Western Growers group targets crop-sustainability provision in House bill

In response to water legislation introduced last month by U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), the Western Growers (WG) group sent a letter to the congressman this week, objecting to a crop-sustainability provision in the legislation that it says would set a dangerous precedent for the agriculture industry.

WG said the provision calls for measuring the sustainability of crops in the absence of  irrigation water, which the group said is a bad idea.

As proposed, the bill requires the federal government to determine whether “water intensive, permanent crops” have been planted from federally developed water supplies and would require that a report be sent to Congress about the details of those plantings.

This concerns Western Growers because the group said it could be used to mandate which crops that farmers are allowed to grow.