California Policy | California Climate & Agriculture Network

Budget Surplus, Climate Action Deficit

May 20, 2013 by Renata Brillinger Leave a Comment

On May 14^th, Governor Jerry Brown released the latest version of his 2013/14 budget, which will now be debated and revised by the legislature in anticipation of their June 15^th deadline for approving it.

The budget was much anticipated by CalCAN and many other groups who have been advocating for investments of the state’s cap-and-trade auction revenue in communities and projects that reduce GHGs and sequester carbon. To our collective disappointment and surprise — especially given the state’s current budget surplus — rather than make those investments, the Governor proposes to use the revenue to make a $500 million loan to the General Fund.

It is our position that the state should not delay in using all possible tools in the cap-and-trade program toolkit. Deciding on how to spend these funds is one of the last major pieces to be put in place. There is no time to waste in making investments in climate solutions that also stimulate economic activity, create jobs, support disadvantaged communities and provide a host of environmental co-benefits.

At CalCAN, we have long argued that a portion of the auction revenue should be allocated to climate and agriculture research, technical assistance, incentives for voluntarily implemented sustainable agriculture practices on California farms and ranches, and protection of farmland at high risk of GHG-intensive development. These are the ultimate “shovel ready” projects, worthy of investments that will ensure our food security and long-term viability of California’s economically depressed rural communities.

The long-term costs of delaying action on climate change in the name of fiscal prudence dwarf the $500 million proposed expenditures of auction revenue. The sooner we start investing in community-based climate solutions, the greater impact we will have on curbing climate change.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Featured - Sidebar Tagged With: budget, cap-and-trade, Governor Jerry Brown, policy, sustainable agriculture

Assembly Committee Hears the Case for Cap-and-Trade Investments in Agriculture

May 9, 2013 by Renata Brillinger Leave a Comment

Yesterday there was a joint hearing of the Assembly Select Committee on Sustainable and Organic Agriculture and the Assembly Select Committee on Agriculture and the Environment focused on how California agriculture can help the state meet its AB 32 goals.

Expert panelists at the hearing included:

Jeanne Merrill and John Gamper testify at hearing

Edie Chang, California Air Resources Board
Amrith Gunasekara, California Department of Food and Agriculture
Dr. Louise Jackson, UC Davis
Vicky Dawley, Tehama rancher and Resource Conservation District manager
John Gamper, California Farm Bureau
Jeanne Merrill, CalCAN

The panelists collectively made a strong case for investing a portion of cap-and-trade revenue in agriculture. Vicky Dawley summed it up, speaking from her experience as a rancher and environmentalist, roles she sees as compatible. When speaking about realizing the potential in agriculture for reducing GHG emissions and getting clean air and water co-benefits, she said, “It’s going to take partnerships. We need more research like that of Dr. Jackson’s. We need technical assistance, which is currently at an all-time low. And we need cost supports for farmers to implement beneficial practices.”

Several speakers emphasized the importance of using cap-and-trade investment funds for agricultural practices that provide many benefits to California communities.

CalCAN’s Jeanne Merrill said, “Allowance revenue should target farming practices that reduce GHG emissions while providing environmental and health co-benefits.” Louise Jackson at UC Davis maintained that we should invest in “climate-friendly management that improves overall productivity on farms.” Finally, Edie Chang from ARB summarized her remarks by saying “We have the potential to address adaptation strategies for agriculture as well as reduce GHG emissions.”

Another theme echoed by several speakers was the value of investing in farmland protection as a means to limit urban sprawl and reduce transportation-related emissions. Dr. Jackson reported on a case study in Yolo County that found that the GHG emissions associated with urban land are 70 times higher than those on cropland. She stated that, “Preserving agricultural land in Yolo County is essential if the County is going to stabilize its GHG emissions.”

When asked by the Select Committee chair what recommendations panelists have for the legislature for investing cap-and-trade funds, Jeanne Merrill responded, “Protecting farmland and making a strong link with the state’s smart growth planning and Sustainable Communities Strategies should be a high priority.”

The Department of Finance in conjunction with the California Air Resources Board is responsible for developing the first three year cap-and-trade investment plans to meet the objectives of the state’s climate change law, AB 32. They recently released a draft investment plan that includes recommendations for funding agricultural solutions to greenhouse gas emission reductions and carbon sequestration, including farmland conservation, agriculture energy use efficiency and renewable energy. The final plan is due with the May revision of the Governor’s budget, and the legislature will then debate and vote on it.

