Jeanne Merrill

State Legislature Approves Budget, Climate Change Investments Delayed

June 19, 2017 by Jeanne Merrill 4 Comments

This week the state legislature approved a $125 billion state budget. The budget bills are silent on the FY 2017-18 expenditures for climate change programs, including the Climate Smart Agriculture programs, because efforts to extend the state’s cap-and-trade program, the source of funding for the climate programs, stalled out.

Source: Pete Bobb, Creative Commons

Assembly Bill 378, the cap-and-trade extension bill that coupled greenhouse gas reduction requirements with air pollution regulations, failed to pass out of the Assembly. The industry-backed cap-and-trade extension, AB 151, never made it to the floor and Senate Bill 775, the Senate’s only proposal, did not receive a hearing.

But there is still plenty of time in the legislative session for a deal to be struck to extend cap-and-trade beyond 2020. Since funding for the climate change programs began in 2014, the final decision on program allocations has always come at the end of session, well after the budget deadline. The uncertainty around cap-and-trade and possible program reforms only increases the uncertainty around funding for FY ’17-’18.

Last month, CalCAN released our principles on cap-and-trade. They include the following:

Continue climate change program investments in working lands and rural communities.
Prioritize co-benefits and sustainable agricultural solutions.
Prioritize multi-benefit offsets in California.
Ensure a stable market that achieves real greenhouse gas emission reductions.
Seek environmentally just, equitable climate policy.
Ensure a just transition for workers.

Click here to read the letter and full set of principles.

Implementation of Climate Smart Ag Programs Improved

A budget trailer bill*, SB 92, includes a needed fix to language that was included in last session’s budget trailer bill that would have required onerous outreach and mitigation requirements for farmers and ranchers applying to Climate Smart Agriculture programs. SB 92 no longer requires applicants to the Healthy Soils Program, State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) and the Alternative Manure Management Practices Program (AMMP) to meet the heavy reporting, outreach and mitigation requirements. Dairy digester projects are not exempt from these requirements.

* A budget trailer bill includes policy language to direct the implementation of programs funded under the state budget.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Dairy Methane, Featured - Sidebar, Healthy Soils, SB 32, SWEEP Tagged With: climate smart agriculture, Section 6 fix, state budget

Agricultural Solutions to Climate Change, California Takes Action

June 9, 2017 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

This post first appeared on the blog of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, of which CalCAN is a member.

The rollback of federal action to address climate change began in this administration in its early days, well before President Trump’s recent decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. The actual withdrawal from the agreement could take years, but the damage of the withdrawal is the message it sends.

The President suggested action on climate change and a move away from fossil fuels would cost our economy millions of jobs and trillions of dollars. This is simply not true, and all one needs to do is look at California to understand why it’s not.

California is an example of a state where climate change action has helped fuel the state’s recovery from the Great Recession. In 2006, California passed the country’s most comprehensive climate change law, adopting ambitious greenhouse gas reduction measures. But instead of lagging behind, California surged ahead thanks in large part to our action on climate change mitigation.

Since those laws went into affect, the state’s GDP growth has significantly outpaced the national average, and California now leads the country in job growth. There is no doubt that we owe a more than a small measure of this success to the state’s embrace of a new clean energy economy.

Last year, California stepped up our climate change ambitions by passing legislation requiring the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030 – or the equivalent of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half per person. Fifty percent of our energy will come from renewable sources by 2030.

California’s farmers have played an important role in our state’s climate change adaptation and mitigation successes. As US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue has suggested in many of his recent remarks, farmers have always adapted to new challenges. Climate change, however, requires a level of adaptation few have experienced before. Whether it’s more frequent floods, extreme droughts, new pests and disease, wildfire, heat waves or loss of winter chill hours, climate change requires a new way of doing business. And it requires doing all we can, now, to avoid the worst impacts.

Many California farmers and ranchers are responding to climate change. Our state’s farms and ranches produce more renewable energy, mainly solar, than farms in any other state. We also have new climate change and agriculture programs aimed at providing the financial and technical assistance farmers need to make the transition to a way of growing that not only reduces greenhouse gas emissions and sequesters carbon, but also builds resilience in the face of greater weather extremes.

California’s Climate Smart Agriculture Programs

Photo Courtesy of Phil Foster

Our coalition, the California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN), was formed in 2009 by sustainable and organic agriculture organizations, many of which are also members of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). We formed in order to find sustainable agricultural solutions to climate change. At the time, California was developing it strategies to achieve the new climate change law targets, but there was little discussion of the role of agriculture.

Thanks in no small part to our coalition, agriculture is now squarely a part of the discussion in California on how to address climate change. Since 2014, California has invested over $180 million in new “Climate Smart Agriculture” programs.

The first Climate Smart Agriculture programs helped California to respond to the state’s worst drought in decades and included: the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP), a new farmland conservation program to protect lands at risk of sprawl development; the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALCP); and new state funding for dairy digesters to capture potent methane emissions.

