By Jane Sooby
California’s Secretary of Food and Agriculture Karen Ross addressed the Second Statewide Agricultural Expert Panel at the panel’s Second Plenary Meeting held Friday, October 31, 2025.
Ross gave a high-level overview of the California Dept. of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) programs related to the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program (ILRP), stating she “wants to maintain the viability of agriculture” and acknowledging that regulatory programs create opportunities as well as challenges. She noted that the expert panel, which has been charged with answering a set of 9 questions to advise the State Water Board on the ILRP, will inform changes that CDFA has been wanting to make to its fertilizer program.
Ross described the resources available from CDFA’s Fertilizer Research and Education Program (FREP), including fertilizer guidelines for 28 crops that account for those grown on 6 million irrigated acres in California. Ross noted that technical assistance (TA) is a “vibrant and fundamental part of FREP.”
Ross described CDFA’s suite of climate smart funding programs that were initiated in 2014 in response to the drought beginning with SWEEP, a program aimed at improving irrigation and energy efficiency, followed by others such as Healthy Soils and methane reduction programs. These efforts were not in place at the time of the first ag expert panel, which completed its work in 2014. Ross stated that $690 million has gone into funding climate smart on-farm ag practices, resulting in reduction of 30 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents. She stressed the importance of providing TA to growers and noted that CDFA has granted $45 million to TA providers to assist growers with creating on-farm conservation or nutrient management plans and helping them apply for grant funds. Ross stated that CDFA is focused on “nature-based solutions” to climate change, which aligns with Governor Gavin Newsom’s California Climate Commitment.
Ross said she wanted to bring the panel’s attention to a regulatory alignment study convened by CDFA in partnership with the State Water Board and Cal EPA to find ways to relieve the 160 local, state, and federal regulations to which a farmer in California is subject. Spurred by a recent study out of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo that showed increased compliance costs for farmers, the regulatory alignment study made recommendations on streamlining ILRP, the Confined Animal Facilities Program, the Produce Safety Program, and the Winery Order. The regulatory alignment study has just undergone a round of public comment and the final report should be released in December.
Ross next mentioned the California AgTech Alliance, coordinated by University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC-ANR), noting, “The bioeconomy is being led by agriculture in the Central Valley,” giving the example of biomass from ag fields being converted to renewable energy. She noted the state’s policy to divert 75% of organic waste to compost or other uses. Ross also noted a recent agreement with Denmark positioning California and Denmark as “global leaders in creating a circular economy.” (“A Circular Economy for Healthy Soil” was CDFA’s theme for Healthy Soils Week in 2024.)
Ross ended her presentation by describing the economic might of California’s agricultural industry. California’s farms and ranches brought in a record level of over $61 billion of cash receipts in 2024, a 3.6% increase over the previous year.
A more detailed account of the expert panel’s Second Plenary Meeting will be published on Maven’s Notebook in the near future.