At the end of the hearing, Assemblymember Levine agreed with the panelists by saying “Clearly, funding through cap-and-trade is necessary” for inventivizing GHG reductions in agriculture. Hopefully, many of his colleagues in the legislature will concur when it comes time to vote on the investment plan later this year.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Featured - Sidebar Tagged With: AB 32, cap-and-trade, farmland protection, investment plan, sustainable agriculture

California Farmland Protection Act (AB 823)

March 8, 2013 by Renata Brillinger Leave a Comment

Assemblymember Eggman

CalCAN, the Community Alliance with Family Farmers and the American Farmland Trust are co- sponsoring a bill (AB 823) in the California legislature to require permanent protection of one acre of farmland for every acre converted to residential, industrial and infrastructural development projects. AB 823 would, for the first time, establish a minimum statewide farmland mitigation standard for development projects subject to review under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

The bill was introduced by Assemblymember Susan Eggman (D-Stockton), the chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, and is co-authored by Assemblymember Das Williams.

If this requirement had been clarified when CEQA was first enacted in 1970, we would have permanently saved between one and two million acres of farmland in California by now. Agriculture is crucial to the economy and quality of life in our state, and it is a key component to limiting greenhouse gas emissions.

You can also track the status of the bill here (enter the bill number at the top right of the web page).

For a fact sheet on AB 823, click here.

For background on the need to protect California farmland from urban sprawl, large-scale solar facilities and more, please see the recently released CalCAN report called “Triple Harvest: Farmland conservation for climate protection, smart growth and food security.”

We will keep you updated on the progress of the California Farmland Protection Act, and alert you about making calls to your representative as needed.

Filed Under: California Policy, Farmland Protection, Featured - Sidebar Tagged With: AB 823, farmland preservation, farmland protection

Making the Climate Case for Farmland Protection

February 21, 2013 by Renata Brillinger Leave a Comment

California Must Protect Farmland on Urban Edges
to Meet Climate Protection Goals

A new CalCAN report says that California’s farmland is at risk from traditional pressures like urban sprawl and new ones including large-scale solar energy projects and oil and gas exploration. Despite mounting evidence showing the climate change benefits of protecting farmland and curbing greenhouse gas emissions related to transportation and energy use, California farmland is under threat of being paved over.

Triple Harvest: Farmland Conservation for Climate Protection, Smart Growth and Food Security describes the many essential services provided by California farmland and current development threats. It outlines policy recommendations for protecting agricultural lands to ensure their climate, food security and other benefits.

“California’s existing farmland protection policy tools are outdated and underfunded,” reported CalCAN’s Policy Director Jeanne Merrill at the summit. “They must be strengthened, especially at the boundaries of our cities where farms can provide the greatest benefit to avoiding greenhouse gas emissions.”

As California aims to reach its mandate of reducing emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, both smart growth planning and urban edge farmland protection will be crucial. For example, a 2012 study by UC Davis researchers found that in Yolo County, urban development generates 70 times more greenhouse gas emissions than irrigated cropland.

Triple Harvest summarizes the following pressures on farmland:

California has lost an average of 50,000 acres of farmland each year for the past 30 years. New development pressures put farmland in the state at additional risk of development.
Instead of accommodating larger populations with smart growth, infill development, public transit and greenbelt protection, cities and counties have permitted suburban and ex-urban sprawl and the fragmentation of farmland. A 2013 American Farmland Trust report found that 61 percent of all development in the San Joaquin Valley is taking place on high quality farmland, mostly along the Highway 99 corridor.
As of January 2012, 45 large scale-solar projects were approved to cover about 17,570 acres the San Joaquin Valley’s most productive farming and grazing land, and an additional 59 were under consideration.
The state’s new “fracking” boom means oil and gas companies are purchasing subsurface mineral rights of farms, putting agricultural land and water at risk.

The report’s recommendations include:

Clarify mitigation requirements for loss of farmland under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
Develop farmland mitigation requirements based on cumulative impacts of infrastructure projects, including the impact on future greenhouse gas emissions.
Direct a portion of AB 32 cap-and-trade revenues to farmland conservation, targeting the creation of easements on farmland most at risk of development

Click here to download a copy of Triple Harvest.

Filed Under: California Policy, Farmland Protection, Featured - Sidebar Tagged With: farmland preservation, farmland protection, smart growth

California Hits Solar Energy Milestone

January 18, 2013 by Hui Qian Leave a Comment

The California Public Utilities Commission announced earlier this month that 1,066 megawatts of solar power was installed through the California Solar Initiative (CSI) by the end of December 2012, putting the program more than halfway toward its goal of installing 1,940 new megawatts of solar power statewide by 2016. San Jose, which has installed 54.6 megawatts on homes and commercial buildings, became the state’s top solar city.

