Hamilton, Lynn; McCullough, Michael
We conducted a case study analysis of regulatory and production costs for a commercial-scale lettuce producer in California’s Salinas Valley over two decades. It shows a 1,366% increase in regulatory costs from 2006 to 2024, compared to only a 44% increase in production costs in the same period, which is in line with the PPI. Costs of labor compliance (health insurance, workers’ compensation insurance, health and safety requirements, as well as education and training) comprise over 75% of current regulatory costs, followed by food safety compliance at 15%. As a percentage of production costs, regulatory costs grew from 1.26% in 2006 to more than 12% in 2024.