The League of Women Voters of California supports actions to enable California’s agricultural sector to adapt to climate change, mitigate and eventually negate the impacts that California’s agriculture and food production industry have on climate change, provide assistance to alleviate food insecurity and reduce food waste throughout the State, inform and educate citizens about how their food is sourced and produced.  Local Leagues and ILOs are urged to engage at their local and regional levels. Our actions are to:

• Promote climate-smart agricultural practices that include creating healthy soils and ecosystems, improving biodiversity, reducing greenhouse gas emissions; reducing water use, and do not degrade air, soil and water quality.
• Support financial incentives, technical assistance and regulations to promote and implement climate smart agricultural practices, research in this emerging field, and technology development.
• Promote the use of agricultural easements and other land use planning tools to save agricultural land from development and keep it part of California’s nature-based climate solutions land inventory.
• Promote and support policies and actions that reduce both food loss and waste and recover it for distribution or repurpose.
• Promote education and transparency about agricultural practices, including the social and environmental costs and impacts of producing agricultural goods.
• Promote policies that provide healthy, affordable food to underserved areas where “food deserts” exist.
• Promote education about the climate benefits of eating a healthy plant-forward diet.

Background and Rationale for Policy

Our changing climate, including prolonged periods of drought, severe weather events, warming temperatures, wildfires, and more, have adversely impacted California’s agricultural industry. With almost 70,000 farms in California, the agriculture industry employs about 10% of California’s labor force.  Providing 50% of the fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed in the United States, this $50 billion/year industry is a vital part of California’s economy and is integral to our nation’s food security. Climate change is a direct threat to that security. Currently, the agriculture and food production industry are significant sources of greenhouse gas emissions through fuel use; application of fertilizer, micro-nutrients, and other inputs; as well as methane emissions from livestock and food waste. Importantly, because healthy soils and ecosystems store carbon, by implementing “climate-smart agriculture” practices, the agriculture industry can be an integral tool to combat climate change. The UN IPCC Sixth Assessment Report (2022) determined that agriculture, forestry, and food systems solutions can provide nearly one-third of the greenhouse gas reductions needed, benefit biodiversity and ecosystems, improve food and water security, and more. 

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA), which is inclusive of sustainable and regenerative agricultural practices, focuses on enhancing resiliency to climate change; reducing greenhouse gas emissions; increasing soil health and biodiversity; decreasing water and energy consumption; and securing and investing in farmland for its climate benefits. CSA can help farmers increase profits, reduce resource use, build healthy soils, turn agriculture fields into carbon sinks, and enable California to reach its climate goals.

More than thirty percent of food that is produced is wasted. In 2021, more than twenty percent of Californians didn’t have enough food to eat. Food is a basic human need. Wasted food is a waste of human and natural resources – from human labor to land to energy to water. When food waste ends up in a landfill, it decomposes, releasing greenhouse gases, which add to climate change. This wasted food is also a wasted opportunity to provide nutritious, healthy food to those in need. By reducing, recovering, and redirecting food waste, California can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions and provide healthy food to all residents. 

Medical doctors recommend eating a healthy diet that contains mostly fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and healthy proteins.  Diets that contain highly processed foods, high amounts of meat, sugar, and fat have been linked to an increase in heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, and obesity and contribute to climate change because of their high carbon footprints. Moving Californians from a high carbon footprint diet to a healthy one with a low carbon footprint will require not just investments in providing access to healthy food for all Californians, but also in educating citizens about the nutritional value of their food, the sources of their food, the resources needed to produce the food including their social and environmental costs and impacts.

Justification for Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Action Policy

This section specifies national and state League positions that justify elements of the proposed Action Policy. The full position statements are given in the LWVUS publication Impact on Issues and the LWVC publication Action Policies and Positions.

LWVUS Positions

The League’s positions are to promote an environment beneficial to life through the protection and wise management of natural resources in the public interest and to promote social and economic justice and the health and safety of all Americans. Climate Change has adversely impacted agriculture and therefore our nation’s food security.  Food is a basic human need.

LWV Social Policy Position:
Meeting Basic Human Needs Support programs and policies to prevent or reduce poverty and to promote self-sufficiency for individuals and families. (food is a basic human need)

LWV Natural Resources Position:
Natural Resources Overarching Statement: Promote an environment beneficial to life through the protection and wise management of natural resources in the public interest.

