California politicians love the word “affordability.” They put it in speeches. They put it in press releases. Then they pass a bill that makes it more expensive to grow food in California.

AB 2646 is the latest example.

The bill sets a $19.75 wage floor for temporary farmworkers brought in on federal permits — and for the California residents doing the same jobs — starting Jan. 1, 2027. Farm groups say that means H-2A workers, the seasonal labor force many growers depend on. It cleared the Legislature and now sits on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. He has until Sept. 30 to sign. He should veto it.

Razor-thin margins

California farms aren’t corporate giants swimming in margin. Most are small, family-owned operations already on a razor-thin edge. And they don’t operate in a free market. The Nisei Farmers League counts more than 60 federal, state, regional and local agencies regulating California agriculture. In the San Joaquin Valley, farmers must comply with over 90% of the roughly 670 rules the local air district enforces — some daily, some weekly. That’s just one agency.

H-2A already stacks costs on the wage. Under U.S. Department of Labor rules, employers must provide free housing, cover transportation to and from the job site, and furnish either three meals a day or free cooking facilities. AB 2646 raises the floor on top of all of it.

The result isn’t hard to predict. John Kabateck, California state director for the National Federation of Independent Business, put it plainly: farmers can’t simply absorb every new mandate coming out of Sacramento. Eventually somebody pays — and too often, it’s the Californian standing in the grocery checkout line.

And farm operations are disappearing. California had 63,134 in 2022, down from 77,857 in 2012 — nearly one in five gone in a decade. As the Nisei Farmers League puts it, farmers are price takers, not price makers. When the state adds a cost, the farm eats it — until it can’t. Then somebody pays, usually the Californian in the grocery checkout line.

Voters already had their say. In 2024, for the first time in state history, they rejected a minimum-wage increase at the ballot box. The message was clear: stop driving up the cost of living and calling it help.

So how did Valley lawmakers vote?

Voting yes were Assemblymembers Joaquin Arambula (D-Fresno) and Esmeralda Soria (D-Fresno), and Sens. Anna Caballero (D-Merced) and Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger).

Voting no: Assemblymember David Tangipa (R-Clovis) and Sen. Shannon Grove (R-Bakersfield). Assemblymember Alexandra Macedo (R-Visalia) did not vote.

Fresno. Merced. Sanger. Farm districts. The lawmakers closest to the fields and the families who feed the state voted to raise the cost of growing food.

Newsom has a choice. Sign one more cost onto farmers and shoppers, or veto AB 2646 and show that affordability means something.

Saying the word “affordability” over and over again doesn’t lower a grocery bill. A veto in this case might.