2019 CalCAN Summit

The 6th California Climate & Agriculture Summit was held on March 4-5, 2019, including a farm and ranch tour of three climate-friendly farms in Yolo and Solano Counties, a full-day conference at UC Davis, and a festive evening celebration of CalCAN’s 10th anniversary.

Cover Crop (Bell beans) presentation at River Garden Farms, CalCAN Summit - Farm and Ranch tour regenerative agriculture

The tour visited:

The conference offered three tracks—practice, policy, and science—as well as a series of lightning talks. See the full program here. Find titles of each workshop below with links to presenters’ presentation slides where available.

Plenary Presentation

CalCAN 2019 summit UC Davis

Climate & Agriculture Policy: Vision & Action

Practice Track

Creative Financing Tools for Agricultural Conservation

Moderator: Sacha Lozano, Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz

Protecting Ag Land, Protecting the Climate

Moderator: Kara Heckert, American Farmland Trust 

  • Matt Freeman, Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority
  • Michele Clark, Yolo Land Trust
  • David Bunn, Department of Conservation

Triple Win: Manure Management Strategies on California Dairies

Moderator: Mike Griffin, Organic Valley/CROPP Cooperative

  • Lynne McBride, California Dairy Campaign
  • Jana McClelland, McClelland’s Dairy
  • Jake Magneson, Magneson Dairy

Technical Assistance as a Driver of Climate Smart Agriculture

Moderator: Dave Runsten, Community Alliance with Family Farmers 

  • Rex Dufour, National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT)
  • Doug Parker, UC California Institute for Water Resources
  • Karen Buhr, California Association of Resource Conservation Districts

What It Takes On the Ground to Get Carbon Into the Ground

Moderator: Sara Tiffany, Community Alliance with Family Farmers 

  • Ellee Igoe, Solidarity Farm and SD Carbon Sink Farms
  • Blake Alexandre, Alexandre Family Farm

Policy Track

Getting the Most Out of California’s Climate Smart Agriculture Incentives Programs

Moderator: Vicky Dawley, Resource Conservation District of Tehama County

  • Kristin Sesser, Point Blue
  • Jessica Rudnick, UC Davis
  • Jeanne Merrill, CalCAN

Connecting California’s Climate & Agriculture Policies to Equity

Moderator: Gail Wadsworth, California Institute for Rural Studies (CIRS)

  • Thea Rittenhouse, California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)
  • Teresa Andrews, Western Center for Agriculture & Health Safety at UC Davis
  • Kassandra Hishida, Community Alliance for Agroecology
  • Combined presentation slides

Groundwater Management Implications for Agriculture

Moderator: Helen McGrath, Ditch Ranch & Flying M Ranch

SWEEP & Other Successful Water Conservation Programs

Moderator: Brian Shobe, CalCAN

  • Daniele Zaccaria, Cooperative Extension at the Department of Land, Air and Water Resources of University of California, Davis
  • Miguel Garcia, Napa County Resource Conservation District
  • Ruth Dahlquist-Willard, UC Cooperative Extension

Climate Adaptation: What Can We Do to Keep Producers Producing?

Moderator: Wendell Gilgert, Point Blue Conservation

  • Eric Larson, San Diego County Farm Bureau
  • Tapan Pathak, UC Merced Cooperative Extension
  • Adam Cline, Yocha Dehe Farm and Ranch

Science Track

Rethinking the Nutrient Management Paradigm for Soil Health

Moderator: Judith Redmond, Full Belly Farm

Managing Agroecosystems for Climate Resilience

Moderator: Jo Ann Baumgartner, Wild Farm Alliance

The Many Forms of Nitrogen in Agriculture and the Environment

Moderator: Ann Thrupp, Down-to-Earth Innovations

  • Mike FitzGibbon, California Air Resources Board
  • Genevieve Gale, Central Valley Air Quality Coalition
  • Noelle Cremers, California Farm Bureau Federation

Cutting Edge Soil Science

Moderator: Jane Sooby, CCOF

Lightning Talks

Moderator: Anthony Chang, Kitchen Table Advisors

Can seaweed reduce methane emissions from cattle?

Reducing tillage on organic farms: Farmer-led research

  • Cynthia Daley California State University, Chico Organic Dairy Program

The benefits of beaver stewardship to California agriculture and rangelands

The power of visual storytelling to educate, inspire and drive change in our food system

From research to tools: How the California Climate Hub supports climate-smart agriculture

An uncertain future of first-generation ranchers

State-of-the-art climate smart farmworker housing

Agriculture is green infrastructure: Blazing the trail on land use planning and funding in San Jose

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