• Agriculture Policy:  Promote adequate supplies of food and fiber at reasonable prices to consumers and support economically viable farms, environmentally sound farm practices, and increased reliance on the free market. 
• Climate Change: Support climate goals and policies that are consistent with the best available climate science and that will ensure a stable climate system for future generations.
• Public Participation Promote public understanding and participation in decision-making as essential elements of responsible and responsive management of our natural resources. (Californians have the right to know the impact their food choices have on others and the planet. Transparency in production process and the environmental impact of food.)
• Resource Management: Promote resource conservation, stewardship, and long-range planning, with the responsibility for managing natural resources shared by all levels of government. 
• Environmental Protection and Pollution Control
  • Air Quality – Promote measures to reduce pollution from mobile and stationary sources.
  • Energy – Support environmentally sound policies that reduce energy growth rates, emphasize energy conservation, and encourage the use of renewable resources.
  • Land Use – Promote policies that manage land as a finite resource and that incorporate principles of stewardship. (agricultural land is a finite resource that needs to be maintained and supported).
  • Water – Support measures to reduce pollution in order to protect surface water, groundwater, and drinking water, and set up a process to evaluate inter-basin water transfers.
  • Waste Management – Promote policies to reduce the generation and promote the reuse and recycling of solid and hazardous wastes. (Food waste is a solid waste).

LWVC Positions and Action Policies

Agriculture Position in Brief (1983):  Support policies that recognize agricultural land as a limited resource that must be preserved for the economic and physical well-being of California and the nation. Appropriate agricultural land should be identified and its long-term protection should be based on regulatory and incentive programs that include comprehensive planning, zoning measures, and other preservation techniques. State policy that affects agriculture should ensure the conservation of soil and water resources through incentives coupled with penalties for noncompliance.

Summary of Agriculture positions applicable to Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Action Policy:  We believe appropriate land should be identified and held for agriculture and that the state should provide a policy, plan, and guidelines for the long-term protection of agricultural land. We believe that soil and water conservation are essential elements in land management practices and that incentives should be provided to promote soil and water conservation.

Energy Position in Brief (1978; Updated 1980, 2006; Amended 2007) The League supports the development of a state energy policy that will ensure reliability of energy resources and protection of the environment and public health and safety, at reasonable customer rates, giving primary consideration to conservation and energy efficiency. State government should provide an efficient, coordinated energy administrative structure with open transparent procedures.

Summary of energy positions applicable to Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Action Policy:  We believe that because a substantial portion of California’s economy is based on agriculture, measures to reduce water-intensive crops and landscape plantings should be considered.

Hazardous Materials Position in Brief (1986 and 1987). The League supports comprehensive measures to provide maximum protection to human health and the environment from the adverse effects of hazardous materials, including pesticides. An integrated approach should be taken to prevent harmful exposures through soil, surface, and ground water contamination, bioaccumulation, air pollution, and direct contact. Hazardous materials planning should promote pollution prevention. All levels of government share responsibility for preventing exposures.

Summary of hazardous materials positions applicable to Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Action Policy:  We believe the public has the right to know the potentially harmful effects of materials they encounter in the home, workplace, and community; that hazardous materials planning should promote source reduction; and that standards should prevent degradation of existing clean air, surface and groundwater and soil.

Land Use Position in Brief (1975) Support state land use planning that recognizes land as a resource as well as a commodity. The state should establish guidelines and standards for land areas of more than local concern.

Summary of land use positions applicable to Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Action Policy: We believe that State policies, guidelines, and standards should be developed for land areas such as fragile or historic lands, renewable resource lands (including agricultural lands); that State land use planning should be part of an integrated overall state planning effort and that the state land use plan should coordinate plans and policies of local and regional agencies, maximizing local decision making and that the state government should help local governments develop and exercise land use management functions by increased state financial aid for research, technical assistance, and data collection.

Solid Waste Position in Brief (1973): Support measures to ensure environmentally sound and efficient solid waste management, reduce the generation of wastes, encourage resource recovery, and increase the demand for secondary materials.

Summary of solid waste positions applicable to Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Action Policy:  We believe the state should provide technical and financial assistance for research and development of improved collection and disposal methods; that regional solutions for solid waste disposal and recycling should be encouraged; and that all levels of government should encourage and support public education on these issues.

Water Position in Brief (1959; Updated 1961, 1967, 1971, 1979) Support measures that promote the management and development of water resources in ways that are beneficial to the environment with emphasis on conservation and high standards of water quality that are appropriate for the intended use.

Summary of water positions applicable to Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Action Policy: We support measures that protect the natural environment in areas of both water origin and water use; and that encourage conservation by all categories of water users.

Climate Action Policy (2023)

Summary of climate action policies applicable to Climate Smart Agriculture and Food Action Policy: We support promoting policies that mitigate impacts of climate change by adaptation in urban, rural, agricultural, and natural settings; promoting solutions that ease consequences of climate-related hardships to low- and moderate-income households.