The 707
County ag production drops, as demand lowers for wine, cannabis Sonoma County farm production fell off the haystack in 2024—with its total value down 9.3%. In total, the county’s agricultural production reached a value of $857.6 million last year, according to the annual Crop Report released this week by the Sonoma County Department of Agriculture/Weights & Measures. In 2023, the value reached over $945 million. The annual Crop Report provides an overview of the county’s top commodities, industry trends and highlights of departmental work in pest management, land stewardship, and weights and measures. First compiled in 1928, county officials use it as a resource for economic development, tourism, financing and historical analysis. Despite the dip in overall production value, county Board of Supervisors Chair Lynda Hopkins said the farming community “continues to demonstrate resilience in the face of challenges, from market fluctuations to disease outbreaks.” Winegrapes remained Sonoma County’s leading commodity with a value of $626.5 million, a 12.6% decrease from 2023. Harvested tonnage fell 12.2% to 211,511.6 tons, due largely to a downtick in demand, the report said. Poultry products, meanwhile, suffered heavily from 2024’s wide-reaching outbreak of bird flu, with production value declining nearly 49% due to the culling of nearly a million birds in an effort to stem the outbreak. However, the sharpest agricultural decline was felt in the cannabis industry, with production value dropping nearly 53% year over year—from $25.7 million in 2023 to $12.2 million in 2024. Local commodities that enjoyed an increase were led by dairy, as milk production climbed 37.4%, with organic milk up nearly 50%. Also on the rise was apples, whose overall production increased in value by 21% thanks to improved tonnage and favorable late- season prices, according to the report.
The complete 2024 Sonoma County Crop Report is available at sonomacounty.gov. — JW
Former ASMG accountant sentenced for embezzlement Tina Cabudoy, a former employee of Amaturo Sonoma Media Group in Santa Rosa, was sentenced this week to five years and four months in prison for embezzling nearly $200,000 while serving as ASMG’s business accountant from July 2023 to March 2024. ASMG owns and operates several popular North Bay radio stations, and also publishes NorthBay biz magazine. According to the Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office, Cabudoy, who has had residences in Santa Rosa and the San Jose, was ordered by Sonoma County Judge Troye Shaffer to pay restitution of $179,306. The Sonoma County DA began investigating Cabudoy following her March 2024 arrest in San Mateo County for allegedly embezzling around $300,000 from a San Carlos tech company where she had worked prior to ASMG. The investigation discovered that Cabudoy was using her employer’s credit card for personal expenses, including an extravagant birthday party in San Franciso. She also wrote business checks to herself, the DA said. In July, Cabudoy pleaded no contest to grand theft. The prison term of 5 years and 4 months includes the prior sentence from San Mateo County.— JW
Copperfield’s Bookstore building in Sebastopol for sale Copperfield’s Books flagship Sebastopol store sent out an SOS last week, announcing the potential sale of the building it leases at 138 N. Main St. could jeopardize its ability to operate at that location. According to bookstore management, its current lease arrangement has allowed the independent bookstore to remain viable in a challenging environment for brick-and-mortar retail shops. The business absorbed a 10% rent increase this year and “a new building owner could dramatically compound this situation by either terminating the lease or raising the rent to a level that would not be sustainable.” Copperfield’s was launched in Sebastopol by co-owners Paul Jaffe and Barney Brown in 1981. Jaffe says a new building owner could line up a new tenant for the space or raise the rent to an unsustainable level for the independent bookstore. “We can't subsist in doing business as usual, paying the kind of rent that market rates would demand,” Jaffe said in a statement. Jaffe said his team is exploring such options as finding a nonprofit entity to purchase the building and preserve the bookstore's presence downtown, or working with the city on designating the bookstore a “legacy” business, which may qualify for a grant, something Copperfield’s is currently exploring with the City of Petaluma for another of its stores. Copperfield’s opened in 1981 in a 750-square-foot storefront next door to its current location. Today Copperfield’s has nine locations throughout Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties. For more information, visit copperfieldsbooks.com .— JW
12 NorthBaybiz
October 2025
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