Bold economic leadership needed to save iconic – Latest News
California’s wine industry is in bother — and it’s not alone.
Several industries which are on the core of California’s financial system — and our identification — are confronting the best challenges they’ve ever confronted.
The wine industry is being squeezed from each side.
Jim Lincoln, Senior Vineyard and Environmental Sustainability Manager at Beckstoffer Vineyards. Brennan Smart for CA Post
On the demand aspect, younger shoppers are growing much less eager about wine. Some are eager about different drinks, or in legal marijuana. Others, particularly within the age of weight-loss medication, have misplaced curiosity in alcohol altogether.
On the provision aspect, a collection of extreme droughts up to now decade led to over-pumping of the underground aquifer, which prompted the state to intervene and charge farmers for what had as soon as been a common useful resource.
Now, vineyards have to pay virtually $99 per acre to irrigate their lands — including prices to every barrel of wine.
Ironically, the final a number of winters have been very moist — that means that there’s heaps of fruit on the vine. Much of it’s being left to rot.
Board and Barrel co-owner Nathan Mikoleit reveals a bottle of the Hess Collection Allomi cabernet sauvignon from Napa Valley. USA TODAY Network by way of Reuters Connect
The Trump administration’s crackdown on the border additionally created an acute labor downside for California agriculture.
The Trump administration addressed the issue by altering the wage guidelines for farmworkers. But that effort has simply been blocked by a federal choose in Fresno.
The complications are infinite.
And the wine industry isn’t alone. Other iconic California industries are additionally in bother.
Beckstoffer Vineyards are pictured on Thursday, June 25, 2026, in Napa Valley, California. Brennan Smart for CA Post
Hollywood is reeling from tens of hundreds of jobs losses — with no finish in sight.
The leisure industry is struggling underneath the burden of labor strikes, regulatory prices and competitors from tax incentives in different states.
And that’s earlier than you contemplate the challenges posed by AI-generated content material, and the motion towards social media as a kind of leisure, over conventional movie and tv.
President Donald Trump is attempting his best to help, even if Hollywood has usually been merciless to him.
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On Monday, he introduced a renewed push for federal tax credit for American movies.
If Congress follows via, that would make a distinction.
But California wants its own economic leadership, not simply federal help.
That doesn’t imply protectionism, or spending more money on subsidies to favored industries.
It means chopping the taxes and rules that have an effect on all industries.
It means investing in vitality and infrastructure that may help decrease prices and ease operations for your entire state.
It means boosting law enforcement to make our cities safer for retail companies, for instance, and to defend our rail traces from cargo theft.
It isn’t enough to level to the large earnings which have began to roll into AI — when even the tech sector is dropping jobs.
We need daring economic leadership that may break with the established order.
Because the established order isn’t working.