At the time, California was deep into an extreme drought with our reservoirs dangerously below sustainable levels. We needed to save water. We also had a new source of funding for climate change action from the auctions held under the California’s cap-and-trade program, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas missions from the largest emitters.

SWEEP was created, using cap-and-trade funding, to take advantage of the synergy between reducing water and energy and its associated greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture. Administered by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), SWEEP funds improvements to irrigation, including new water pumps (e.g., going from diesel powered to solar), soil moisture monitoring equipment, drip irrigation systems and other irrigation management improvements. The program is highly oversubscribed and to date has funded over 500 projects throughout the state.

Early in Governor Jerry Brown’s tenure, his administration embraced in-fill development and related smart growth strategies to reduce vehicle-related greenhouse gas emissions. The focus was on building more transit-connected housing within the bounds of existing cities in order to avoid sprawl development. In 2012, a study from UC Davis found that an acre of urban land emitted 70 times more greenhouse gas emissions than an acre of irrigated, conventional cropland. That study gave us what we needed to advocate for farmland conservation as a complementary smart growth, climate change strategy.

Two years later SALCP was created to fund conservation easements on agricultural lands with demonstrated risk of sprawl or rural ranchette development. The first climate change-focused land conservation program, the program has funded easements on over 30,000 agricultural acres to date.

New Programs: Healthy Soils, Alternative Manure Management

After several legislative attempts, we successfully advocated last year for the creation of the Healthy Soils Program. Aimed at increasing carbon storage in our agricultural soils, trees and shrubs, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions overall, the new program launches this summer. It will provide direct financial assistance for farmers and ranchers wanting to use new soils management practices like cover crops, compost, mulch, reduced tillage or installing new plantings like hedgerows, windbreaks and more. The program will also fund demonstration projects to help promote the adoption of healthy soils practices.

The last new Climate Smart Agriculture program addresses methane emissions from dairies. Legislation passed last year will require the dairy industry in California, the largest in the country, to reduce its methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas, by 40 percent by 2030. If voluntary measures fail, direct regulations may begin in 2024. The emphasis in the state until recently has been on capturing methane from dairy lagoons using digesters. But digesters have not worked for all and may be best for large operations that are well capitalized. To better address the needs of dairies and to better achieve multiple environmental and health benefits, CalCAN advocated for a more diverse methane strategy to include non-digester solutions.

This summer, the new Alternative Manure Management Practices (AMMP) program will launch. CDFA is still finalizing the program guidelines, but the department has proposed that projects may seek up to $1 million for a range of practices that move dairy operations away from wet manure handling to drier manure handling systems that may include compost as a final product.

What’s Next for California?

Our cap-and-trade program, which funds our climate change programs, sunsets in 2020. The legislature is currently debating the future of the program. Governor Brown wants a two-thirds vote to extend it. Many are frustrated with flaws of the market-based program, but have not yet coalesced around what the next iteration of the program may look like.

But the question in California is no longer whether or not we will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and invest in new ways of living and doing business; the question is how we will achieve our climate change goals. This is the right question to be asking now.

Climate and Agriculture Action Across the Country

California is not alone in embracing agricultural solutions to climate change. New York recently announced plans to reduce methane emissions, including dairy emissions. Bills to promote healthy soils management to capture and store carbon have been introduced in a number states. Maryland recently signed their new healthy soils program into law. Multiple states are considering carbon tax or cap-and-trade proposals.

While the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord is certainly a troubling setback, it has not stopped those in local and state government, or many farmers and ranches, from pursuing sustainable, climate-friendly ways of doing business and living our lives.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Dairy Methane, Farmer Resources, Featured - Sidebar, Renewable Energy, SALC Program News, SB 32, SWEEP Tagged With: Climate Action, Paris Accord, President Trump

Conservation Bond Passes Senate; Farmland Planning Measure Advances; SALCP workshops this month

June 6, 2017 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

Coyote Valley, Santa Clara County

Funding for farmland conservation, healthy soils and climate change adaptation got a big boost last week. Senate Bill 5, the park and water bond measure authored by Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León, passed the floor with more than the two-thirds vote needed (31 ayes, 9 noes). The measure provides much needed funding for a host of natural resource conservation activities. The bill now has to be reconciled with the Assembly version, AB 18 (E. Garcia, D-Coachella).

CalCAN, with our agriculture and conservation allies, successfully sought the inclusion of $25 million in the bond measure for the California Farmland Conservancy Program (CFCP). Without new funding, the program is out of funds with only limited dollars available for High Speed Rail mitigation.

The program funds conservation easements on agricultural land to permanently protecting it from development and keep it in agricultural production. A complement to the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program, the program also provides funding for local government farmland conservation planning and policy development. As California continues to lose an average of 50,000 acres of agricultural land every year, ongoing support for farmland conservation remains critical.

