California Lawmakers:
Don't Make Fresh
Food More Expensive.
REJECT AB 2646.
California families are already struggling with high grocery bills. AB 2646 would increase the cost of growing fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts in California by hundreds of millions of dollars every year.
Those costs would increase food prices, make it harder for California farms to compete and threaten the family farms and farmworker jobs that sustain our state’s food supply.
At a time when affordability is one of California’s greatest challenges, the last thing lawmakers should do is make fresh, healthy food more expensive for families.
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Increase the cost of growing food by hundreds of millions every year
AB 2646 would increase farm labor costs by nearly 14%, adding hundreds of millions of dollars annually to the cost of producing food in California. Farmers cannot absorb costs of this magnitude indefinitely, meaning these costs will be passed on to consumers through higher prices at grocery stores, restaurants and other places Californians buy food.
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Make California-grown produce less competitive.
California is the nation’s leading producer of many fresh fruits, vegetables and nuts. By making it significantly more expensive to grow food here, AB 2646 could force farmers to reduce acreage, move production elsewhere or leave California increasingly dependent on imported food.
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Put California’s family farms at risk.
Nearly 98% of California farms are family-owned operations, operating on razor-thin margins. Adding hundreds of millions of dollars in annual costs would force family farms to cut back, sell their land or shut down altogether—putting generations of California farming at risk and making it harder to keep affordable, California-grown food on our tables.
