Jeanne Merrill

Healthy Soils Initiative Funded

September 7, 2016 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

New Climate Smart Agriculture Program to Launch this Year

In the final hours of the session last week, the Legislature passed a funding package for the state’s climate change programs. Among the funded programs was the Healthy Soils Initiative, a CalCAN supported effort to provide resources for farmers and ranchers to increase carbon stores in agricultural soils and reduce greenhouse gas emissions overall.

Last week, we posted our news release where we celebrated this important victory for sustainable agricultural solutions to climate change. Here we offer greater detail on the outcomes of the legislative session for the Healthy Soils Initiative.

Stay tuned. In the coming weeks we will post more on the outcomes for the legislative session, including more on dairy methane issues and a roundup on relevant bills.

Dr. Louise Jackson (center) highlights healthy soils climate solutions at Dixon Ridge Farms, Dec. 1, 2015.

Climate Politics

Central to the funding decisions of last week was the fate of California’s comprehensive climate change law, AB 32. Passed ten years ago, AB 32 requires that California reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

Last year, SB 32 was introduced by Senator Fran Pavley to extend the state’s climate change law to the year 2030 with a new target of a 40 percent reduction in greenhouse gases below the 1990 level. CalCAN supported the bill. However, with significant industry opposition the bill did not pass out of the legislature last year and instead was held over until this year.

The fate of SB 32 seemed uncertain in the final weeks of session until a coalition of environmental and business groups rallied behind it and its new companion bill, AB 197. Also in the final weeks of session, Governor Brown announced a new political action committee (PAC) to explore putting the extension of the cap-and-trade program, a key component to the state’s climate change law, on the ballot in 2018. This seemed to shake loose the stalled talks on the climate bills as well as negotiations on the fate of funding for climate change programs like Healthy Soils.

The Cap-and-Trade Connection

A suite of programs fall under AB 32, including the cap-and-trade program, which requires regulated entities to hold allowances (i.e. permits) for their greenhouse gas emissions and reduce emissions over time. Regulated companies, like the oil industry, purchase a portion of their allowances at state auction. Auction proceeds fund numerous projects across California that help reach the state’s emissions target, including the climate smart agriculture programs.

Poor showings at this year’s cap-and-trade auctions meant there was growing support in the Legislature to cut funding for climate change programs. In the final funding package passed last week, a few programs had their funding cut entirely, including wetlands conservation and some of the energy efficiency programs. However most received reduced funding allocations, including the Healthy Soils Program ($7.5 million), and a handful of programs received increases, including the Dairy Methane Program which will provide funds to reduce potent methane emissions on dairies (more on this topic in a future blog).

Healthy Soils Program Defined

In addition to the funding allocations, the Legislature passed SB 859, which includes key policy provisions for a number of new climate change programs, including the Healthy Soils Program.

Earlier this year, Senator Lois Wolk introduced SB 1350, the Healthy Soils bill, at the behest of CDFA. The bill built upon earlier efforts by Senator Wolk and CalCAN, including SB 367 from last year. Language from SB 1350 helped inform SB 859 and establish the Healthy Soils Program. Key provisions include:

Establishes the Healthy Soils Program at CDFA to provide incentives to farmers “whose management practices contribute to healthy soils and result in net long-term on-farm greenhouse gas benefits”.

Enables financial support for on-farm demonstration projects that “result in greenhouse gas benefits across all farming types with the intent to establish or promote healthy soils”

Defines healthy soils as “soils that enhance their continuing capacity to function as a biological system, increase soil organic matter, improve soil structure and water-and nutrient-holding capacity, and result in net long-term greenhouse gas benefits.”

Increases the current make up of the Science Advisory Panel of the Environmental Farming Act from 5 to 9 members. Adds members with expertise in climate change and agriculture science and practice along with expertise in agriculture conservation planning and management. Adds farmer members, including a certified organic producer.

Establishes the Science Advisory Panel as the body to advise CDFA on the Healthy Soils and State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program.