SB 5 also provides important first-time funding of $40 million for climate change adaptation. The funds will be available to do the following:

plan, develop, and implement innovative farm and ranch management practices and protections that improve climate adaptation and resiliency by improving the soil health, carbon sequestration, and habitat of California’s farm and ranch lands and affiliated habitat, including working lands, open space, or riparian corridors, and that increase water retention and absorption, habitat values, species protection, and economic viability to reduce development pressure.

Importantly, SB 5 also provides $15 million for the new Healthy Soils program, administered by the Department of Food and Agriculture. This gives a much needed boost to the under-funded program.

We will keep you updated on the next steps for the bond measure as it heads to the Assembly.

SB 732: Improving Farmland Conservation Planning and Policy Development

Senator Henry Stern (D-Canoga Park) is the author of SB 732, which seeks to improve local government farmland conservation planning and policy development. The bill passed the Senate last week, 28-11, and now heads to the Assembly.

photo credit: CAFF

The bill encourages local governments to do a better job of mapping their agricultural lands and planning for improved farmland conservation and related in-fill urban development in their open space element of the General Plan. CalCAN co-sponsored similar legislation a few years ago, but the effort was stopped by the building industry.

SB 732, different than our earlier efforts, incentivizes local governments with possible funding from the Department of Conservation if their efforts meet the legislative guidelines. To date, the Department’s funding for local government to improve farmland conservation measures has been limited. However, this year the Governor’s budget proposes over $2 million to fund DOC’s local government farmland conservation planning efforts.

CalCAN and our partners, Community Alliance with Family Farmers and American Farmland Trust, are seeking amendments to the bill to clarify and strengthen its provisions, including improving the definition of farmland, the identification of land available for in-fill development and specific policy guidance to local government from DOC. If you would like more information, please drop us a line: jmerrill@calclimatea.org

Workshops Announced for the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALCP)

The Department of Conservation will host workshops this month for potential applicants to learn more about the new round of funding for the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALCP).

SALCP funds conservation easements on agricultural lands at risk of development and Strategy and Outcome grants for local governments. The program is part of the Strategic Growth Council’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities climate change investments.

SALCP Workshop details:

Monday, June 5, 2017

Gilroy

1:30 p.m. – 3 p.m.

City Council Chambers

7351 Rosanna St, Gilroy CA 95020

Thursday, June 15, 2017

Webinar

1 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Please RSVP for login information: cfcp@conservation.ca.gov

Thursday, June 22, 2017

Ventura*

11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Ventura County Hall of Administration

800 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura CA 93009

*co-hosted by Southern California Area Governments

Filed Under: California Policy, Farmland Protection, Featured - Sidebar, SALC Program News Tagged With: Pro Tem de Leon, SALCP, SB 5, SB 732, Senator Stern

Cap-and-Trade Program Debated, New Climate Smart Ag Programs Launch

May 31, 2017 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

California’s efforts to avoid the worst impacts of a changing climate continue apace, despite rollbacks at the federal level. New Climate Smart Ag programs launch this summer, while the legislature debates the future of climate investments and policy.

Last year, Governor Brown signed SB 32, which requires the state to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. Also signed into law last year was SB 1383, which requires a 40 percent reduction in methane emissions from the dairy industry by 2030.

Andrea Davis-Cetina, Assm. Jim Frazier, Dave Runsten and Rich Rominger. March 2017.

This year the legislature and the Governor are debating the future of the cap-and-trade program, which sunsets in 2020 unless the program is extended. The cap-and-trade program requires the largest emitters of greenhouse gas emissions, e.g. refineries, cement plants, large food processors, etc., to reduce their emissions over time. It sets up the California Carbon Market where greenhouse gas emissions permits, known as allowances, are bought and traded. Importantly, the auction of allowances generates funding for many climate change programs. Click here for more background on the program.

To date over $3 billion in cap-and-trade auction proceeds have been invested in climate change programs, including over $180 million in the state’s Climate Smart Agriculture programs. After several anemic auctions, the recent May auction generated over $500 million for investment in FY 2016-17.

The cap-and-trade program, however, is not without its flaws and detractors. Many are considering how to reform the cap-and-trade program to better achieve greenhouse gas emission reductions and related air pollution reductions.

CalCAN recently released our statement of principles on climate change policy, including the future of the cap-and-trade program. We call for the following:

Continue climate change program investments in working lands and rural communities.
Prioritize co-benefits, sustainable agricultural solutions.
Prioritize multi-benefit offsets in California.
Ensure a stable market that achieves real greenhouse gas emission reductions.
Seek environmentally just, equitable climate policy.
Ensure a just transition for workers.

Click here to read the letter and full set of principles.

Cap-and-Trade Bills Up for Debate

Three bills are currently in play in Sacramento to extend the cap-and-trade program to the year 2030. All take different approaches.

AB 378, authored by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens), would extend the cap-and-trade program to 2030, but with changes to the program that attempt to address high air pollution burdens in low-income communities. The bill would allow the California Air Resources Board (CARB), which administers cap-and-trade, to directly regulate industrial facilities that fail to meet their greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. It also sets up possible new air pollution standards for those facilities participating in the cap-and-trade program.

