Food And Farm News
May 6, 2026
Groundwater law begins reshaping valley
San Joaquin Valley farmers are increasingly fallowing land as California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act curtails pumping. Under SGMA, which is implemented by local agencies, groundwater basins have until 2040 or 2042 to achieve sustainability. But since 2020 or 2022, depending on local conditions, groundwater agencies have been required to prevent “undesirable results” such as land subsidence and household wells running dry. Groundwater agencies covering much of the San Joaquin Valley adopted pumping limits, or allocations, within the past few years as the state began cracking down on subbasins with inadequate plans. “We are truly in the difficult part of SGMA,” said Stacie Ann Silva, principal at Altum Aqua Logic, a Fresno-based water consulting firm that monitors more than 90 groundwater agencies across the state. “As allocations continue to ramp down, landowners are going to have to make harder decisions.”
Warm, dry start of spring sparks fire season concerns
Experts have cautioned that California could experience elevated wildfire risks this year. The warnings come after an unusually warm and dry start of spring throughout California, driven by a stubborn high-pressure ridge off the coast, which is likely to remain the dominant weather feature through at least June, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. Record heat in many areas in mid-March melted most of the snowpack and led to increased dead fuel flammability as the month progressed, the center observed. The daily fire ignition average in Northern California in March was nearly double the average for the month since 2008. “I would say within fire circles, we’re all bracing for a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network. Even though there has been spring rain, Quinn-Davidson said the absence of a snowpack means the fire season will start much earlier because “rain doesn’t do as much to slow fire season as a snowpack would.”
Drought, water restrictions drive innovation in tech
Projects to find new uses for wastewater are becoming more common in California, especially as California farmers grapple with drought and tightening water use restrictions tied to the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Farmers’ increasingly urgent need to reduce water use has attracted new business ventures and more creative solutions for recycling wastewater. “You always see companies and entrepreneurs and innovators kind of show up where there’s opportunity,” said Ben Montpetit, who chairs the viticulture and enology department at the University of California, Davis. To process wastewater from the university’s research winery, UC Davis started using a technology from Napa-based Revida Water, which ushers the wastewater through a series of steps, including filtration and introducing specific microbes. The company’s technology can even take wastewater from dairies and make it safe for humans to drink, although owner Ashish Shah said the treated wastewater is used mostly for irrigation.
Hot temps, new varieties boost strawberry volumes
The introduction of new commercial strawberry varieties has raised expectations for an industry turnaround after years of declining production. Heading into 2026, the California Strawberry Commission projected earlier spring production and marketable fruit volume in April, citing the availability of new commercially available varieties of strawberries from the University of California and private companies. “It’s been all about unseasonably warm temperatures early on. It bumped the season up by two or three weeks,” said Mark Bolda, University of California Cooperative Extension strawberry adviser. Watsonville-Salinas growers harvested 10 times more strawberries by April 4 than the same period two years ago, according to industry figures. California grows 90% of the nation’s strawberries, with 43,726 total acres this year, the commission projected.
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