Cannon Michael, a 6th generation California farmer is 
the newly elected chairman of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority (Authority). Michael is president of Bowles Farming Company, a family owned and operated farming company headquartered in Los Banos.
Bowles Farming Company is an 11,000 acre organic and conventional farm growing fresh market and processing tomatoes, field crops including corn, melons, carrots and onions, alfalfa for local dairies and other commodities such as durum wheat for bread, pima cotton, pistachios and almonds. Other activities include managing wetlands and habitat restoration on the family farm.
In accepting the new position, Michael said, “It is an enormous responsibility to lead the Authority. I look forward to working with the board and the 100 dedicated employees who make up the Authority family, working to make sure it’s members have access to reliable water supplies that serve communities, wetlands and are used to grow the food and fiber crops for much of the nation.”
Cannon Michael replaces Mike Stearns who has served as the Authority chairman for the past two decades.
Stearns said, “It has been a great honor to serve our diverse member agencies that are bound together by the facilities that the Authority operates. We have faced many challenges and changing dynamics over the past two decades to deliver water to 1.2 million acres of farmland, 300,000 acres of wildlife refuges and wetlands and 2 million people.
“Cannon is an outstanding farmer and leader. He is the right person to take the Authority into the next generation. Future water management challenges will require a balanced approach to meet the needs of California’s farms, its people and the environment,” he said.