AB 151, authored by Assemblymember Autumn Burke (D-Marina Del Rey), is the industry-favored bill. It allows for the extension of the cap-and-trade program with few directed changes to the program. It sets up the Compliance Offsets Protocol Task Force to provide guidance on offset protocols and requires a report on job training and just transition issues for workers impacted by the transition to more renewable energy sources.

SB 775, authored by Senator Bob Wieckowski (D-Fremont), is the biggest departure from the current cap-and-trade program. The bill would allow the current program to expire and would take a new approach starting in 2021. SB 775 would eliminate the use of offset credits, create a new, higher floor price for allowances, put in place a cap on the price of allowances, eliminate any free allowances to industry and require a quarterly increase in the reserve price, among other changes.

Significantly, SB 775 would create a climate dividend that would go to every California to help offset future increases in energy prices. The bill would also create smaller funds for infrastructure, research and climate adaptation investments. It is not clear how the bill will impact current climate change program funding. The bill would increase the amount of revenue generated by the program, but likely divert most of the funds to the climate dividend.

Governor Brown continues to push for a vote on the cap-and-trade program when the legislature approves the state’s budget in mid-June. The Governor wants a two-thirds vote to extend the program and put to rest any legal challenges to the program. However, few in the legislature think that the June vote is likely to happen. It is possible the decision on the future of the program and related climate change program investments will be delayed until the end of the legislative session (mid-September).

New Healthy Soils, Alternative Manure Management Programs Get Underway

The Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) will soon release a draft Healthy Soils Program request for proposals (RFP) for public comment. The program will provide financial incentives to farmers and ranchers who use new healthy soils practices that increase carbon storage in soils and woody biomass and reduce greenhouse gas emissions overall. The program will also fund demonstration projects to promote the use of healthy soils practices. The final RFP will likely go out sometime in July. Sign up for CalCAN’s blog to track timely developments on this launch. To view a webinar providing a preview of the Healthy Soils Program, click here.

CDFA will also release a draft RFP for the Alternative Manure Management Practices (AMMP) Program this summer. The program will fund manure management practices on dairy operations that reduce methane emissions and help improve air and water quality. CDFA proposes that projects may receive up to $1 million. You can read our recent joint comments on the program here.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Dairy Methane, Farmer Resources, Farmland Protection, Featured - Sidebar, Federal Policy, Healthy Soils, Renewable Energy, SB 32, Uncategorized Tagged With: AB 32, AMMP, cap-and-trade, healthy soils, SB 32

CalCAN Hosts Legislator Visit Day – Farmers, Ranchers Talk Climate Smart Ag

March 14, 2017 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

Following the heels of the 5^th CalCAN Climate & Agriculture Summit, CalCAN hosted a legislator visit day. Twenty farmers, ranchers, sustainable agriculture advocates and allies joined CalCAN staff for a day of meetings with state legislative leaders in Sacramento.

Andrea Davis-Cetina, Assm. Jim Frazier, Dave Runsten and Rich Rominger. March 2017.

Altogether, we met with 18 offices representing both valley and coastal regions of the state, including member-level meetings with Senators Bill Dodd and Mike McGuire and Assemblymembers Heath Flora and Jim Frazier.

Our message?

Agriculture has real climate solutions to offer, but investments are needed to reach California’s diverse farming community and avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Members and staff heard directly from farmers and ranchers in their districts how compost, cover crops and other soil management practices, along with irrigation and dairy management strategies can improve the bottomline of the farm or ranch while providing significant climate change and other benefits.

We discussed the suite of climate smart ag programs: the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement, Healthy Soils, Dairy Methane and Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program. Click here for the one-page factsheet we shared with members.

Genevieve Abedon, Jered Lawson, Liya Schwartzman, Caitlyn Galloway, Anthony Myint. March 2017.

Overall, members and their staff responded to our message with enthusiasm and desire for more information about program impacts.

We also met with staff leading the new Office of Environmental Farming and Innovation (OEFI) at the California Department of Food & Agriculture. OEFI staff carry out implementation of the climate smart agriculture programs. Among the issues we discussed were the need for technical assistance in developing and implementing climate smart ag programs, ensuring farmers and ranchers of all scales can access the programs and more. It was a productive and informative discussion.

These issues will next be discussed at the March 16^th meeting of the Environmental Farming Science Advisory Panel at CDFA. Join us there! For more on that meeting, click here.

