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Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Campaign

Federal Bulletin

Take Action: Federal Action Alert

Bills Supported by CalCAN in 2025


2025 Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund Campaign

This year we have a once-in-a-decade opportunity to secure 15% of the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) for a portfolio of agricultural climate solutions. To learn more about the full campaign, read our introduction blog and our Spring update here.

Our campaign centers on a few key arguments:

  • California has agricultural climate targets but is not on track to meet them
  • Existing programs can help us meet those targets, but need consistent funding
  • Agricultural climate solutions are some of the most cost-effective GHG reduction solutions and offer a multitude of economic, environmental, food security, public health, and climate resilience co-benefits 
  • Agriculture has been underfunded relative to its GHG emissions and GHG reduction potential

Want to support this campaign? Sign your organization onto our support letter by sending our Policy Director, Brian, an email.


Federal Update: Congress is Failing Our Farmers.
Tell Your Representatives to Honor Farmer Contracts

Across the country, tens of thousands of farmers and farmer-serving organizations have been thrown into limbo by an unprecedented freeze of federal funding by the Trump administration. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) is currently withholding payments it owes under lawfully executed contracts, causing turmoil across the food system.

Families are anxious about grocery store prices and the availability of food in the long term. Inaction by Congress is likely to cause even higher food prices and more suffering.

Here’s why:

  • Farmers who’ve already installed new irrigation equipment or planted cover crops with support from USDA are now unable to receive the reimbursements they were promised.
  • Programs that match local farmers with local food banks are on hold, right when growers most need to know what to plant to serve their markets this season.
  • Organizations who train and support beginning farmers are instead having to lay off staff.
  • All of this is happening against the backdrop of extreme heat, unpredictable weather, catastrophic fires and other climate-related challenges.

None of this should be happening.

These are signed agreements with the federal government, and USDA must honor its commitments before impacts worsen in communities nationwide. Congress can act to fix this, and they need to hear directly from folks who are affected – along with all of us who care about our local farmers and ranchers, our fellow neighbors, and the organizations that help us strengthen our communities.

Raising your voice takes only 60 seconds!

Can you call and email your members of Congress, demanding they step up and protect our farmers and communities from further harm?  If you want to send an email, here is a simple form to fill out.

Calling makes even more of an impact, and it is easy to leave a message. Search for the phone number of your Representative and Senator by searching here. Below is a sample message that you can email or leave on a voice message.

Hello, 

My name is (your name), and I am a constituent of Rep./Sen. (your member of Congress). I am calling because I am appalled at seeing the federal government going back on the promises they’ve made to the people, especially to farmers. When our farmers suffer ALL of us feel that pain at the grocery store. 

(Optional: If there is an organization/program at risk in your community, elaborate on the impacts here.) 

We need Rep./Sen. (your member of Congress) to stand with the farmers, ranchers, and organizations in our community. You have the power to prevent harm by demanding that USDA releases funding and honors its commitments now!

Thank you for taking my call.

 

Farmers and the organizations that support them cannot afford to wait in limbo. Your voice matters—every email and phone call helps build the pressure needed to get funding restored. Please take just one minute to tell your representatives to demand immediate action. Our farmers, food system, and communities are counting on us.

 
 

We appreciate your time and action on this urgent issue! For additional updates on recent federal issues, visit our federal bulletin page


2025 Bills Supported by CalCAN

AB 491 (Connolly) – Natural & Working Lands Climate Targets

This bill, which is sponsored by Pacific Forest Trust, puts the state’s nature-based climate solutions targets, which were established last year by the Newsom administration as required by AB 1757 (C. Garcia, 2022), in statute so they have some staying power after Governor Newsom terms out in 2026. As a reminder, those targets include the following:

  • Increase certified organic acreage to 10% by 2030, 15% by 2038, and 20% by 2045
  • Increase healthy soils practice adoption on 140,000 additional acres/year by 2030; 190,000 additional acres/year by 2038; and 190,000 additional acres/year by 2040
  • Conserve 12,000 additional acres/year of croplands by 2030; 16,000 additional acres/year by 2038; and 19,500 additional acres/year by 2045
  • Conserve 33,000 additional acres/year of grasslands by 2030 & sustain that rate through 2045