Next Steps on Program Framework

Organic producer John Teixeira holding his compost.

CDFA recently released their updated framework for the Healthy Soils Program. The new framework outlines the kinds of farm practices that may be eligible for financial incentives as well as practices under consideration for inclusion in the program. The framework also discusses parameters for the farm demonstration projects. For more on the draft framework click here (scroll past the SWEEP update).

CalCAN has been engaging with CDFA on the program guidelines and framework. We are seeking a program that complements federal efforts to support healthy soils by leverages federal funds through existing USDA/NRCS farm bill conservation programs and builds upon current technical assistance resources in agricultural communities by working with Resource Conservation Districts and Cooperative Extension.

Programs like Healthy Soils work best if they reach the diversity of farm operations in the state and provide powerful incentives and resources to support transformative agricultural management. Healthy soils can not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration, but also provide tangible benefits to agricultural producers and their communities.

Stay tuned

There will be multiple opportunities to engage in the development of the Healthy Soils Program. CDFA will announce public workshops on the program, which we will also announce on our blog. You can sign up for Healthy Soils Program email updates from CDFA by clicking here.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Farmer Resources, Featured - Sidebar, Healthy Soils Tagged With: California cap and trade, healthy soils, SB 1350, SB 32

Legislature Debates California Climate Change Investments, 2030 Road Map

July 28, 2016 by Jeanne Merrill 8 Comments

When state legislators return to Sacramento next week, climate change will be at the top of their agenda. Still pending are finalization of the state’s climate change investments for the coming year and, most important, setting the road map for climate change policy in California beyond the year 2020. Full Belly diversity & kids

For California agriculture, these decisions will impact whether or not there are resources available for the state’s farmers and ranchers to address a changing climate. Given the latest ag and climate change news of on-going drought impacts and rising temperatures hurting some crops, farmers and ranchers are weighing in, calling for support for programs like the Healthy Soils Initiative.

As we reported back in June, the FY 2016-17 budget was finalized without the legislature and Governor deciding how the state would invest billions in cap-and-trade revenues to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Over $100 million in proposed funding is on the line for California farmers and ranchers to reduce water use and save on energy, improve soil management and store more carbon in agricultural soils, and reduce potent greenhouse gases like methane.

The funding decisions will be taken up by the legislature in August, the final month of the current legislative session. Those decisions are also part of a larger discussion in the legislature and with Governor Brown on how California will continue to address climate change.

Current law (AB 32) requires California to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. Senator Fran Pavley has proposed Senate Bill 32, which would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent by 2030. CalCAN supports the bill as it seeks to avoid the worst impacts of climate change by supporting a diversity of strategies that help develop renewable energy, energy efficiency and many of the “climate smart” agriculture programs we’ve advocated for over the years.

Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia has authored AB 197, a new climate change bill that is also up for debate in August. Now co-joined with SB 32 (both must pass the legislature or neither will pass), AB 197 creates term limits for members of the California Air Resources Board, which implements the state’s climate change laws, and provides other parameters to ARB on implementation of the greenhouse gas reduction targets.

Currently, the bill is heavily weighted towards urban-oriented climate solutions (e.g. transportation and refinery emission reductions) and speaks little to the unique and important benefits of agricultural solutions to climate change. However, we are cautiously optimistic that may change as the bill is being debated and CalCAN and our allies weigh in.

As we head into this significant moment in time for California’s climate change laws: if you haven’t already, now is the time to contact your state representatives to let them know you want them to support action on climate change, like SB 32, and on-going investments in climate smart ag programs like Healthy Soils.

Every call, every email, every letter makes a difference! Let us know you what you hear back from your state reps: info@calclimateag.org

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Farmer Resources, Featured - Sidebar, Healthy Soils, SALC Program News Tagged With: AB 197, California Budget, healthy soils, SB 32

Investments in Climate Smart Agriculture Delayed

June 16, 2016 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

Budget Leaders To Act this Summer – Call Your State Reps NOW

California State Capitol Building. (Source: PeteBobb, WikiMedia)

This week the State Legislature sent the FY 2016-17 budget to Governor Brown without deciding how the state would spend billions in climate change investments. Among the programs waiting for a decision on funding are the Healthy Soils Initiative, the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP), the Dairy Methane Program and the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program. What gives?