If you would like to join a future CalCAN Legislator Visit Day, please drop us a line: info@calclimateag.org

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Dairy Methane, Farmer Resources, Farmland Protection, Featured - Sidebar, Healthy Soils, SALC Program News, SB 32, SWEEP Tagged With: dairy methane, healthy soils, Legislator visit day, SACLP, SWEEP

Sustainable Ag Lands Conservation Program Draft Guidelines Released

February 20, 2017 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

The Strategic Growth Council (SGC) and the Department of Conservation (DOC) recently released the draft program guidelines for the third round of funding for the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALCP). Part of the Council’s smart growth climate programs, SALCP funds easements on agricultural lands at risk of sprawl and rural ranchette development. The program also provides funding for local governments to adopt land use policies that protect at risk agricultural lands. No significant changes were made this year to the draft program guidelines.

photo credit: CAFF

While the draft program guidelines are out, the funding levels for SALCP are not yet decided. The third cap-and-trade auction for the current fiscal year takes place this month. How the auction fares will help determine the funding levels for SALCP as well as the larger Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program (AHSC) at SGC.

Since the program’s inception, CalCAN has worked with land trusts and others in the conservation and agriculture communities to support robust SALCP funding and implementation. We will send out an update on the once SGC and DOC release their proposed funding levels for the program. Meanwhile, there are several opportunities to engage and offer comment on the new draft guidelines:

Click here from the guidelines. Public comments are due on March 17^th. DOC will also host a workshop on the program guidelines on March 2nd. Details and RSVP information found here.

The SGC will meet on April 11^th in Sacramento where it will take up SALCP program guidelines and funding levels for 2017. Join us there!

Filed Under: California Policy, Farmland Protection, Featured - Sidebar, SALC Program News Tagged With: farmland conservation, SALCP, strategic growth council

Governor Brown’s Budget Re-Invests in Climate Smart Ag Programs, With a Catch

January 17, 2017 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

In his budget released on January 10th, Governor Jerry Brown proposed on-going investments in climate smart agriculture programs, including the new Healthy Soils Program. The budget proposes to maintain current funding levels. However, there’s a catch. The funding will only become available if the legislature votes by two-thirds to extend the cap-and-trade program beyond the year 2020 when the program is set to expire. Why the catch?

Understanding California’s Climate Change Laws

The source of funding for California’s climate change programs – from home weatherization, clean car rebates to climate smart ag programs – is the auction revenue from the cap-and-trade program. Under cap-and-trade, large emitters of greenhouse gas emissions – industrial facilities, oil refineries, large food processors, etc. – are required to hold allowances that equal their greenhouse gas emissions minus any reductions they have to do overtime. A portion of those allowances is sold by the state at auction. Those proceeds, generating over $3 billion so far, are then invested in a diversity of programs aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing multiple benefits to our communities.

Last year, the legislature voted to extend the climate change law to the year 2030, requiring greenhouse gas emission reductions of 40 percent below 1990 levels. But in doing so, they did not explicitly extend the cap-and-trade program, which is controversial. There is a current lawsuit filed by big business that claims the program is an illegal tax. Others are concerned that the program’s allowance of trading of credits and allowances allows for speculation on the carbon market that does not ultimately lead to the desired outcome of reduced greenhouse gas emissions and related pollution reductions in California.

Can a new cap-and-trade program be fashioned that still allows for investments in climate change programs while addressing the concerns by many about the program’s impacts? That’s the question before us that will be debated this year in the legislature, one in which CalCAN and our partners will engage.

Climate Smart Ag Programs Plans for 2017

Meanwhile, several climate agriculture programs are getting underway for 2017. There will be a series of meetings of the Environmental Farming Science Advisory Panel to discuss the framework for the Healthy Soils Program. The next meeting will be January 19^th. More here.

Beginning in March, the California Department of Food and Agriculture will hold public meetings on the newly proposed Alternative Manure Management Program, which will support non-digester methods for reducing methane emissions in the dairy and livestock industries. See here.

We anticipate a new request for proposals for the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) any day now. More here.

New program guidelines for the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALCP) will likely come out sometime in February. We will post more on this as details become available. See here.

You can find out more about the full suit of climate change programs at some upcoming meetings. The Air Resources Board, the state agency responsible for overseeing all of the climate change programs, recently announced community meetings to discuss the current climate programs. See here.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Dairy Methane, Featured - Sidebar, Healthy Soils, SALC Program News, SB 32, SWEEP Tagged With: California Budget, climate smart agriculture, dairy methane, GGRF, Governor Brown, healthy soils, SALCP, SWEEP

How Can Agriculture Address the Growing Economic and Environmental Pressures of Climate Change?

November 23, 2016 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

This is a re-posted blog from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

The devastating consequences of climate change threaten our natural resources, food security, and the productivity and economic viability of farming operations. Agriculture has an important role to play in helping us mitigate and adapt to climate change, and as we approach a major administrative transition and early discussions around the 2018 Farm Bill, the connection between agriculture and climate change will need to be further explored. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and our members believe that by giving farmers the tools to invest in their soil and become an active part of climate change mitigation, we can develop effective strategies that work for farmers, the environment, and the economy.

The Economic Impact of Climate Change

A new report released by the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) warns that the impacts of climate change will cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. The report, “Climate Change: The Fiscal Risks Facing the Federal Government,”provides analysis showing that the fiscal impact of climate change is already very real. According to the report, those risks will only continue to grow over the next century unless we take ambitious action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) and adapt to a changing climate.