Funded by electric ratepayers in 2007 with a budget of $2.8 billion, CSI offers cash back rebates to those who install solar power systems, both for residential and commercial use. In this way, homeowners, businesses, farms, schools, local governments, and nonprofit organizations can offset the cost of their electric use with the rooftop solar power they generate. Because the response has been positive and demands strong, from $2.50 per watt in 2007 to 20 cents a watt now, the rebates continue to decrease while a self-sufficient solar industry is forming.

To put that impressive accomplishment in perspective, one-thousand megawatts is roughly equivalent to the output of a standard single-unit nuclear power plant or two medium-sized coal-fired power plants, which helps to power 750 to 1000 homes. As a leader in renewable energy production in the nation, California has the most solar capacity than any other state—its hundreds of thousands of solar roofs are helping to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, mitigating air pollution, and creating a better environment for everyone. And the state’s farms and ranches lead the country in the production of renewable energy, generating nearly one-quarter of U.S. on-farm clean power according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Achieving this benchmark is worth celebrating. We also caution that as California continues moving toward its clean energy targets, we must be mindful of doing so without compromising our invaluable farmland resources. Developing large-scale solar farms on agricultural land not only threatens the food production system of one of the world’s most productive regions, but it removes the potential for sequestering carbon in the soils and woody material of plants on farms. Guidelines such as those recommended in a report from the Defenders of Wildlife (Smart from the Start) are needed for these types of land use decisions. We continue to look for ways to accelerate distributed, local, small-scale renewable energy generation that not only provides opportunities for local economies but also avoids impacts on prime agricultural land.

Filed Under: California Policy, Climate & Ag Research, Renewable Energy Tagged With: California agriculture, carbon sequestration, energy efficiency, farmland preservation, greenhouse gas, on-farm renewable energy, sustainable agriculture, technical assistance

Governor Brown’s Budget: Roundup on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change Priorities

January 14, 2013 by Jeanne Merrill Leave a Comment

Last week Governor Jerry Brown released his budget for 2013-4. California faced stiff budget cuts in recent years as the state grappled with multi-billion dollar deficits in a recession racked economy. With the voters’ approval of Proposition 30, which raises sales tax and income tax on high-income earners, along with the Governor’s proposed cuts to prisons and state courts, Governor Brown says he has delivered the first balanced budget proposal in years. We looked at the budget’s impacts as they relate to our sustainable agriculture and climate change priorities:

Cap-and-trade revenue investments for sustainable agriculture: The state will generate revenue from the auctioning of allowances (aka permits to emit greenhouse gas emissions) under the new cap-and-trade program. Auctions will be held quarterly. The funds will be invested in activities that further the state’s climate change goals by investing in activities that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CalCAN and our allies have advocated that a portion of the cap-and-trade funds should go towards sustainable agricultural solutions to climate change, including funding for agricultural research, farmland conservation, grower technical assistance and financial incentives for farming systems that provide climate and other environmental benefits. The Governor’s budget states that sustainable agriculture will be considered in the planning process for the cap-and-trade investment plan, due out in May. The inclusion of sustainable agriculture as a possible investment category is an important step forward, and we will continue to advocate for inclusion in the final investment plan.

Farmland conservation: Unfortunately, the Governor’s budget does little for farmland conservation. Like previous years, the budget eliminates state funding for Williamson Act subvention payments. Local government will have to continue to go it alone on the Williamson Act program, which gives landowners a break on their property taxes if they agree to a minimum 10-year contract to keep their land in agriculture or open space. Without state funding, we may have more counties limiting new sign-ups to the program or beginning to cancel Williamson act contracts. The budget also eliminates funding for the California Farmland Conservancy Program, which funded the purchase of conservation easements on agricultural land. Funding is increased for the Farmland Mapping and Monitoring Program, which provides important data on the status of farmland in the state. But without tools to protect farmland, and with new development pressures especially from large infrastructure projects, the Governor’s budget leaves farmland conservation in the dust.

Energy efficiency, renewable energy for agriculture: The Governor’s budget provides over $190 million for EPIC (Electricity Program Investment Charge Program) to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy research and development. The Governor’s leadership made the EPIC program possible to help California continue to advance in energy efficiency and the production of distributed renewable energy generation, but the devil is the details. How EPIC funds will be delivered will be determined this year as the California Energy Commission and the California Public Utilities Commission finalize their plan for the program funds. CalCAN will continue to advocate for access to these programs for small and mid-scale producers to implement on-farm renewable energy and energy efficiency measures.