AB 947 (Connolly) – Climate Smart Ag Technical Assistance

This bill would make a number of changes to the Climate Smart Agriculture Technical Assistance Program, initially established by AB 2377 (Irwin, 2018) that have been proposed by stakeholders based on their experience with the Program over the past seven years, including the following:

  • Expands the definition of technical assistance and list of eligible technical assistance activities to include conservation planning, matching funds coordination, translation, access to equipment, and environmental compliance.
  • Clarifies that technical assistance grants can be used to provide assistance to farmers and ranchers over multiple grant application cycles (e.g. if the Healthy Soils Program, State Water Efficiency & Enhancement Program, or Alternative Manure Management Program have grant solicitations multiple years in a row).
  • Allows the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) to support training and capacity building within technical assistance provider organizations and coordination between organizations to improve the quality, consistency, and reach of technical assistance to farmers and ranchers across the state and to help farmers and ranchers access all relevant state and federal programs.

AB 937 (Connolly) – Organic Transition Program

This bill, which is sponsored by CalCAN member California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF), will make a number of changes to the state’s Organic Transition Pilot Program based on experience with the program to-date, including the following:

  • Increases the amount allowed for administrative costs to 25% to account for the complexity of providing comprehensive support to farmers, including one-on-one technical assistance and business planning.
  • Allows for more comprehensive organic transition support by combining the organic transition components of the Conservation Agriculture Planning Grant Program into the Organic Transition Pilot Program.
  • Builds capacity for organic technical assistance providers to ensure robust backbone support for farmers transitioning to organic. 

SB 279 (McNerney) – On-Farm Composting Regulations

This bill, which is co-sponsored by several advocacy and commodity groups, removes a number of longstanding regulatory barriers to increasing the production and sale of compost on farms and ranches, including the following:

  • Increases the volume of on-site feedstock materials allowed from 100 to 500 cubic yards for composting operations which fall under the “excluded tier” (the lowest tier) under CalRecycle regulations (see section 17855 of Title 14 of the CCR)
  • Makes the composting of ag materials from a “large-scale biomass management event,” including orchard/vineyard removal and crop rotation, and the blending of those materials with manure an excluded activity under CalRecycle regulations
  • Increases the volume of compost a composting operation may sell from 1,000 to 5,000 cubic yards annually while still remaining in the “excluded tier” (where applicable under section 17855) or “enforcement agency notification tier” (for composting operations on agricultural land per section 17856(d)(1) of Title 14 of CCR)

AB 411 (Papan) – Livestock Carcass Composting

This bill, which is sponsored by the California Cattlemen’s Association, would authorize small-scale on-farm composting of routine livestock mortalities and butcher waste under best management practices (BMPs) adopted by CDFA in consultation with the State Water Resources Control Board and CalRecycle.

AB 524 (Wilson) – Land Access and Farmland Conservation

    Prop 4 allocated $30 million to support land access and stipulated all land acquired using those funds must be placed under an agricultural conservation easement. This bill, created by the Land Equity Collective facilitated by CAFF, is intended to direct those funds. It will establish the Farmland Access and Conservation for Thriving Communities Program, which will fund activities related to acquiring land for the purpose of increasing land access for BIPOC and beginning farmers. The bill also establishes the Farmland Access Fund.

    AB 694 (McKinnor) – Study to Improve Cal/OHSA Hiring 

      The State health and safety enforcement division, Cal/OSHA, has suffered from chronic understaffing for decades. On the ground, farmworkers are experiencing some of the most dangerous working conditions. One of the core reasons for this ongoing crisis is the Department’s inability to hire and retain enforcement staff because current minimum qualifications require college or graduate degrees, excluding inspectors with direct and diverse field experience. This bill will address these issues by creating an advisory committee and study tasked with developing recommendations to increase and diversify Cal/OSHA’s field inspector workforce, including recommendations to implement a training program that will create a pathway for people without college degrees who have cultural and language competencies and a deep dedication to worker health and safety.

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