The report lists several significant economic threats facing the nation as a result of climate change, including increases in: the need for disaster relief and flood insurance to address the heightened frequency of storms; investments to protect, repair, and relocate federal facilities impacted by rising sea levels and heavy rain events; health care costs as a results of degraded water quality, air quality, and unpredictable weather conditions; costs for fire suppression as a result of an increased frequency and intensity of wildfires across the country; and risk management for the nation’s farmers and ranchers who most directly feel the impacts of changing weather patterns and increased storm intensity. On this last point, OMB estimates there will be a 50 percent increase in the cost of the federal crop insurance subsidy program due to a changing climate in the coming decades.

Mid-Century Strategy Calls for Immediate Climate Action

As we have previously reported, our nation’s farmers and ranchers have an enormous opportunity to mitigate the effects of climate change through conservation practices that sequester carbon, improve soil health, and reduce GHG emissions. In response to the growing need for immediate action, the White House recently released the “Mid-Century Strategy for Deep Decarbonization”, which sets out a long-term vision for the United States to achieve emissions reductions of 80 percent or more by 2050. This builds upon the target adopted as part of the Paris Agreement in December 2015, through which the world took a tentative but important step toward addressing the dangerous impacts of climate change.

The Mid-Century report stresses that GHG emissions reductions can absolutely co-exist (and in fact already have) with a strongly growing economy. Within this overall strategy for emissions reduction, the report lays out the critical role of working lands:

“How we manage our land resources, both in the near term and over the next several decades, will determine whether U.S. lands can remain a robust carbon sink while delivering across a suite of other objectives, including needs for additional food, fiber, forest products, carbon beneficial forms of bioenergy, living space, recreation, and the suite of environmental goods essential to healthy ecosystems and human well-being.”

Addressing the key role of farmers and ranchers in emissions reductions, the report highlights critical management strategies that could be utilized to improve soil health and increase carbon sequestration, including: cover crops; residue management; resource-conserving crop rotations; and planting field borders and other areas with perennial grasses.

The report also underscores opportunities in the livestock sector, such as the introduction of management-intensive rotational grazing, which can increase soil carbon storage on pasture land. This method frequently moves cattle to new pasture, thereby helping to prevent overgrazing so that pasture plants have continuously high biomass and build soil carbon in the process.

Policy Response

These two recent reports raise important considerations for federal agricultural policy. Increasing the investment in agricultural research, which has stagnated, and focusing particular attention on the myriad of researchable questions tied to creating a more resilient and climate-friendly agriculture needs to be front and center. Protecting the funding base for federal farm conservation programs that provide farmers and ranchers with the tools they need to remain in production, while investing in soil health and protecting the environment is also paramount. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), and the Grasslands Initiative are key tools that should be leveraged to support these critical land management strategies.

The significantly higher cost projected for federal crop insurance programs in light of climate change makes clear that crop insurance reform is also much needed. NSAC believes that all farmers deserve access to an adequate safety net to protect against the inherent risks of farming, and we also believe that a sound risk management program must include a central role for improvements in the conservation of natural resources and in the overall resilience of farming enterprises.

Continuing to treat risk management and conservation as two separate subjects and isolating conversations on each in policy silos is no longer acceptable. Existing federal crop insurance barriers to good conservation need to be removed. No less importantly, we need a new strategy to use the very significant taxpayer and farmer investment in the federal crop insurance program to increase resiliency and encourage climate change mitigation. Conservation can help reduce yield variability while building long-term soil health and productive capacity, lowering crop insurance program costs in the process while helping to address and mitigate the increasing pressures of a changing climate.

The need for policy solutions that build resilient agricultural systems, mitigate climate change through conservation, and address the growing economic threat posed by a changing climate has never been greater. The incoming Administration has an opportunity to make real, measurable progress in building the long-term health and productivity America’s farmlands and natural resources. We hope this opportunity will be taken advantage of for the health and prosperity of our economy, our family farms and ranches, and our environment.

Filed Under: Climate & Ag Research, Featured - Sidebar, Federal Policy, Healthy Soils, Impacts of Climate Change Tagged With: Climate Change Risks, CSP, EQIP, Mid-Century Report, NRCS, NSAC, President Obama, USDA, White House

POST-ELECTION: WHAT’S NEXT FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE?

November 14, 2016 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

We occasionally re-post blogs from the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), of which CalCAN is a member. We work with NSAC staff and fellow member groups from around the country on issues related to the farm bill and the nexus of federal agricultural and climate change policy. CalCAN will continue this work in 2017 as we gear up for a new farm bill as well as our on-going collective efforts to inform implementation of working lands conservation programs. More on this work found here. For more on NSAC, click here.

As we prepare for our first Administration change in eight years, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) wants to ensure that a diverse coalition of family farmers and ranchers, conservationists, and local and regional food enthusiasts have a place at the table.

