SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY — Fewer cherries, lower production and more financial struggle. That’s what farmers are experiencing in the San Joaquin County, with a 43% drop in harvest predicted this year due to weather whiplash.
“On a normal year, these would be loaded,” San Joaquin County Farm Bureau Federation Vice President and Lodi Blooms Owner James Chinchiolo said. “This is not what I farm for.”
Two weeks after the disaster declaration was announced, local leaders helped push the U.S. Department of Agriculture to step in…