Maintaining agricultural land can be a solution to climate change. Renata Brillinger, Executive Director at California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN), and her team are working to incentivize sustainable practices like composting, cover crops, and solar pumps at farms. They promote four grant programs that help farmers and ranchers have a positive impact on the planet and their bottom line.

The first is to prevent urban sprawl by funding easements to maintain working farmland. The second is to increase on-farm water use efficiency which also reduces energy consumption. The third is to reduce methane emissions in livestock operations by collecting dry manure. And the fourth is to fund healthy soils programs to improve the organic content in soil and reduce the need for synthetic inputs.

As of December 2022, there are more than 200 million dollars in grant funding coming online. It is important that farmers apply for funding not only to execute their own projects but to ensure that these programs continue to be funded in the future.

References:

• 28: Understanding Soil Health
• California Climate & Agriculture Network (CalCAN)
• CalCAN Newsletter
• California's Healthy Soils Initiative
• SIP Certified
• State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP)
• Top 5 Soil Health Resources

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