The election of any new President comes with many challenges and opportunities. In this time of change, it is more important than ever that we in the sustainable agriculture community make our priorities clear, and that we take the opportunity to continue to shape the direction of agricultural policy for the next four years and foreseeable future.

As the dust of the election continues to settle, we offer a basic breakdown of where things stand.

Election Results

Though final tabulations are still in process, President-Elect Donald Trump is likely to emerge with 306 electoral votes to Secretary Hillary Clinton’s likely 232. Also likely, is that Clinton will emerge the winner of the popular vote by a narrow margin – roughly 48 percent to 47 percent, with 3 percent to Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and 1 percent to Green Party candidate Jill Stein. The last time a presidential candidate won the popular vote but lost the election was in 2000, when Vice President Al Gore ran and lost against then Governor, George W. Bush.

In the Senate, Democrats will have gained two seats, leaving Republicans with a slightly narrower margin of control at 51-48. Senators Angus King and Bernie Sanders are both Independents, but caucus with the Democrats so we have included them in the 48. Louisiana will determine its new Senator in a runoff election on December 10. Overall, Republicans won six of the eight most competitive Senate races (FL, IN, MO, NC, PA, WI) and Democrats won two (NV and NH).

In the House, Republicans maintained solid control, with Democrats picking up six seats. Four races, however, remain undecided, including two heading to a runoff election in Louisiana.

Among the handful of closely watched congressional races with agriculture policy significance, it appears that only one member of the House Agriculture Committee was handed defeat – Representative Brad Ashford (D-NE-2), who lost narrowly to Republican Don Bacon. Representatives Jeff Denham (R-CA-10), Rick Nolan (D-MN-8), and Tim Walz (D-MN-1) all won competitive re-elections. Only one of the six members of the Senate Agriculture Committee up for reelection, Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO), faced a close contest. Bennet prevailed along with the other five.

No members of the Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittees running for reelection in either the House or Senate lost. Both the Agriculture and Appropriations Committees have vacancies however, due to retirements. We will provide a complete rundown of those vacancies in a later post.

Transition Team

President-elect Trump is expected to name his food and agriculture transition team soon. According to some published – though unconfirmed – reports, Kansas native Mike Torrey will be leading that effort. As a long-time Republican agricultural lobbyist, trade association representative, and former staffer to Senator Bob Dole, Torrey is well known in policy and agriculture circles. The team, once assembled, will work closely with the outgoing Democratic team at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to ensure a smooth transition.

NSAC, like many other agricultural groups, will be submitting recommendations to the new transition team on our priority issues, including: new and beginning farmers, food safety regulations, immigration, agricultural research, and conservation. There are many administrative actions that could be taken in the early days of the new Administration to improve prospects for family farmers and rural communities, and we will be sure to underscore and outline those opportunities for President-elect Trump and his team.

Appropriations

There are still important policy activities left to the 114th Congress – arguably the most important items on the to-do list will be determining the outcome of the government funding bills for fiscal year (FY) 2017, which started on October 1. Discretionary government funding is currently operating on a continuing resolution (CR) through December 9, by which time a new bill will be needed to avoid a government shutdown. For more background, and for details about the issues at stake in the agricultural spending bill, read our earlier post.

For the Republican majority in the House and Senate, their choices on appropriations remain much the same as before the election: reach a compromise deal and pass the final FY 2017 spending bills; pass a second short-term continuing resolution and punt final action into February or March of next year; or pass a full-year continuing resolution, keeping government spending for FY 2017 identical to spending in 2016 for each of the thousands upon thousands of line items.

The election results may have tilted the field more in the direction of option #2, kicking the can down the road until early next year when the Republican majority would be negotiating with President Trump rather than President Obama. There remain, however, strong bipartisan reasons for taking care of this year’s business this year — an option NSAC strongly favors. Congress’ ultimate decision should become clear within the next week or two.

Other Issues

Many farm commodity groups and trade associations are continuing to beat the drum for approval of the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal during the lame duck session. President Obama’s strong support notwithstanding, President-elect Trump’s intense opposition to TPP during the campaign makes the potential success of that effort unlikely.

Agricultural groups also continue to look for some solution to address the shortage of agricultural workers. Considering, however, the President-elect’s expressed desire to focus his immigration work on increasing border security, even limited Congressional action on immigration to deal with pressing farm labor concerns is unlikely to take place anytime soon.

The major regulations to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) have already been issued, though there are several more minor final rules yet to come. We are also awaiting numerous additional guidance documents that will help to interpret the new rules on tap. Whether FSMA regulation of farms by the Food and Drug Administration remains on the same course that the Obama Administration set will be something to watch out for as the new Administration settles in – during his campaign President-elect Trump has been extremely vocal about his opposition to regulation (in relation to agriculture as well as many other industries) and regulatory agencies, but said little or nothing about FSMA in particular.

Lastly, the Obama Administration is expected to soon issue proposed Farmer Fair Practices Rules to help implement and enforce the Packers and Stockyards Act, an important and long overdue action strongly supported by NSAC and other farm organizations. The proposed rules will have public comment periods that carry well into the new Trump Administration, and will thus ultimately be settled by the new Administration. See NSAC’s previous blog posts for more background on this issue.

