Food And Farm News
September 16, 2026
Vineyard workers feel wine industry pain
California farmworkers suffered a wave of job losses during the past few years as work in the state's winegrape vineyards dried up amid a yearslong market slump. Since 2023, declining wine consumption left growers with an oversupply of grapes, forcing many to sell their fruit at a loss or watch it rot on the vines. To limit their losses, growers cut back on labor and other costs, and vineyard owners removed an estimated one-quarter of the state's winegrape acreage. As a result, the iconic sector likely shed at least several thousand vineyard jobs, industry leaders estimated, with some workers getting laid off and others losing hours. "It's pretty ugly," said Guadalupe Gonzalez, a Napa Valley vineyard crew supervisor who has worked in the region's vineyards for more than a decade. Gonzalez said she used to work seven days a week during harvest, earning enough to save up for the offseason. But last year, she said, work slowed as grapes went unpicked and more wineries opted to harvest with machines. This year, "It's a thousand times worse," she said.
El Niño increases chances of winter storms and floods
California's water year will be shaped by the arrival of El Niño, a climate pattern that raises the likelihood of intense precipitation and flooding in the coming months. Experts call the upcoming system a super El Niño. A National Weather Service report in August said there's a 69% chance its strength would exceed that of previous El Niño events dating back to 1950. Farmers said they were wary of extreme weather similar to atmospheric river storms that flooded many California farms in 2023. Monterey County farmer Jynel Gularte said those storms submerged 200 acres of her farm, broke her levee in multiple places and destroyed a house, causing financial damage that has been difficult to recover from. Gularte said she wants the state to make changes that would better prepare people for future floods. "I don't like hearing that it's going to be a super El Niño because there's no way we can have another flood like 2023," she said. "That would be absolutely tragic."
Owl study assesses rat management in nut orchards
For more than a decade, university wildlife researchers have studied how installing barn owl nesting boxes and accompanying owl predation help manage small rodents in vineyards. Now they hope to take a similar approach during a three-year study that examines the effects of barn owl predation alone or combined with trapping to potentially manage roof rats in nut orchards. "We've documented that barn owls do indeed reduce the number of voles, gophers and mice, and we've learned a lot in the vineyard systems," said Matthew Johnson, a Cal Poly, Humboldt, wildlife professor who led much of the research. "Now we're really excited to try some similar approaches in orchards." Although many growers have erected owl boxes to control small rodents in vineyards, he said little scientific data existed until recently about barn owl predation and how cultural practices influenced it. There's been even less research into the feathered predator's impacts on orchard rodents.
Irrigation can't shield tomatoes from extreme heat
California processing tomato growers could face significant losses from rising temperatures, even with irrigation, as extreme heat reduces crop yields and tomato quality, according to a new University of California study. "We find that extreme temperatures cause both lower yields and lower product quality, causing lower grower revenue as a result," researchers Sarah Whitnall and Timothy Beatty wrote. Their findings challenge the assumption that irrigation can largely protect tomatoes from extreme heat. "There is a long-held belief that irrigation mitigates the negative effects of extreme heat on agricultural crops," the researchers wrote. But their analysis found that "extreme heat conditions affect processing-tomato plants despite growers' use of irrigation." Whitnall and Beatty called for additional investment in research and development of heat-tolerant tomato varieties and related technologies while noting that growers can pursue other adaptation measures in the near term.
For more information about any story in Food and Farm News, contact the California Farm Bureau Marketing/Communications Division at 916-561-5550 or email news@cfbf.com. Connect with us on Facebook, X, or Instagram: @CAFarmBureau.
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