"It is a very tense time in agriculture": Potential railroad strike concerns California farmers
SACRAMENTO — As rail unions and railway corporations remain apart on a new deal for workers, the fate of the national supply chain hangs in the balance — and it's drawing concern among California's farmers just after a harvest and ahead of supply runs.
This all means one thing: trouble on the rails.
After one of the 10 railway unions rejected a new deal, a full strike is looming. A strike could begin on December 9 and the California Farm Bureau (CFB) is worried.
"It is a very tense time in agriculture, I think, across the country, particularly in California," said CFB President Jamie Johansson. "California is heavily dependent on shipments of feed from the Midwest. We do not produce all the feed that we need. Everyone is touched by rail. Forty percent of everything moved in the United States is done so by rail."
From large farms to smaller producers like those in the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), everyone is affected.
"Anything that's going to drive up the cost of products and equipment is going to be taken on by the farmer," said CAFF spokesman Evan Wiig.
Disruption of those inputs could create chaos for farmers and the economy.
"I don't think, right now, our economy can take it," Johansson explained. "It's about a $2 billion loss a day. If we cannot get those in a timely fashion, we cannot meet the windows of fertilizing our crops. It could be a lost season."
That has led to thoughts of more self-sustainability which could also be hampered by a loss of supplies to necessitate change.
"As we see supply chain disruptions, there's really a call for re-evaluating how our food systems operate," Wiig added.
"Those people trying to be early adopters and adjust to a changing supply chain are going to be caught right in the middle of it," Johansson concluded.
As the California Farm Bureau works with other states in the hope Congress intervenes. The last time there was a national railroad strike was in 1992. Congressional intervention ended the strike after just two days. The California Farmers Bureau tell CBS13 their conversations with railroad union reps leads them to believe there won't be a strike. But the worry and the havoc it could cause to the agriculture sector here in California is a very immediate issue.
