Tsakopoulos on Borden Ranch

“Penalties Averted by DNC Donor, Records Show” (April 14) ignores a critical issue. National farm policy is increasingly shaped by regulators with little knowledge of agriculture. They are coercing farmers and ranchers to submit to demands that just about every agricultural practice be first authorized by the federal government.

This is the situation on Borden Ranch, where all our activities have been deemed exempt from the permitting process, or have been authorized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Furthermore, the activities are routine, standard, legal and appropriate.

Farmers and ranchers have a vital interest in preserving the precious environment upon which they depend for their very existence. I voluntarily ceded more than 2,000 acres on Borden Ranch as a wetland preserve--perhaps the largest, privately funded preserve of vernal pools in the world. Nonetheless, military officials and their civilian aides are now redefining agriculture practices that date back thousands of years, including instructing farmers how deeply a plow may go into the soil.

In my first job in California four decades ago, I picked grapes, pruned vines and irrigated soil on a vineyard near Borden Ranch. I’ve never forgotten my roots, and believe the ranch should thrive with agricultural and ranching activities, rather than becoming another paved development project, as the previous owners originally planned.

Like many citizens, I will continue to discuss policies and issues with lawmakers. It is my right as an American, and one I exercise proudly. For disgruntled bureaucrats to anonymously smear reputations, attack honorable motives and fault public participation in the political process is unconscionable.

ANGELO TSAKOPOULOS

Sacramento