The cap-and-trade program was created under California’s climate change law, AB 32. Cap-and-Trade limits greenhouse gas emissions from the biggest polluters in the state and requires that they hold ‘allowances’ in amounts equal to their GHG emissions. The cap on GHG emissions declines over time and so do the allowances that industry can hold. Regulated entities under the program must buy a portion of their allowances from state auctions.

The proceeds from those auctions are used by the state to fund activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide multiple benefits to our communities, including improved air and water quality and increased resilience to a changing climate. CalCAN recently released a report on SWEEP, in which we explore how farmers are using those funds to conserve water and energy, thereby reducing GHG emissions.

In May, the auction for the Cap-and-Trade program raised only $10 million in proceeds—down considerably from the anticipated $500 million. While there are a lot of theories as to why the auction did not go well, the upshot is that some in the legislature are now wondering what to do next.

Budget leaders will take up the question of climate investments this summer.

CalCAN has joined with others in the environmental and conservation communities calling for climate investments now. California has billions in the bank that it can invest now to fund tangible projects that not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also make our communities healthier.

You can voice your support for investments in sustainable agriculture solutions to climate change by calling your Senator and Assembly member.

The message is simple: “I am calling to support climate investments in agriculture, including the Healthy Soils Initiative. Please don’t delay climate investments.” Give your name and town/city.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Farmer Resources, Farmland Protection, Featured - Sidebar, Healthy Soils, SALC Program News, Water

CDFA Releases Healthy Soils Program Framework

May 20, 2016 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

Department Seeks Public Comment

Dr. Louise Jackson (center) highlights healthy soils climate solutions at Dixon Ridge Farms, Dec. 1, 2015.

This week, at a meeting of the Environmental Farming Act Science Advisory Panel, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) released its draft framework for the new Healthy Soils Initiative, a program aimed at providing financial incentives for farmers and ranchers to increase soil carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The new framework can be found by clicking here (scroll to page 12, after the SWEEP slides).

CDFA proposes spending $13.8 million in the first year of the program on financial incentives for growers to build soil carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions overall. An additional $4 million is proposed for on-farm demonstration projects that bring together agricultural partners, including growers, to field test management practices that provide climate benefits.

CDFA is soliciting public comment on the draft framework and its future iterations from now until August 2016. Assuming funding is finalized by the June budget (read more here), the Healthy Soils Request for Proposals would go out in September or October with applications due the following month. The first grant awards would be announced by February.

The CDFA draft framework includes a list of farm management practices that would be eligible for financial incentive. They include over 20 practices such as cover cropping, mulching, replacing synthetic N fertilizer, hedgerow planting, etc. Not included are practices like conservation tillage (no-till is included), crop rotation or prescribed/managed grazing. This is a preliminary list and there is opportunity to weigh in on practices that you think should be included on the list for their ability to improve soil carbon and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Air Resources Board will soon take up the issue of how to quantify the greenhouse gas emission reductions from on-farm management practices. Among the possible tools is COMET-Planner (based off of COMET-Farm), both developed for the USDA by Colorado State University. The COMET-Farm uses the DayCent model to simulate fluxes of carbon and nitrogen on working lands.

Have any feedback on the Healthy Soils Initiative? Drop us a line: info@calclimateag.org.

You can also sign up to receive CDFA’s email updates on the Healthy Soils Initiative by clicking here.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Farmer Resources, Featured - Sidebar, Healthy Soils Tagged With: CDFA, COMET-Farm, COMET-Planner, healthy soils initiative

Budget, Legislature Act to Support Sustainable Agricultural Solutions to Climate Change

May 13, 2016 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

Sacramento has seen lots of important action recently on climate change and agriculture issues:

Today, Governor Jerry Brown released his May revise budget. The updated state budget proposal holds the line on climate smart agriculture funding, keeping with what the Governor proposed back in January with $115 million for new and existing climate smart agriculture programs. (More details below.)

