Calling all California farmers and ranchers!

Can you sign on to a letter calling on Governor Newsom to invest in food and farming infrastructure to recover from the pandemic? California has a budget surplus of $50 billion or more, and right now the Governor and legislators are debating how to spend it.

CalCAN is a member of a diverse coalition of sustainable organic agriculture, farmworker, environmental and food access advocates that has proposed a $779 million plan—just 1.5% of the surplus. We hope you will join us and let the Governor know how much this matters to your farming business, your workers and your community.

It’s easy to act: just click here to read the letter and add your name, farm name and logo.

Our deadline is May 15, so sign on now, and spread the word!

Background

Assemblymember Rivas and a group of legislators, backed by over 80 organizations, has proposed an ambitious package of programs and funding to provide infrastructure, training, and workforce development for farmers and ranchers to keep our farms viable and safe. Here is a summary of what is included in the funding proposal:

• $207 million to support sustainable and organic agriculture practices, make farms more resilient to drought, wildfires and other climate impacts, protect farmland from urban development, and improve access to agricultural land for farmers of color, beginning farmers and Tribes.
• $157 million to protect the health and well-being of California’s farmworkers by building multi-unit, family housing for farmworker families, improving energy efficiency and indoor air quality in existing housing, and making sure they have safe drinking water and personal protective equipment when at work.
• $155 million to expand access to healthy food for all by funding projects such as upgrading school kitchens to prepare fresh, healthy food, improving emergency food delivery systems, making healthy foods more available at farmers’ markets and urban farms, and improving senior nutrition and farm-to-senior programs.
• $155 million to strengthen regional food economies so local food can be processed, stored and delivered efficiently with shorter distances between farm and table, including $20 million to expand local and regional meat processing.
• $75 million to protect our valuable groundwater.
• $15 million to reduce food waste and increase compost production.
• $15 million to prevent and recover from wildfires.

This effort is part of a larger campaign to advance a bond measure proposed for the November 2022 ballot that would ask voters to invest over $3 billion in five years to build on these investments. You can read more about the bill, Assembly Bill 125, and the coalition supporting it here.