Farm Bill First

Last, but definitely not least, is the 2018 Farm Bill. How the Trump Administration approaches the farm bill remains to be seen, with very few hints offered during the campaign. One notable bright spot, however, was Trump National Co-Chair and Senior Policy Advisor Sam Clovis’ affirmation during the campaign that the Trump Administration will seek to keep nutrition and farm programs together in the same bill.

Preliminary action on the next farm bill is likely to take place in 2017, even if the final bill does not materialize until 2018. Be ready for these discussions to begin in earnest early next year.

With Republicans in control of both the House and Senate, the next Congress will mark the first time that a single party controlled both houses for a farm bill since 1990 – when the Democrats controlled both the House and Senate, though not the White House. The last time the Democrats controlled the House, Senate, and White House during a farm bill was 1977. The last time the Republican Party achieved that farm bill trifecta was 1954. That is, of course, until now. It has often been said that farm bill politics is more regional than partisan, however, and there is good reason to believe that will continue to be the case for the 2018 Farm Bill negotiations.

NSAC remains committed to a vision of agriculture in which a fair food system is powered by a diverse community of farmers who are able to make a decent living pursuing their trade, while protecting the environment, and contributing to the strength and stability of their communities. As we enter a new Congress and a new Administration, we will continue to look for every opportunity to support policies that foster and strengthen the sustainable agriculture community. We will continue to fight for independent family farm agriculture, racial equity, high level farm conservation and land stewardship, agricultural diversification, fair and competitive markets, local and regional food system development, and vibrant rural and urban communities.

Filed Under: Federal Policy Tagged With: Election results, farm and food policy, farm bill, Farm Bill 2018, Presidency, Trump administration

Guest Blog: Organic Farmers Celebrate Historic Update to California’s Organic Law

October 3, 2016 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

By Kelly Damewood, Policy Director, CCOF

On September 21, Governor Jerry Brown ushered in the next chapter of organic agriculture in California by signing into law the California Organic Food and Farming Act (COFFA). The law marks the first update to California’s organic law and program in over a decade, bringing about much needed reform to support the growing demand for organic agricultural products.

Kelly Damewood

CCOF sponsored and Assemblymember Mark Stone (D-Monterey Bay) authored COFFA to reduce outdated paperwork and fees for the state’s over 2,500 organic farms and also to increase support for organic agriculture through the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and the California Organic Products Advisory Committee (COPAC).

California is the leader in organic farm sales with $2.4 billion in 2015. Yet certified organic acreage hovers around 3% of the state’s agricultural land, and only about 3% of the state’s farms are certified organic.

CCOF members have long identified the outdated SOP registration process as a significant barrier to organic certification. California is the only state in the nation with a State Organic Program, which is a program that enforces federal organic standards (it is not an organic certifier). As a result, California farmers are the only organic farmers in the nation submitting paperwork and fees to the state in addition to their organic certification paperwork and fees.

The extra paperwork and fees had become outdated and duplicative of federal organic certification requirements. To address these issues, CCOF worked with CDFA and other stakeholders to identify areas of possible reform to the SOP. As a result, COFFA makes the following reforms:

COFFA streamlines the SOP registration process by allowing USDA-accredited organic certifying agents to register or renew their farmer clients with the SOP. This will eliminate duplicative paperwork for organic farmers. CCOF is working with CDFA, COPAC, and other certifiers to develop a process for SOP registration renewals and anticipates saving CCOF-certified farmers many hours in paperwork every year, especially farmers growing multiple crops.

COFFA updates the SOP fee schedule by lowering the fees for some categories of small farmers and caps the current fee schedule, with the possibility of future reductions by the California Secretary of Food and Agriculture in consultation with COPAC.

COFFA allows the Secretary of Food and Agriculture and COPAC to support organic agriculture through education, outreach, and other programmatic activities.

COFFA gives important relief to organic farmers and will help increase production to meet the tremendous consumer demand for organic products by correcting outdated barriers to certification. Learn more at www.ccof.org/coffa or contact policy@ccof.org.

About CCOF

CCOF advances organic agriculture for a healthy world. We advocate on behalf of our members for organic policies, support the growth of organic through education and grants, and provide organic certification that is personal and accessible.

CCOF is a nonprofit organization governed by the people who grow and make our food. Founded in California more than 40 years ago, today our roots span the breadth of North America and our presence is internationally recognized. We are supported by an organic family of farmers, ranchers, processors, retailers, consumers, and policymakers. Together, we work to realize a future where organic is the norm.

For more information about CCOF visit: www.ccof.org.

Filed Under: California Policy, Farmer Resources Tagged With: Assm Mark Stone, CCOF, COFFA, organic agriculture, State Organic Program

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Guest Blog: Organic Farmers Celebrate Historic Update to California’s Organic Law

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