GUEST VIEW Walnuts and ‘tariff terrorism’

Even though we live in agriculturally focused counties, most of us are not aware of the basic economic and sometimes political details involved in the creation of our agricultural products.

Many of us are starting to notice the removal of still viable walnut and almond orchards but don’t know why this is happening. The answer is both expected in a capitalistic system and potentially financially devastating for those involved in nut production in California.

To illustrate: For the past three years the return on a pound of in-shell walnuts has been close to or below the grower’s cost of producing that pound. It is estimated the cost of producing last year’s crop cost a grower between 60-80 cents per pound – the lower number if the grower had no land payments. The money earned on each pound for 2022 is expected to be 30-40 cents depending on the quality/color of the walnut meats. Sales of the 2022 crop may extend to August of this year or even later.

A grower in one of the walnut-growing counties who has over 1,000 acres of mature walnuts is an excellent example of what has happened to many walnut growers throughout the state – and there are 4,700 growers. This grower produced 5 million pounds of nuts in 2022. The cost of production, let’s say, was 70 cents or

$3.5 million. Just hulling and drying for example would be about 7 cents a pound or $350,000. The return on the 5 million pounds at 45 cents would be $2.25 million: a loss of $1.25 million. And this is the grower’s third year of varying losses.

So, what’s a grower to do? Sustain the losses and pray 2023 will see a jump in prices? Play it safe and reduce irrigating, spraying, fertilizing, and skip harvesting? Sell off large blocks of their holdings? Renegotiate their mortgage at a lower rate, if that’s possible, but with many additional years? Or bulldoze out weaker blocks of trees and leave the land fallow until better times?

Already growers have seen their personal and family wealth decline precipitously and can’t help but be fearful of what their financial status will be in the next few years after a lifetime of work and worries.

How could such a dismal series of events occur in one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions?

In any capitalistic system, the marketplace (the “invisible hands” of the buyers) determines supply and demand, prices, quality, the number of producers, the styles, profits and losses, the winners, the losers. So it is with both almond and walnut growers. Even weather, inflation and geopolitical events can have a bearing on costs and returns.

In 2019, almond production in

California represented 82% of the world’s supply and was California’s leading agricultural export at $7.4 billion. About 1.6 million acres are presently in almonds (445,000 in walnut acreage) and produces about 3 billion pounds a year. Walnuts are the state’s fifth largest export.

One can argue that over-planting leading to overproduction leading to a supplydemand price-per-pound problem should have been obvious and expected by all growers. But California ag growers fought through the 2008 financial crisis, the 2000 stock market crash, the 1970s runaway inflation problem, multiple years of below average rainfall, our recent COVID pandemic and shipping issues, all of which hurt but were not calamitous as this crisis is becoming.

of critical race theory, according to a tracking project by the University of California at Los Angeles Law School.

Also, notably,

“Black history” and “LGBTQ history” are American history. These communities have played vital roles in our country, as have many cultures, nationalities and religions. Learning about LGBTQ issues will not turn a child

gay. Rather, it may provide students with a sense of empathy, and that never is a bad thing. The same goes for learning about Black history.

It’s ironic that one of the arguments Desantis is making in favor of limiting what can be taught in schools is that these actions are in the interest of academic freedom — when the exact opposite appears to be true. It reminds me of another Orwell quote,

from his novel “Animal Farm”: “If liberty means anything at all it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

The government should not control what is taught. That should remain the territory of academics who have their students’ best interests in mind, not outsiders who may want to downplay or deny things under the guise of keeping students comfortable.

No one should control

or own the narrative of history, especially politicians. Many points of view should be presented, and students should be trusted to glean from them what they may.

Jeffery Leving is founder and president of the Law Offices of Jeffery M. Leving and is an advocate for the rights of fathers. He is the author of “Fathers’ Rights,” “Divorce Wars” and “How to be a Good Divorced Dad.”