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Horizons, California Agriculture Leadership Foundation

As California agriculture faces serious challenges, including a government-induced drought, it’s more important than ever for us to train knowledgeable, proactive leaders who can help improve conditions for California farmers and agriculture workers.

Today, it’s crucial for California to cultivate leaders with an understanding of international trade. Between 2000 and 2010, the value of California agricultural exports more than doubled from $6.5 billion to $14.7 billion, rising in nine of those 10 years. Trade with the billion-plus people who comprise the China market is a particularly fast-growing trend with big possibilities for future growth. 

Furthermore, major new free-trade agreements (FTAs) may be negotiated in the near future, potentially boosting demand for U.S. agricultural products even further. There is a rising movement on both sides of the Atlantic for an FTA between Europe, which is the second biggest consumer of California agricultural exports, and the United States. In the Pacific, the Trans-Pacific Partnership initiative could result in the formation of a huge free-trade bloc offering vast new opportunities for California food growers.

Our state needs leaders who can help expand our trading ties with foreign countries. Naturally, developing a well-rounded knowledge of agriculture and agricultural policy is crucial, as is a solid grounding in economics, business, and tariff mechanisms. Proficiency in the languages of our key trading partners – Mandarin, Spanish, Japanese, German, Portuguese and Korean – will be increasingly useful.     

Aside from these specific areas of knowledge, general leadership skills will always be valuable. The Ag Leadership Program, which I once participated in, is a great place to develop these skills. Negotiating skills, which are sometimes easier to learn through practice than in a classroom setting, will also be helpful to anyone hoping to influence agriculture policy.

Although it would seem to go without saying that communication is important, I’ve found it to be one of the most underrated leadership skills. I constantly solicit input from my constituents and look for new ways to keep them informed about my activities. I maintain a website at nunes.house.gov, where people can sign up for my email list, send me emails, download my free cell phone app, or browse the in-depth feature articles collected in the Nunes Digest. I am developing a new text messaging service as well. 

Policies adopted both in Washington and in Sacramento are not always helpful to the agriculture sector. Sometimes, harmful policies stem from simple ignorance among policy-makers of the basic demands and needs of agriculture. In the future, the more leaders we have who understand agricultural issues and can explain the benefits of free and fair trade, the more we can expect to see pro-growth policies that will benefit agricultural workers, consumers, and the country overall. 

About Devin Nunes

Devin has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2003. He currently represents California's 22nd congressional district, which is located in the San Joaquin Valley and includes portions of Tulare and Fresno counties. Devin is a member of the Committee on Ways and Means and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. At the beginning of the 113th Congress, he was selected to serve as chair of the Trade Subcommittee of Ways and Means. Devin was born and raised in Tulare and his family has operated a farm in Tulare County for three generations. He graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business and a master’s degree in agriculture.