How LA fires impact farmers and agriculture industry

While raging flames, persistent smoke and damaging winds continue to plague residents in Los Angeles County, farmers across Southern California are also facing the possibility of devastating damage to their crops.

Julia Zorthian and her family have lived and worked at Zorthian Ranch in Altadena, California, since her grandfather purchased the property in the 1940s. The land has hosted summer camps, taught people how to milk goats and grew citrus and nut trees. But after the Eaton Fire devastated their community, 39 of the farm's 40 acres have been destroyed -- leaving the family without a livelihood or a place to call home.

“It’s so much crazier than anyone could have ever imagined the fire could be," Zorthian told ABC News. "The places we thought would be safe spaces to keep things that probably wouldn’t get damaged ended up incinerating.”

Alba Velasquez, the executive director of the Los Angeles Food Policy Council, told ABC News that farmers face two hurdles, namely economic and air quality challenges.

“Our farmers are our backbone of our local food system, and these fires remind us how fragile that system can be,” Velasquez said.

Currently, Velsquez said there are about 24 farms that are affected by the Eaton Fire, with numbers increasing every day. Velasquez said that could include issues with air quality, flames, smoke or just economic impacts.

For families like Zorthian's, the only option is to start over.

“We will rebuild, but it will never be what it was," Zorthian said. "That was about 80 years of work and artistry.”

Peter Ansel, director of policy advocacy at the California Farmers Bureau, told ABC News that the smoke poses a particular threat, including “to people, animals on ranches or on the end-products themselves.” In 2020, smoke from nearby wildfires ruined crops at vineyards in Wine Country.

Others who are not facing the smoke or flames are still struggling to sell their goods, since many farmers markets in Los Angeles County are shut down or receiving a limited amount of visitors.

Craig Underwood, owner of Underwood Family Farms in Moorpark, California, said dangerous conditions prevented the crew from attending the Brentwood market and poor air quality resulted in few visitors at the Pasadena market -- drastically diminishing their sales.

“There will be long-term economic impacts,” Underwood told ABC News. “We count on those farmers markets for selling a lot of those produce.”

The damaging winds from the past week have led to several power outages on Underwood’s farm and has increased the risk of scarring their lemons. Until the gusts diminish, the farm will be closed.

“Right now, the lemon market is not that strong, so to have our quality degraded really hurts,” Underwood said. “Fruits and vegetables sell by appearance as much as anything else.”

While large fires haven't broken out farther south in San Diego County, abnormally strong winds are still wreaking havoc on farms.

Andy Lyall, a fourth-generation citrus and avocado grower in Pauma Valley, California, north of San Diego, is part of a tight-knit, family business that goes back to 1933. Lyall told ABC News he is accustomed to strong gusts, but the violent Santa Ana winds fanning the recent California wildfires were completely unexpected.

“We’ve gotten through a lot of winds, but this one just hammered us,” Lyall said.

These disastrous winds, which swirled through Lyall’s avocado trees, destroyed about 50% of his crops, he said. Avocados are the fourth-largest crop in the area, according to the San Diego County Farm Bureau. But Lyall said the destruction from these winds will ultimately change those numbers.

“This really will hurt the supply of avocados,” Lyall said. “It’s a significant crop that we grow in our county and this is definitely going to impact the supply of safe, locally produced produce that will be in the stores this upcoming spring and summer.”

Along with Lyall, many farmers are experiencing direct and indirect impacts from these continuous flames.

The California Department of Food and Agriculture recommends farmers who have experienced crop loss to look into their Noninsured Disaster Assistance Program, which ”pays covered producers of covered noninsurable crops when low yields, loss of inventory, or prevented planting occur due to natural disasters,” according to the website. The Los Angeles Food Policy Council and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers also provide post-wildlife recovery resources.

When farmers are limited on resources, missing market events or losing everything they own, Velasquez said community members will be less likely to find produce locally, and will instead rely on big-box grocery stores.

“We all eat food, all of it impacts our daily lives, whether we are farmers or not,” Velasquez said.