To Our Farmer Friends

Thanks for all your hard work producing delicious healthy foods. We’d love to you get acquainted with state programs and new methods designed to help deal with an uncertain future.

Current problems include

  • Increasing salt-water intrusion
  • Unreliable winter rains
  • Unreliable “Cold nights” for fruit trees
  • Increasingly warm temperatures in the fields for pickers

The newer farming methods can greatly increase soil water retention and overall soil health reducing expenses for water and fertilizers. They will also put carbon back into the soil and help reduce long-term climate change.

The County of Santa Cruz adopted this as part of it’s Emergency Climate resolution

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, the County of Santa Cruz shall investigate ways to support transitions to Climate Smart Agriculture, including farm management practices such as cover crop, no-till, reduced-till, mulching, compost application, conservation plantings and active stock rotation by way of education, and by providing information on available State and Federal conservation grants and incentives.

Current resources include

  • CCI Carbon Farming: https://www.carboncycle.org/carbon-farming/
  • CDFA Healthy Soils Program: https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/oefi/healthysoils/
  • CDFA State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP): https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/oefi/sweep/
  • California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN): http://calclimateag.org/ – Great info site

We would like to get your help to persuade the county to provide supplemental grants to HSI, SWEEP applicants and well as smaller simpler mini grants.  Please contact paulineseales120@gmail.com