SACRAMENTO — As railroad unions and railroad companies remain split on a new deal for workers, the fate of the national supply chain hangs in the balance — and it’s raising concern for California farmers just after a harvest and before supply cycles.
All of this means one thing: trouble on the rails.
After one of the 10 railway unions rejects a new deal, a general strike looms. A strike could start on December 9 and the California Farm Bureau (CFB) is worried.
“It’s a very tense time in agriculture, I think, across the country, especially in California,” BFC President Jamie Johansson said. “California is heavily dependent on animal feed shipments from the Midwest. We don’t produce all the feed we need. made by rail.”
From large farms to small producers like those of the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), everyone is affected.
“Anything that will drive up the cost of produce and equipment is going to be borne by the farmer,” CAFF spokesman Evan Wiig said.
Disrupting these inputs could create chaos for farmers and the economy.
“I don’t think, right now, our economy can handle it,” Johansson explained. “That’s a loss of about $2 billion a day. If we can’t get them in a timely manner, we can’t meet our crop fertilization windows. It could be a wasted season.”
This has led to thoughts of greater autonomy which could also be hampered by a loss of supply to require a change.
“As we see supply chain disruptions, there really is a call to reassess how our food systems are working,” Wiig added.
“These people who are trying to be early adopters and adapt to a changing supply chain are going to be caught right in the middle of it,” Johansson concluded.
While the California Farm Bureau is working with other states in the hope that Congress will intervene. The last time there was a nationwide railroad strike was in 1992. Congressional intervention ended the strike after just two days. The California Farmers Bureau told CBS13 that their conversations with railroad union representatives lead them to believe there will be no strike. But the concern and devastation this could cause to the agricultural sector here in California is a very immediate problem.