Sc Can Meeting with Ag Commissioner Juan Hidalgo 11/19/19

House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis

Complete report on how Agriculture can help

Letter to farmers

added 11/10/19

Forestation

New Techniques using Mycelium and Miyaki planting process. 11/10/19

Brief Report on Ag Outreach Nov 6, 2019 by Pauline Seales

Terminology

The general public and many science writers use the term REGENERATIVE FARMING for any farming method that adds carbon to the soil instead of releasing it to the air.

In DRAWDOWN  – 80 solutions  “Regenerative Farming” is just one specific method in over a dozen.

In CA the term “Climate Smart Agriculture” is preferred

New forestation techniques – from webinar

Meetings Report

1. Penny Ellis 10/31

Penny is a Live Oak Grange member and has organized county-wide Open Farm Tour events for at least the past 2 years. She’d like to organize a grange event with farm/ag speakers.

We felt that the rest of this year is booked or too rushed so thought possible the end of January might work. I found out later from Ellen that our usual 4th Thu Jan 23rg would conflict with the Asilomar conference but we might be able to switch to the 5th Thu Jan 30th

Penny has many farmer connections including Taylor farms and also the Slow Food/Slow Money groups.

Suggested links                    

https://www.ofbyforall.org/   Nina Simone group about better organizing https://www.terroirinajar.com/  small company doing great work with surplus farm produce

2.  SWEEP 11/1

I attended this workshop in Watsonville. SWEEP funds farmers for projects that combine reduced water usage and reduced GH gas emissions. Much of the workshop was devoted to complex application details. The interesting point is that, despite the difficulty, “Good” applications exceed the funding and many are rejected. Valerie Perez works for UCSC extension and part of her job is helping farmers with these applications.

One of the other State programs “Healthy Soils Initiative”  has closed for the year and will open early in 2020

3. Ag related Suggestions to SC CAN Planning  11/4

a) Thank them for the emergency resolution including Climate Smart Ag, the May 2-19 plan updates, zero C by 2030 county and new manager hiring.

                  b) The 2019 County update contains many excellent programs BUT Agriculture is not included.

  • Recently 196 countries agreed to reduce atmospheric CO2 thru regenerative farming
  • Climate Smart Farming (the preferred term in CA) was included in the Feb 2019 resolution but has NOT been addressed so far.
  • Some farmers lack information, and resources to make big changes
  • The county could help significantly through workshops and grants, as currently all “Good” applications don’t get funding. Also County could set up simpler “mini-grants
  • We could contact the Commissioner  Juan Hidalgo before talking to Supes

4.  Ellen Farmer 11/5  Lots of great ideas. Farmers are afraid of making big changes to the new Climate Smart methods. Winter is the quiet season – good for conferences etc.

Upcoming Events include:

11/7  Webinar – FREE    https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ieVCptFuQHOYeLIZL6eelg

11/9/11  Conservation Camp at Coyote Valley, S. San Jose  – inexpensive Camp out https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ecocamp-coyote-action-weekend-tickets-76395616345

 12/06/19  Conservation Tillage demonstration, talks and lunch  -FREE ( Pauline just emailed registration) Triple M Ranch 420 Hall Rd Watsonville – contact  Pam Krone   pam.krone@noaa.gov

  1/22/20-1/25/20  Eco-Farm Conference Asilomar    Eco-Farm.org Pauline considering doing the Jan 22 Regenerative Agriculture Field Day at Swanton Pacific Ranch, cost $10

5.  Nancy Faulstich  11/6   Pauline emailed and asked for Watsonville area Caput constituent contacts to help when we ask to meet with him

6. More resources    The CALCAN website has loads of info, and the weekly newsletter is useful – you can sign up at the bottom of the home page. Lots of great informative links. More info on new farming methods