California has a golden opportunity to fund climate smart agriculture | Opinion

In the wake of January’s devastating Los Angeles wildfires, and as federal action on climate change has slowed to a standstill, Californians recognize that our state must lead on climate solutions. Indeed, one of the bright spots in the November 2024 election — which was otherwise not great for climate action — was California’s approval of a $10 billion climate bond. But we’re still missing important opportunities to simultaneously reduce emissions and improve climate resilience by investing more robustly in climate-smart agriculture practices on our state’s farms and ranches.

A decade ago, California led the nation by creating a suite of state programs that help farmers transition to climate-friendly methods, many of which also improve farm resilience to extreme weather. These methods include strategies like planting perennials at the field edge or using cover crops in the off-season, both of which boost soil carbon and improve farmers’ ability to capture and store winter moisture for our increasingly long dry seasons.

Farmers ultimately see economic benefits from many of these practices. For example, hedgerows pay for themselves with pest control and pollination services after seven to 16 years. But state programs are essential to help farmers cover upfront costs while they wait for long-term returns on investment.

The problem, however, is that the California legislature hasn’t funded these programs adequately or consistently. In recent grant cycles, farmer demand for these incentives has outstripped available funding by two or three times.

Failing to adequately fund climate smart agriculture programs is a huge missed opportunity. These are some of the state’s most cost-effective climate programs: Out of 90 climate programs in the state that are funded with cap-and-trade revenue via the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the four main climate smart agriculture programs are all among the top twenty in terms of cost effectiveness. Just one of these programs — the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program — is responsible for 15% of total emissions reductions achieved with the state’s cap and trade revenue, even though this program only receives 2% of the total funding.

These programs also benefit Californians in myriad ways that go above and beyond their climate benefits: Improvements made with support from these programs save farmers thousands of dollars per year on energy, water, fertilizers and pesticides. Consequently, they also reduce dust, pesticides, nitrates and other sources of pollution that impact farm workers and rural communities. A recent Cal Poly analysis found that 71% of farmers who received grant money through these programs planned to continue using the climate smart practices they were funded to adopt even after their incentive period sunsets.

California must also invest in climate solutions in other sectors, such as energy, transportation and buildings. But agriculture is underfunded relative to its impact. While agriculture accounts for 8% of California emissions and has the potential to not only mitigate emissions but also sequester carbon, the sector has received only 5% of cap-and-trade funds to date. Even this number is a bit misleading, as most of this funding has been one-time discretionary funding, not stable support that farmers can count on. In terms of continuously appropriated cap-and-trade revenue (the long-term support that farmers need to make long-term plans) agriculture has received just 2%.

Fortunately, the legislature has a once-in-a-decade opportunity this year to reallocate our state’s climate funding, arguably our last chance to get this formula right before the worst impacts of climate change take hold. I urge the legislature to commit 15% of the state’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, on a continuous basis, to fund climate smart agriculture programs. Our state’s farmers and ranchers are ready to lead on climate action. Let’s have their backs.

This story was originally published April 6, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "California has a golden opportunity to fund climate smart agriculture | Opinion."