Also this week: the Healthy Soils bill, Senate Bill 1350, was amended following successful negotiations between California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN), Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF) and California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Senator Lois Wolk, author of the bill, and her staff brokered the discussions and were crucial to the groups finding common ground. (Details on the recent amendments to the bill are below.)

On Tuesday, CalCAN released its progress report on the state’s climate smart agriculture and drought program, the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP). Click here if you want to see how farmers are responding to the program and how your county ranks in terms of SWEEP funding.

Source: Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times

Budget – Climate Smart Agriculture Investments:

Governor Brown’s May Revise budget maintains his January proposal for climate-smart agriculture funding, including:

Healthy Soils Initiative: $20 million
State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP): $20 million
Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program: $40 million
Dairy Methane: $35 million

CalCAN will continue to advocate in support of the Governor’s climate-smart agriculture package.

Call your Senator and Assemblymember to let them know you support climate-smart agriculture programs in the budget. The message is simple: “I’m calling to support (name the programs – Healthy Soils, SWEEP, etc.) funding in the budget. These programs provide crucial resources for farmers and ranchers to address climate change.” Give your name and town/city. Find your Senator and Assemblymember by clicking here.

Organic producer John Teixeira holding his compost.

Healthy Soils – Senate Bill 1350:

SB 1350 updates the Environmental Farming Act of 1995 and establishes the Healthy Soils Program, a climate-smart agriculture program, at CDFA. In April, the bill passed with bi-partisan support out of the Senate Environmental Quality and Senate Agriculture Committees. Members of both committees asked Senate Wolk to work with stakeholders and CDFA to provide more details on the Healthy Soils program. The recent amendments do just that, including:

SB 1350 increases the membership of the Environmental Farming Act Scientific Advisory Panel (EFA SAP) from 5 to 7 members. The new members include one member with training and field experience in climate change and agriculture, one member who is a certified organic producer and another member with expertise in conservation planning and management. This expertise will be crucial as the SAP takes on providing input on the development and implementation of the new Healthy Soils Program.
SB 1350 defines the Healthy Soils Program, which will provide incentives and resources to support agricultural management practices and on-farm demonstration projects that increase soil carbon storage and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The new amendments provide for greater clarity on the parameters of the program and define healthy soils as “soils that soils that enhance their continuing capacity to function as a biological system, increase soil organic matter, improve soil structure and water- and nutrient-holding capacity, and result in net long-term greenhouse gas benefits”.

The bill goes next to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where it will likely be placed on the suspense file. We will know by the end of this month if the bill survives and moves on to the Senate floor for a vote sometime between May 31 – June 3^rd.

Want your Senator to support Healthy Soils? Call them today. The message is simple: “California farmers have solutions to offer for climate change. We need resources like the Healthy Soils Initiative. Please support Senate Bill 1350.” Give your name and town/city. Find your Senator by clicking here.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Farmer Resources, Healthy Soils Tagged With: California Budget, Governor Jerry Brown, healthy soils initiative, SB 1350, SWEEP

Healthy Soils Legislation Gets Senate Hearing

March 25, 2016 by Jeanne Merrill 3 Comments

New state legislation proposed by Senator Lois Wolk, Senate Bill 1350, would create the Healthy Soils program at the CA Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). The bill would also modernize the Environmental Farming Act by expanding the program’s Science Advisory Panel to include experts in climate change and agriculture.

SB 1350 builds upon past efforts—including last year’s SB 367, legislation sponsored by CalCAN and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF)—to create a climate change and agriculture program at CDFA. The goals of the Healthy Soils program are to work with California’s farmers and ranchers through outreach, education, demonstration and incentives to implement a host of farming practices that increase carbon sequestration in agricultural soils, reduce potent greenhouse gas emissions and improve agriculture’s resilience to a changing climate.

