This week the agenda and all proposals and discussion documents for the fall 2021 National Organic Standards Board (NOSB) meetings were posted online. Sign-up for public comment during October 13 and 14 online webinars is now open. If you want to make an oral comment, register now because the slots can get filled up quickly.
The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) is accepting public comment through June 15 on the funding rules for its new Conservation Agriculture Planning Grant Program. Please consider making a comment using the points outlined below.
An outcome of CCOF’s advocacy for CDFA support for organic farmers in its Climate Smart Agriculture programs, this new program received $20 million in Governor Gavin Newsom’s May revision of the state budget.
Yet today, widespread economic inequality prevents many families from accessing organic. Income inequality is at its highest in California’s history, with a pay disparity almost double today what it was in 1980.
Longtime farmer advocate and state administrator with deep roots in the organic community Jenny Lester Moffitt has been nominated by President Joe Biden to serve as U.S. Department of Agriculture undersecretary for marketing and regulatory programs.
Last week, Representative Chellie Pingree (D-ME) and Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) introduced the Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA), which outlines a national roadmap for reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. agriculture by the year 2040.
After three years of public hearings, numerous revisions, and intense deliberations, on April 15, 2021, the Central Coast Water Quality Control Board approved a new agricultural order regulating discharges from irrigated lands.
CCOF recently launched our “Meat Matters” Campaign with the goal of expanding meat processing capacity in California and advancing organic livestock production as a solution to California’s toughest challenges.
We started by asking: Why should California support ranching?
Here are just five reasons why we need ranchers more than ever:
On Thursday, April 15, CCOF–co-sponsored AB-125 passed the Assembly Agriculture Committee with a bipartisan 10–0 vote, moving on to the Natural Resources Committee. The “Equitable Economic Recovery, Healthy Food Access, Climate Resilient Farms, and Worker Protection Bond Act of 2022,” which would invest $3.302 billion across the food and agriculture system over five years, would constitute the largest state investment in organic agriculture in California’s history.
A new bill authored by Salinas Valley legislator and the new chair of the Assembly Agriculture Committee, Robert Rivas, represents the most significant investment in organic agriculture in California’s history. AB 125, The Equitable Economic Recovery, Healthy Food Access, Climate Resilient Farms, and Worker Protection Bond Act, would make a $3 billion investment in regional infrastructure, worker protections, food access, and sustainable and organic farming.
In today’s world, pet goats participate in yoga classes, apartment building walls bear signs advertising “Farm Fresh Eggs,” and the consumer appetite for organic meat and dairy is skyrocketing. Despite this popular sentiment, a lack of investment in regional meat supply chains threatens the future of regional, organic, and regenerative ranching.