Are you a veteran living in Ventura County? Please make sure you're aware of all the federal, state and local benefits you are eligible for. The County's Veteran Services Agency is a great resource to visit. You can access their website here: https://www.ventura.org/human-services-agency/veteran-services, and thank you for your service to our nation.
Thank you to California Alliance of Family Farmers (@caff_famfarms) for recognizing me as your 2024 Pete Price Farm Policy Champion of the Year. Last year, we introduced AB 2313 to create a regional farm equipment sharing program, and we are continuing to push the bill forward. I look forward to our continued collaboration. Thank you for this kind recognition.
I'm honored to be recognized with the Community Ally Award at this year's Diversity Gala. Thank you Diversity Collective VC for your leadership and advocacy to advance equality and justice for all LGBTQ+ individuals. Congratulations to the other honorees who are also leading the work and confronting the issues affecting the LGBTQ community.
Thank you to the California Salmon & Steelhead Coalition for recognizing our work to protect and restore California's iconic species, particularly our salmonid monitoring bill, AB 809. We learned important history from Karuk Tribal Council Vice Chairman Kenneth Brink and Yurok Tribal Council Vice Chairman Frankie Myers on the longstanding relationship California native peoples share with the salmon and steelhead.
(Sacramento, CA) - Assemblymember Steve Bennett introduced Assembly Bill (AB) 2648, which tackles California’s ambitious goals to reduce consumption of single-use plastics. Specifically, AB 2648 will phase out the purchase and sale of single-use plastic bottles by state agencies. AB 2648 does not apply to the average consumer.
[SACRAMENTO, CA] - Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) has introduced AB 2313 which would create a new program to increase equipment access for small and underserved growers as well as offering essential technical assistance for farmer cooperative development.
Assemblymember Steve Bennett (D-Ventura) introduced Assembly Bill 2220 to reduce injury and death to a suite of marine life in the state's set gillnet fishery, while removing exemptions in current law that allow these nets to catch and keep protected species like great white sharks
Assemblymember Steve Bennett, in conjunction with the Contractors State License Board, California Department of Financial Protection & Innovation and other local partners, hosted a Senior Scam Stopper Seminar on January 26, 2024. The seminar was held at the South Oxnard Senior Center.
For three years, Nathanael Gonzales-Siemens drove up California's coast for 14 hours every month for a routine task: milling his grain into flour. "I was literally not able to find a flour mill at my scale, and we're not tiny," he said. "We've got 150 acres of grain." He found this disconcerting, not only for himself but the future of small-scale grain farming in California, once known for its golden hills of grain.
As California has lost much of its grain to higher value crops, small flour mills and grain cleaning businesses have disappeared, too. It's a symptom of what Gonzales-Siemens sees as a larger problem facing many farmers, awash in a marketplace dominated by highly concentrated operations as regional farm infrastructure atrophies.
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Today, Environment California Research and Policy Center announced petitions at an event on the UCSB campus, calling for the expansion and strengthening of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The proposals called for in the petitions align with Governor Newsom’s 30×30 goal, to protect 30% of lands and coastal waters by 2030.
On Saturday, December 9, California State Senator MONIQUE LIMÓN and Assemblymember STEVE BENNETT presented a check for $1.5 million to Rubicon Theatre Company, Ventura's not-for-profit professional theatre company in Ventura, California.
The funds were announced to cheers from Rubicon's opening night audience for The World Goes ‘Round, a revue of the music of Kander & Ebb (Chicago, Cabaret, Kiss of the Spider Woman, New York, New York, etc.).