SB 1350 will have its first hearing on April 6^th in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee. CalCAN and CAFF have been in conversation with CDFA and Senator Wolk’s office to discuss amendments to the bill that would strengthen and clarify provisions dealing with the make up of the Environmental Farming Act’s advisory council, which will provide input into the development of the Healthy Soils program. We are also in conversation regarding amendments that address goals and parameters for the Healthy Soils program. We are optimistic that we can come to agreement and fully support the bill moving forward.

We will provide regular updates on SB 1350, including how you can voice your support for sustainable agricultural solutions to climate change!

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Healthy Soils Tagged With: AB 32, CDFA, Environmental Farming Act, healthy soils, SB 1350

Climate Change and Farmland Conservation Program Gets Big Boost

December 18, 2015 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

Council Votes to Expand Funding, New Program Guidelines

This week, the state of California greatly expanded funding for the country’s first climate change and farmland conservation program. The Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALCP) funds conservation easements on agricultural lands to permanently protect them and reduce sprawl development. The program also funds efforts by local governments to improve their land use planning and policy development to support long-term conservation of agricultural lands in their region.

photo credit: CAFF

The Strategic Growth Council (Council), made up of members of Governor Jerry Brown’s cabinet and appointed public members, voted to increase SALCP funding to $40 million, up from $5 million last year. The SALCP funding of $40 million represents nearly half of what the state has invested in farmland conservation in the past 18 years through its California Farmland Conservancy Program.

This significant new funding for farmland conservation in the state should help address the on-going significant loss of agricultural land in California, which averages 50,000 acres annually.

SALCP brings together farmland conservation with climate change by focusing on reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with the conversion of agricultural lands to urban, suburban and rural ranchette development. The program was created following research at UC Davis by Louise Jackson, Stephen Wheeler and others that found that an acre of urban land in Yolo County emitted 70 times more greenhouse gas emissions compared to an acre of irrigated cropland. The climate benefits of farmland, including its ability to capture and store atmospheric carbon, are lost when the land is converted to urban or other non-agricultural uses.

Demand for SALCP has been high. In 2015, the first year of the program, over $45 million in requests for SALCP funding were made, but only $5 million was available. Despite this, SALCP funded conservation easements on 14,000 acres and funded five counties to develop agricultural land conservation strategies.

The Council also approved new program guidelines for the second round of funding. Among the changes to SALCP is a reduced matching funds requirement for conservation easement projects: 25 percent match for most projects and 10 percent match for easements in disadvantaged communities. The program also expanded the amount of funding available for the local government planning grants, now called the Strategy and Outcome grants, up to $250,000. These positive changes should improve program access.

However, CalCAN, joined by several land trusts, conservation and local government groups, supported additional improvements to the new program guidelines that were not taken up by the Council.

Under the new guidelines, easement applicants will have to meet new criteria to demonstrate that the lands they intend to put under conservation easement, in partnership with willing landowners, are at risk of development. While we support the program focusing on at-risk lands, the threshold criteria is too prescriptive and does not reflect the geographic diversity of the state.

Furthermore, new constraints on the planning and policy grants narrow the program and may hurt the state’s ability to incentivize smart growth policy development to protect farmlands, a key strategy to support the conservation easements. We will continue to work with our allies to improve program implementation going forward.

The SALCP request for proposals will be released in the next few weeks, and CalCAN will announce when they are available. Interested applicants can also check for details here.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, Farmland Protection, Featured - Sidebar, SALC Program News Tagged With: farmland conservation, land use, Louise Jackson, SALCP, sprawl, Stephen Wheeler, strategic growth council

Diverse Coalition Calls on Governor Brown, Legislature to Invest Now

December 16, 2015 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

Over a Billion in Funding for California Climate Solutions at Stake

Today, a diverse coalition of conservation, transit, housing, environmental justice, business and sustainable agriculture groups came together to call on Governor Brown and legislative leaders to finish the job of investing in climate change solutions in our communities.

