LEGISLATOR PROFILE Representative KEN CALVERT from California’s 42 nd Congressional District, encompassing parts of western Riverside County
By Western Growers staff B orn and raised in the city of Corona, California, in the western-most part of Riverside County, Congressman Ken Calvert witnessed the growth explosion of his hometown and the surrounding areas over the last several decades. The lifelong Riverside County resident, who currently represents the state’s 42 nd Congressional District and serves on the powerful Committee on Appropriations in the U.S. House of Representatives, watched the area transform from a largely rural one to a congested urban satellite where traffic has become one of the biggest issues to most who live there. The 42 nd congressional district is not new territory to Calvert. He has represented the area in one way or another since he was first elected in 1992. Redistricting required him to change the districts he previously served, bouncing him from the nearby 43 rd and 44 th congressional districts, respectively, to where he is now. His district, which is part of the Inland Empire, and encompasses such cities as Corona, Murrieta and Temecula, once thrived with agriculture. From the turn of the 20th Century until the 1970s, the area was dominated mostly by citrus, heavy concentrations of dairy farms and vineyards that produced table grapes, raisins and wine. In fact, for more than 75 years, Corona was known as the ‘Lemon Capital of the World,’ housing industry giant Sunkist, and its 700 employees who grew and processed lemons and citrus products. During a recent interview, Calvert recalled the importance lemons had on the area, saying of him and his family, “We used to put lemon on and in everything.” Eventually, agriculture’s hold on the region gave way to the demand for housing and other development, falling victim to Southern California’s population boom and the ensuing urban sprawl in the 1970s. Though sprawl never killed agriculture in that part of the Inland Empire, it certainly dictated what ag remained in the area. The focus is now on more higher-priced products, such as the wine that comes out of places like Temecula and Murrieta in the southern part of Calvert’s district. Despite the shift, agriculture is still a focus of Rep. Calvert’s efforts in Congress. As chairman of the Interior and Environment Appropriations subcommittee, and as a member of the Energy and Water Development Appropriations subcommittee, he overseas a variety of issues that directly and indirectly affect agriculture. One of Calvert’s earliest efforts in Congress was on behalf of
the wine industry. Grape growers were battling Pierce’s Disease (PD), a grapevine-killing malady spread by a pest called the glassy-winged sharpshooter that scourged California's wine industry. According to the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), the first threat posed by this disease “occurred in Temecula, Riverside County in August of 1999, when over 300 acres of grapevines infested with the glassy- winged sharpshooter were infected with [Pierce’s Disease] PD and [were] ultimately destroyed.”
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JANUARY | FEBRUARY 2018
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