State Assembly Votes Unanimously for Agriculture Resilience Bill

The California Assembly voted 78-0 recently to pass AB 1071, a climate and agriculture resilience bill by Assemblymember Monique Limón and sponsored by CalCAN. The Ag Climate Adaptation Tools bill responds to the immediate and long-term climate change risks farmers are facing by establishing a competitive grant program to achieve three objectives: 1. strong for California farmers, similar to the AgroClimate Toolkit and Adaptation Workbook that have been developed for other regions in the US. Such decision-support tools are intended to incorporate the best available climate science into farm management planning to help inform farmer decision-making about a number of climate related issues affecting their operations, including crop/cultivar selection for a changing climate and how to improve resilience to more frequent and intense droughts, floods, and heat waves. 2. Pilot the decision-support tools in three agricultural regions of the state – the Central Valley, Central Coast, and Desert Region – with local farmers, ranchers, technical assistance providers, and agricultural organizations. This will further refine and ground-truth the tools. 3. Finalize the tools and facilitate trainings for technical assistance providers, like UC Extension and RCDs, and other agricultural organizations on how to use the adaptation tools with farmers as well as effectively communicate with producers about climate adaptation needs. AB 1071 builds on the momentum created last year by AB 409, a similar bill authored by Asm. Limón and sponsored by CalCAN. AB 409 received unanimous bipartisan votes in both the Assembly and Senate policy committees, but was ultimately held in the Senate Appropriations committee along with approximately a dozen other climate change adaptation bills as the new Governor’s administration asked for more time to develop its approach to climate issues. As we know, the climate challenges facing farmers are not getting any less urgent. As just one example, a November 2019 Stanford research brief on climate impacts on perennial crops states that “severe changes to crop yields could likely occur during the estimated 20-year plus lifetime of a single orchard or vineyard.” For farmers planting perennial crops this year, “This makes the choice of selecting a cultivar for a particular region more complicated as growers now must face the risk that the best variety for the current climate may be poorly suited for future climates.” As a state, we have climate models and relevant research that can help farmers make more informed planting and management decisions that mitigate climate change risks, but we have to make that often highly-technical and complex information practical, accessible, and operationally relevant to producers on the ground. For a more extensive review of some of the most significant impacts of climate change on California agriculture and what is predicted in the coming decades, check out our publication Cultivating Climate Resilience in Farming. AB 1071 is now in the Senate, where policy committees are likely to take up the bill in June. In the meantime, we’ll be advocating for greater investments in agricultural resilience and food security, including AB 1071, in the budget and a climate resilience bond proposal currently working its way through the legislature. A broad coalition of 30 organizations support the Ag Climate Adaptation Tools bill, spanning agricultural, public health and environmental interests. We are grateful for their support. Organizations Supporting AB 1071 Agriculture & Land-Based Training Association American Farmland Trust California Association of Winegrape Growers California Certified Organic Farmers California FarmLink California Food & Farming Network California Land Stewardship Institute California Rangeland Conservation Coalition California State Grange Center for Land-Based Learning Center for Food Safety Community Alliance with Family Farmers Community Environmental Council Ecological Farming Association Environmental Working Group Kiss the Ground Occidental Arts & Ecology Center Pacific Forest Trust Pesticide Action Network Public Health Institute Roots of Change Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority Sequoia Riverlands Trust Sustainable Agriculture Education Vineyard Team Wholly H2O Wild Farm Alliance Wild Willow Farm & Education Center Wine Institute Share this: