Napa, CA – The Napa County Farm Bureau announced today their opposition to the Napa County Cannabis Regulation Initiative, slated to appear on the March 2020 primary ballot. Earlier this week, the Board of Supervisors voted to place the initiative on the ballot rather than adopt it as an ordinance. This decision came after a review of a comprehensive analysis (9111 Report) on the ballot initiative. The Farm Bureau will immediately launch an opposition campaign to defeat the initiative in the March election.
The campaign’s formation will lay the groundwork to form a campaign committee and begin fundraising efforts, key early steps that will be necessary to defeat the initiative, noted Ryan Klobas, CEO of the Napa County Farm Bureau. “We look forward to informing voters about the ramifications of this initiative should it be enacted and the irreversible changes it could bring to our county. The Napa County Farm Bureau will focus on building a broad base coalition in the coming week to fight an initiative that will no doubt have adverse negative impacts to Napa Valley,” Klobas added.
“As the political leader for agriculture, the Napa County Farm Bureau will vigorously work to protect agriculture from bad policy. This is an initiative that will negatively impact our membership, and the crops they grow. To protect the interests of agriculture, our board has voted to dedicate our political resources towards defeating this initiative in March,” said Johnnie White, President of the Napa County Farm Bureau.
The initiative would allow cannabis cultivation on up to 1-acre of land on a minimum 10-acre parcel within the Agricultural Preserve (AP) and Agricultural Watershed (AW) zoning districts, which encompasses most of the unincorporated land in the county. Both indoor and outdoor grows would be authorized without public review should the initiative be enacted by voters in the March 2020 election.
