before I was born.

And so it's really the only thing I've ever grown.

We've had some grapes for a while, but almonds are kind of in our blood.

It's we've been doing it since the sixties.

(soft music) California political landscape has changed dramatically in the last 30 years.

I've told my son here recently.

I said, you know, when I was his age, the big players in agriculture, the big boys out on the west side, the Harrises, and the wolfs, and the giffens, you know, all the politicians knew him and respected him.

And it was a two-way street.

And now I feel like even the biggest of farmers, can't pick up the phone and call Sacramento, or call Washington.

But, you know, 30 years ago there was that connection because, they cared about California agriculture and things have shifted with the technology.

Money that's come into the bay area.

And, you know, we kind of feel like we're just in no man's land out here.

And it shows with our water policies that we get, not only from the state and the feds, but you know, I feel like we're getting it from every direction.

And that farming is this entity, that's doing more harm than good.

When in fact, the economy in California, everything it is based around agriculture, or it was, and it is shifting a little bit,, the tax money that flows through agriculture to this state and to the nation is unbelievable.

And when you take that away, then they're gonna really realize what California agriculture provides.

(soft music) - Oftentimes, you know, when I pick up a newspaper and I'm reading about, you know, and it's coming from, you know, someone that's far removed from where we are, and they write an article of about our water use or what we're doing and the San Joaquin Valley doesn't, you know, they just get the feeling that they're sentiment, that we're only 2% of the economy as they claim in California.

So, if we were to see it disappear, it would probably have a meaningless effect them, on our average, on our life.

That's kind of what they implied when they write these stories.

And so, but it's really weird to hear that.

And then you go home and you turn on the discovery channel, and you're talking about, you know, what happened if we polluted our planet so badly, we'd have to go find another home for it.

And NASA finds a sister planet like ours, and they find a small sliver land mass that could feed, you know, the come populations for centuries.

- Yeah - Would they make, what would they do with that resource?

Would they say, nah?

let's, let's not utilize it.

That's kind of like the sentiment.

It's like, duh, a moment.

Like we have this resource, and why can't the most wealthy nation on the planet, with the smartest farmers, and the smartest businesses out there.

- Yeah.

- Show the planet how you do both.

- Yeah.

That's right.

- How do you do both?

- Yeah.

- Grow food, environmentally sound, and show the world how we can do it.

And that's where the coming together to be.

- Yeah.

I agree.

And If you look at the process going on on right now, there's political challenges being placed on the central valley for food production, you know, the cost of regulation, the mandated cost of labor, the shutting off of water, not building enough water storage.

And the general belief is that, this production will be picked up elsewhere, either controlled environment, AG or another country, and using your spaceship analogy.

If you look at Elon Masters, right.

He launches rockets and it goes up, comes down, blows up, and through trial and error, he figures it out.

We don't have the luxury of trial and error here, because if this area is shut down and turned into a dust bowl, and the infrastructure goes away, and the talent goes away, at the point in time when we're gonna need it, the most next pandemic, next major war, turning that back on is not like turning an oil well on, - Yeah.

- It'll take a decade of getting the right people, getting right infrastructure and place.

So, we could produce our food here.

- Yeah.

- We don't have the luxury of trial and error.

We need to get it right now.

- Well, I sure hope that people who have watched this, share this and understand that, you know, someone like me, if I fail at this venture of farming, I'll still survive.

I'll still make my way back, And it's not about me.

It's about the common sense thing about having stability in your country and having the opportunity, you know, food people don't realize when food prices are cheap and abundant, then the explosion of creativity and everything, that makes our country great, its their right.

- Yeah.

- And it's just been self-evident in any country.

That's had problems with food.

- Yeah.

- And the high price, you know, they're not the ones sending people to Mars.

- Yeah, that's true.

- But trying to, right.

- Yeah.

(man chuckles) - I mean, they're not the ones that, you know, making these fantastic Tesla automobiles, either.

They're not coming from those places.

- Yeah.

And you look at the people who are making these decisions, they are wealthy individuals.

You think about the people that are contributing to their campaigns.

They are wealthy people, but you look who's suffering the most right now , is the people living paycheck to paycheck.

- Yeah.

- So food escalation prices, energy prices.

- Yes.

- And the people that are suffering the most don't have a voice.

And the solution is we're gonna send AG production to another country.

(soft music) - If I'm in a hole, and I can't get out, what do I do?

First thing I do is I quit digging.

And that's, I think how well this describes that.

(soft music) - One of the United States' biggest strength is the ability to feed itself.

Not many other countries in the entire world at our scale, economically can say the same thing, especially with COVID really showing how fragile supply chains are.

I mean, people were upset so much just over, not getting their Pelotons on time.

Just imagine if you had to go to your grocery store, and you couldn't get a bread or milk.

And luckily for us in United States, and more specifically, California, we grow almost everything right here.

- You know, if they want to be informed, there's plenty of resources here in valley and agriculture, you know, call somebody, call a Farm Bureau up, or call an AG Advocate Group.

And farmers are more than happy to give tours to people and show 'em what we do.

We're not trying to hide anything out here.

We're steward of this land and it's our land.

And we want to do what's best for it.

And, you know, we see that you read something and you just assume it's true, without doing any research on it.

And we're all guilty of it, but it seems like it spreads like wildfire in the big cities, that once they hear something negative, it just, you know, that becomes gospel and they believe it's the truth.

(soft music) - All right, man.

Safe travel.

- Yeah.

- Back home and great to meet you.

- Yeah.

Likewise.

- All right.

(door slams) (soft music) - Production funding for American grown.

My job depends on AG provided by James G Parker, insurance associates, ensuring and protecting Agri business for over 40 years.

(soft music) By Gar Bennett, the central Valley's growing experts, more yields, less water, proven results.

We help growers feed the world, by Brand Professional Agriculture, proudly discovering manufacturing and supplying the AG inputs that support the heroes, who work hard to feed a hungry world every day.

By Unwired Broadband, Today's internet for rural central California, keeping valley agriculture connected since 2003, By Hodges Electric, proudly serving the central valley since 1979, ( airplane engine revs) By Picket Solar, helping farmers and ranchers save money, by becoming energy independent, and by valley air conditioning and repair, family owned for over 50 years, proudly featuring Coleman products dedicated to supporting agriculture and the families that grow food for a nation.

(soft music)