The call for climate investment comes just days after Governor Brown, Senate Pro Tem Kevin de León, Assembly Speaker Toni Atkins and Assembly Speaker-elect Anthony Rendon returned from the Paris climate change talks. California’s leadership on these issues was much hailed at the international meeting.

While California has made great strides in tackling climate change, all have acknowledged there is some unfinished business to do at the beginning of 2016. At the end of the 2015 legislative session, the Governor and state legislature did not finalize investments from the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The lack of agreement on investments meant over a billion dollars in funding for community-based climate solutions, including funding to support innovative sustainable agricultural efforts, were left on the table.

You can read the letter to Governor Brown and legislative leaders here. Among the programs left without funding is the Governor’s Healthy Soils Initiative, aimed at providing on-the-ground resources for the state’s growers and ranchers to increase carbon sequestration and decrease greenhouse gas emissions overall. Every day we do not invest these funds, we miss the opportunity to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and avoid the worst impacts of climate change.

Stay tuned. Governor Brown will release his budget by January 10. CalCAN will report back on the Governor’s proposal for 2015-16 and 2016-17 climate investments and how you can make your voice heard.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Uncategorized Tagged With: Climate Solutions in Agriculture, GGRF, Governor Brown, Senate President de Leon, Speaker Atkins, Speaker-elect Rendon

Council Considers New Funding, Changes to Farmland Conservation Program

October 16, 2015 by Jeanne Merrill 1 Comment

The Strategic Growth Council met this week to review new draft guidelines for California’s groundbreaking Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation (SALC) program. There was plenty of good news for the farmland conservation program, including a staff recommendation to increase program funding from $5 million to $40 million in SALC’s second round.

From Bay Nature. Livermore, CA.

However, the draft guidelines also raised some concerns about the future of the planning grants portion of the program.

SALC is the country’s first climate change program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with the conversion of farmland to sprawl development. The program currently funds two types of activities: conservation easements on agricultural lands at risk of development, as well as planning grants for local governments to assess their farmlands and develop policies that protect their agricultural resources.

The SALC program comes at a time when California continues to lose, on average, 50,000 acres per year to non-agricultural uses. As noted in a recent op-ed by Yolo County farmer and former California Secretary of Food and Agriculture, Rich Rominger, “Our farmlands are a finite resource; once converted to urban or suburban development, they are lost to agriculture. With that loss, we chip away at our ability to grow food and protect watersheds, open space and wildlife habitat.”

Changes to Improve SALC’s Success

The new draft guidelines propose some welcome changes, including greater flexibility for matching fund requirements for conservation easements: 25 percent match in communities not designated as disadvantaged and 10 percent match required in disadvantaged communities. This will make it easier to fund easements on urban/suburban edge agricultural lands where adequate matching funds can be tougher to come by.

Staff is also looking to refine the quantification of greenhouse gas emissions reductions that SALC-funded activities can produce. Many of us have recommended a more robust modeling effort that accounts for emissions associated with changes in zoning densities and urban building energy when sprawl occurs. Better quantification can result in more strategic investments in at-risk agricultural lands.

Other new components to the program include an interagency effort to develop a new component of the SALC program for the third round of funding (FY 2016-17): incentives for on-farm management practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration. An interagency group is also considering how the Strategic Growth Council’s climate change programs might fund affordable farmworker housing in rural towns—which, among other benefits, could help reduce worker travel to agricultural jobs.

Planning Grants in Question

The biggest challenge facing the SALC program is the proposed change to the planning grants. Under the draft guidelines, cities and counties that receive a grant would have to conduct their planning processes upfront and deliver a clear outcome (e.g. creation of farmland mitigation program, urban growth boundary, etc.) before the state would reimburse them for their activities. For most local governments, taking on the risk of conducting the project without a guarantee of reimbursement will likely discourage them from applying.

We know that the state cannot achieve its ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduces without smart growth strategies that include land use policy changes that engage local governments in new planning and policy development that protects farmland. Making the SALC grants work is critical to the success of the Council’s smart growth efforts.

