Happy Earth Day! We celebrated California Agriculture Day on the steps of the California Capitol just yesterday, and it helps provide a particularly positive perspective for our observance of Earth Day today.
Especially in California, agriculture has an important role to play in building climate-smart and highly resilient food systems.
Earth Day is an excellent opportunity to highlight the recent launch of the California Agricultural Research and Innovation Roadmap, a collaborative project with our UC and CSU systems, Community Colleges, the Ag Tech Alliance, and Western Growers. It’s an ambitious and important effort to bring innovative, science-based solutions to the challenges we face in a hotter, drier future. It presents key objectives to help us achieve climate resiliency as presented in last month’s release of the Climate Resilience Strategy for California Agriculture.
Through CDFA’s Climate Smart Agriculture programs, we support farmers and ranchers in adopting practices and technologies that prepare them for drought, extreme heat, shifting pest pressures, and other climate challenges, while continuing to feed communities across California and beyond.
Central to this work is CDFA’s Office of Agricultural Resilience and Sustainability (OARS), which delivers practical, on-the-ground solutions. Programs like the Healthy Soils Program (HSP) and the State Water Efficiency and Enhancement Program (SWEEP) are driving measurable results, from building soil organic matter and sequestering carbon to improving irrigation efficiency and reducing water and energy use.
CDFA is also advancing methane reduction through programs like Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP), Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP), and Dairy Plus Program. These programs efforts significantly reduce methane emissions while delivering co-benefits such as improved air quality and operational efficiency.
Through innovative programs, collaborative partnerships, and science-driven on-farm practices, we provide practical tools to enhance environmental and economic sustainability. From the ways we address pest infestations and quarantines, to the ways we respond to diseases that threaten the health of livestock, to the ways we support local and regional food systems through our Farm to Fork and Farm to School program to connect institutional procurement to markets for growers implementing climate-smart practices, we strive to make modern agriculture part of the solution. As an important economic driver and as an agricultural community, we are helping California achieve its ambitious climate goals, bring more nutritious, delicious food to students and families, and deliver our bounty to consumers at the local farmers’ market and on commodity exchanges around the globe.
California agriculture is recognized not only for its quality and quantity, but also for the sustainable, innovative, forward-thinking way our food is grown. Earth Day is about celebrating the progress we have made – together.