California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA): The Governor’s budget ends several years of budget cuts to CDFA and increases the general fund allocation to the department to $61.9 million from $60.3 million. Previous cuts eliminated funding for CDFA’s biological control program and other programs. Details are still forthcoming on how the Governor’s proposed budget will shake out for biological control and other sustainable agriculture priority initiatives at the department.

Filed Under: AB 32 Implementation, California Policy, Farmer Resources, Renewable Energy, Uncategorized Tagged With: AB 32, budget, California Budget, cap-and-trade, CDFA, farmland conservation, Governor Jerry Brown

NOAA Announces 2012 As the Warmest Year on Record for Contiguous U.S.

January 10, 2013 by Hui Qian Leave a Comment

Although not the end of the world, the year 2012 remains unusual for its extreme weather events and natural disasters. According to the scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the average temperature for the contiguous United States in 2012 was 55.3 degrees, 3.2 degrees higher than the 20^th century average and one degree above the previous record from 1998. Even worse, other than being the record warmest year, 2012 is also one of the most extreme years for the nation based on the U.S. Climate Extremes Index, second only to 1998 in terms of extreme temperature and precipitation, and landfalling tropical cyclones.

In addition to record heat, a historic drought and several storms also happened last year, causing significant losses to agriculture and related industries. Economic damage inflicted by Hurricane Sandy alone is estimated to reach $50 billion, according to The New York Times.

Rising temperatures and related devastating climate events are not freak events but maybe just the beginning of a long term trend of climate deterioration. Researchers of the National Climatic Data Center at the NOAA said the higher temperatures are consistent with their observation and people are going to see more extreme weather with increasing frequency.

Later this year, the state of California will release its climate readiness report that lays out what actions our communities and industries will need to take to prepare for a changing climate. CalCAN will continue to advocate for resources for agriculture to better prepare for more extreme weather events which will challenge one of our most basic needs – food production.

Filed Under: California Policy, Climate & Ag Research, Federal Policy, General Information, Impacts of Climate Change Tagged With: agricultural economy, agriculture, CalCAN's work, California agriculture, CARB, climate change, climate legislation, climate models, drought, economic impacts, effects of climate change, greenhouse gas, organic agriculture, sustainable agriculture

Megastorms Could Flood Massive Portions of California

January 3, 2013 by Hui Qian Leave a Comment

Scientific American recently published an article on “megafloods”, warning that massive floods caused by atmospheric rivers will likely impact California if climate change continues unabated.

According to Michael D. Dettinger (researcher at U.S. Geological Survey) and B.Lynn Ingram (Earth and planetary science professor at Berkeley), atmospheric rivers—narrow bands of water vapor running a mile above the ocean and extending for thousands of kilometers—are responsible for most catastrophic floods that occur in California every 200 years or so. In 1861, a megastorm hit California after two decades of severe droughts and created a huge inland sea in Central Valley, leaving thousands of human lives and one quarter of the state’s economy destroyed.

The regions that are home to most people in California today were put underwater for several months, and boats became the only means of transportation (see photo).

William Brewer, the author of the book Up and Down California in 1860-1864 wrote, “The entire valley was a lake…. Nearly every house and farm over this immense region is gone.” Three months after the initial flooding, he visited Sacramento and described, “Most of the city is still under water, and has been there for three months…I don’t think the city will ever rise from the shock, I don’t see how it can.”

It is estimated that a comparable event in today’s California would force more than a million people to evacuate and cause $400 billion in lost property and agriculture. Los Angeles County, Orange County, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area would be especially susceptible to the negative impacts.

The stakes are high, and though action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is needed on a global scale, California is doing its part to avert these kinds of crises. The state’s cap-and-trade program will be fully implemented in 2013 and is responsible for meeting almost 20 percent of the GHG reduction target the state has set: returning to 1990 levels by the year 2020. At CalCAN, we will continue our efforts to assure that sustainable agriculture is part of the solution, advocating for resources for sustainable farming practices that help lower agriculture’s GHG emissions, help growers adapt to the coming changes, and protect farmland that can help buffer against flood risk.

Filed Under: California Policy, Climate & Ag Research, Impacts of Climate Change Tagged With: CalCAN's work, California agriculture, cap-and-trade, carbon sequestration, climate change, climate legislation, effects of climate change, greenhouse gas, sustainable agriculture, technical assistance

On-Farm Water Storage & Retention

December 13, 2012 by Renata Brillinger Leave a Comment

In November, the California Roundtable on Water and Food Supply released a report entitled From Storage to Retention: Expanding California’s Options for Meeting Its Water Needs. The report argues for an expansion of approaches to storing water that increase supply reliability for specialty crop agricultural production and other beneficial uses while protecting ecosystem health.

