Source: KION NEWS Channel 46
SOLEDAD, Calif. (KION-TV) -- U.S. Senator Adam Schiff and State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas visited the Central Coast today in support of California's agriculture industry.
This, while a lot of people feel that local agriculture is being threatened by policy coming out of the White House.
Senator Adam Schiff is the first representative from California to serve on the Senate Agriculture Committee in decades, trying to ensure issues specific to California farmers are being considered on Capitol Hill.
"Number one on the committee is making sure that the agricultural laws are good for farmers throughout the country," said Schiff. "Not just in the Midwest, but here in California, where we have unique kinds of farming."
Both Schiff and State Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas are calling out the Trump Administration for reckless policy that has ripple effects throughout the crop fields of Soledad.
"The unpredictability with the president's tariff policies; they undermine and undercut our agricultural industry here in the state," said Rivas, who represents the Salinas Valley. "It's creating chaos within the markets and then when you talk about what we're seeing when it comes to these indiscriminate ICE raids... ICE raids to immigration, it's causing fear."
Immigration enforcement starting to threaten the workforce of Californian agriculture. Senator Schiff saying that he hopes to just bring awareness to the situation.
"The American people are watching. They're not liking what they see, and you've already heard the administration sort of begin to change course vis-a-vis at least farm labor," said Schiff. "[It's] not consistently, but I think administration is getting the message."
Senator Schiff referencing the Trump Administration's original campaign to lower costs amid the U.S. Department of Agriculture facing $7 billion in funding cuts.
Schiff adding a sense of urgency to the department to avoid shuttering nine USDA field offices in California.
"For a president who ran on a platform of lowering costs, to the degree that you are making it hard for farms to find labor, you're going to drive up the price of food, not bring it down," he said.
Braga Ranch, locally, grows broccoli, celery and leafy greens. They say that they want fewer regulations that slow progress down and drive up costs.
"I also like to go talk to staff and regulators, whether it be in Sacramento or Washington DC and you can try to explain what we're doing here," said Colby Pereira, the COO of Braga Fresh. "Until you come and see it in person -- you touch the soil, you look at the plants, you talk with members of the team that are responsible for the day to day of the operation -- that's when you really have the most impact."