High Speed Rail Sign On Letter

Feb. 2011 CRAE members urged the California High-Speed Rail Authority to limit the impact of rail on farmland by placing rail lines along existing transportation corridors. While supportive of high-speed rail, the group expressed concern that in numerous locations, routes have been proposed that cut through productive farmland. Taking these valuable lands out of production will not only have impacts on individual growers, ranchers, and rural communities due to the loss of jobs and damage to individual farms and ranches, it will also have an impact on our state and nation because the farmland in the Central Valley produces significant portions of our domestic food supply. Download the full text of the sign-on letter (pdf).