The report describes several water storage strategies that we agree have not received sufficient attention and resources, namely:

(A) restoration and enhancement of upper watersheds and soils
(B) distributed off-stream surface storage
(C) groundwater management and storage

It describes a broad range of options, including a patchwork of on-farm ponds, expanded soil capacity to retain water and improvements in groundwater recharge. There is work to be done to influence policy, allocations of funding and to provide support for technical advisors for these important solutions. This report — produced with the input of a diverse group of expert stakeholders – lays a solid foundation for achieving the many climate, environmental, health and economic benefits possible with a water stewardship approach.

For more information and to download the report, please see http://aginnovations.org/articles/view/storage/. A related on-line resource — the Agricultural Water Stewardship Resource Center — provides case studies and referrals to experts on various techniques and practices.

Filed Under: California Policy, General Information Tagged With: groundwater, groundwater recharge, ponds, restoration, water stewardship, water storage, watershed

A Wake Up Call From “The Dust Bowl”

December 13, 2012 by Hui Qian Leave a Comment

Filmmaker Ken Burns’ latest documentary “The Dust Bowl” aired on PBS in November, serves as a reminder and wake-up call about the threats posed by climate change to agriculture.

The documentary, consisting of two 2-hour films “The Great Plow-Up” and “Reaping the Whirlwind”, brings to the audience a vivid picture of one of the darkest times of the 20^th century through a combination of survivor’s accounts, historian’s input, and dramatic movie footage. According to PBS, “The Dust Bowl chronicles the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, in which the frenzied wheat boom of the ‘Great Plow-Up,’ followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation… It is also a morality tale about our relationship to the land that sustains us—a lesson we ignore at our peril.”

“We were just too selfish and were trying to make more money off of the wheat, and it didn’t work out,” says one survivor. Resulted from both severe drought and unsustainable farming practices, the 1930s Dust Bowl left millions of acres of farmland ruined and hundreds of thousands of people dislocated, causing incalculable damage to the environment and economy.

“The next dust bowl” published in Nature, Joe Romm wrote, “Warming causes greater evaporation and, once the ground is dry, the Sun’s energy goes into baking the soil, leading to a further increase in air temperature. That is why, for instance, so many temperature records were set for the United States in the 1930s Dust Bowl; and why, in 2011, drought-stricken Texas saw the hottest summer ever recorded for a US state.”

So, are there any lessons from the 1930s Dust Bowl applicable to California agriculture? Certainly water issues top the list of concerns — at times flooding from early and rapid spring melting of the Sierra snow pack will challenge growers, and later in the dry season water scarcity will be the problem. With some notable exceptions in parts of the Central Valley, severe dust issues are not likely (though Romm argues that the risks have been underestimated).

Nonetheless, there are practices that California growers can adopt to buffer against the myriad of potential climate challenges. Investing in soil building tops the list. Practices such as cover cropping, applying compost and manure and conservation tillage increase the soil organic matter and provide many benefits — for example, increased water penetration and retention, reduced runoff and erosion, elevated carbon sequestration, enhanced fertility and productivity and economic gain. Investing in soil organic matter may be the best insurance policy a farmer can get to buffer against climate change and whatever version of a dust bowl disaster may California face.

Filed Under: California Policy, Climate & Ag Research, General Information, Impacts of Climate Change Tagged With: agricultural economy, California agriculture, climate change, drought, economic impacts, effects of climate change, farmer, farmland preservation, sustainable agriculture, water shortages

Budget Surplus, Climate Action Deficit

Assembly Committee Hears the Case for Cap-and-Trade Investments in Agriculture

California Farmland Protection Act (AB 823)

Making the Climate Case for Farmland Protection

California Must Protect Farmland on Urban Edges
to Meet Climate Protection Goals

California Hits Solar Energy Milestone

Governor Brown’s Budget: Roundup on Sustainable Agriculture and Climate Change Priorities

NOAA Announces 2012 As the Warmest Year on Record for Contiguous U.S.

Megastorms Could Flood Massive Portions of California

On-Farm Water Storage & Retention

A Wake Up Call From “The Dust Bowl”

Budget Surplus,Climate Action Deficit

What’s New

California Must Protect Farmland on Urban Edges to Meet Climate Protection Goals

Budget Surplus,Climate Action Deficit

What’s New

California Must Protect Farmland on Urban Edges
to Meet Climate Protection Goals