Opportunity to Engage

CalCAN is coordinating a response to the draft guidelines, working with our partners in the land trust, sustainable agriculture and local government communities, to suggest ways we can move forward with the planning grants, improved emissions quantification and more.

Public comments on the SALC draft guidelines are due on November 4. Public workshops on the draft guidelines will be held in Santa Rosa, Tulare and Camarillo in November. Click here (and scroll to page ten) for details on the workshops dates and locations.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Farmland Protection, SALC Program News Tagged With: farmland conservation, SALC, strategic growth council

California Invests in Farmland Conservation to Halt Sprawl, Climate Change

July 9, 2015 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

California recently took action to protect some of the state’s most threatened agricultural lands by investing in conservation easements and better land use planning. These tools have been used for many years by land trusts and local governments to permanently protect farmland from development.

From Farmsreach.com

But for the first time the state is focusing its farmland conservation efforts to meet its climate change objectives.

Under Governor Brown’s leadership, the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation (SALC) Program was created with the first round of cap-and-trade revenue investments in FY 2014-15. SALC, implemented by the Strategic Growth Council in partnership with the Resources Agency, is the country’s first climate change and farmland conservation program aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions associated with sprawl development.

At its June 30^th meeting, the Strategic Growth Council approved 7 conservation easement projects covering a little over 14,000 acres for a total of $4.1 million. The Council also approved 5 Agricultural Land Strategies planning grants to support local governments in identifying critical agricultural lands at risk of development and to develop strategies to protect those lands.

What’s the Climate Change Connection?

UC Davis researchers found that one acre of urban land emitted 70 times more greenhouse emissions compared to an acre of irrigated cropland. That number rises to 100 times more emissions when comparing urban land to rangeland. Sustainable farm management practices can further remove carbon from the atmosphere, thus enhancing the benefits of agricultural land conservation.

Despite these benefits, California continues to lose farmland at alarming rates. Between 1984 and 2010 the state lost an average of over 50,000 acres of agricultural land annually.

SALC’s potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is significant. Using the calculations from the UC Davis researchers for emissions from agricultural versus urban land uses, if SALC efforts reduce agricultural land conversion by 40% or 20,000 acres per year, it would avoid GHG emissions by 1.2 million metric tons, equivalent to taking 240,000 cars off the road and reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMTs) by 2.9 billion miles annually.

What’s Next?

The demand for SALC funding far exceeds the program’s current very modest funding of $5 million. The Governor has proposed $400 million in cap-and-trade funds for the Strategic Growth Council’s smart growth programs, including SALC. CalCAN and our allies have called for 10 percent of those funds or $40 million to go towards SALC in the coming year. The legislature and the Governor are expected to finalize the cap-and-trade expenditure plan for FY 2015-16 in the next month or so.

Meanwhile, the Strategic Growth Council is hosting “Lessons Learned” workshops on their cap-and-trade programs on July 14^th (Sacramento) and July 20^th (Los Angeles). The Resources Agency will also host workshops on SALC program guidelines for the second year of funding later this summer (TBA).

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Farmer Resources, Farmland Protection, Featured - Sidebar, SALC Program News Tagged With: SALC, strategic growth council, Sustainable Ag Lands Conservation Program

Healthy Soils Initiative Funded

Legislature Debates California Climate Change Investments, 2030 Road Map

Investments in Climate Smart Agriculture Delayed

CDFA Releases Healthy Soils Program Framework

Budget, Legislature Act to Support Sustainable Agricultural Solutions to Climate Change

Budget – Climate Smart Agriculture Investments:

Healthy Soils – Senate Bill 1350:

Healthy Soils Legislation Gets Senate Hearing

Climate Change and Farmland Conservation Program Gets Big Boost

Diverse Coalition Calls on Governor Brown, Legislature to Invest Now

Council Considers New Funding, Changes to Farmland Conservation Program

California Invests in Farmland Conservation to Halt Sprawl, Climate Change

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