Category: Informational

A Note from Our Director | May 2026

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Dear Partners and Stakeholders, 

Spring is in full swing and, as always, we are energized by seeing the fields come alive with bee boxes, new plantings, fascinatingly complex farm equipment, and, of course, farmers hard at work stewarding the land and bringing food to our tables.  

At the beginning of Healthy Soils Week, I had the pleasure of visiting Westwind Farms in Woodland with the Almond Board and hearing Kirk Pumphrey share his experience recycling almond hulls and shells as mulch in his orchard. He also spoke about his research partnership with UC Davis’ Tanya Gerperle-Goncalves to better understand the impacts of these practices. The farmers attending that event had great questions about how these practices could translate to their own operations and what benefits they might expect, giving me insight into where they saw opportunities and where the challenges lie in broader adoption.  

Later in the week, we visited Twin Peaks Orchards in Newcastle and toured their operation with co-owner Justin Miller and staff from the Placer Resource Conservation District. It was inspiring to see their partnership in implementing a project supported by OARS’ Healthy Soils Program (HSP) Block Grant and to see our friends at the Community Alliance for Family Farmers create an excellent learning environment for the legislative offices and state government leadership in attendance.  

I left Healthy Soils Week with the renewed sense of purpose I needed to sit right back down in front of this computer and keep collaborating with stakeholders and my staff to strengthen and improve our grant programs. We look forward to reviewing HSP and State Water Efficiency Enhancement Program (SWEEP) concept proposals soon and to beginning outreach for our equipment sharing program this spring and summer. 

I hope you are finding similar inspiration in the bustle of spring. 

Sincerely, 

Dr. Tawny Mata

How OPCA Is Making Sense of California’s Pesticide Use Trends

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California leads the nation in data transparency through the collection and sharing of pesticide use data, providing stakeholders, state agencies, and the public with valuable insights into pest management throughout the state. The Pesticide Use Reporting (PUR) Database maintained by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) serves as a resource for the public to track and understand how pesticide use has changed in California over the past decades. Every year, DPR releases their Pesticide Use Annual Report to highlight short-term and long-term pesticide use trends by commodity and categories of interest (e.g. biopesticides, carcinogens, toxic air contaminants) to inform actions to mitigate potential impacts to human health and the environment and to inform California’s transition to safer, more sustainable pest management. 

California’s agricultural landscape is constantly evolving in response to the development of new technologies, novel pest threats, and the changing climate. Furthermore, the diversity of California’s specialty crops means different types of growers must use different pest management strategies to adapt to new conditions. To better understand what specific factors are driving changes in important categories of pesticide use, CDFA’s Office of Pesticide Consultation and Analysis (OPCA) has published a report on how individual crops and pesticide active ingredients contributed to changes in the use of pesticide categories of interest between 2022 and 2023.  

In many cases, the use of specific pesticide active ingredients increased in one crop while it decreased in another, highlighting the complexity behind total annual changes in pesticide use categories. For example, DPR’s Annual Report shows that the total pounds applied of pesticides classified as carcinogens decreased by 6% from 2022-2024, but the acres that received treatments of pesticides classified as carcinogens actually increased by 6% in the same period. OPCA’s report breaks down the specific uses of each pesticide in the carcinogen category to show that glyphosate use increased in almond, pistachio, and corn and drove up the number of acres treated, while fumigant use fell in carrots, grapes, and almonds, driving down pounds applied.  

Changes in Use of Pesticides Classified as Carcinogens by crop from 2022-2023.  

The OPCA report also shows that many changes in annual pesticide use are driven more by how many acres of a crop are grown that year rather than any changes in management practices by growers. While the use of the herbicide thiobencarb doubled in rice production between 2022 and 2023, California grew twice as many acres of rice in 2023 compared to 2022. This highlights the importance of looking at how individual crop systems change and how specific pesticide products are used in order to accurately interpret how pesticide use data reflects in-field conditions and to evaluate how state policies and programs are effectuating changes in pest management practices. The full report contains many actionable insights into pesticide use across categories and throughout the state. 

Community Science Ground Nesting Bees Project

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Bee pollination contributes hundreds of billions of dollars annually to the global economy. Wild bees provide free pollination services to farmers, which significantly improve both the quality and quantity of crop yields. Seventy percent of wild bees nest in the ground and some species form large, long-standing nesting sites while others are more solitary. Our knowledge on the ~20,000 global bee species is lacking despite their importance to supporting ecosystem resilience, agricultural sustainability, and food security. Conservation efforts have historically focused on plants, leaving critical gaps in our understanding of bee nesting biology.  

Launched in June 2023, Project GNBee brings together a broad coalition of community scientists, researchers, and institutions to establish a national monitoring program for ground-nesting bees. The project has three primary goals to address the lack of understanding of native bee nesting biology. 1) Discover, document, and study the nesting requirements of ground-nesting bee sites; 2) protect nesting sites and assess associated health risks to bees; and 3) develop multiple management strategies for agriculture.  

Project GNBee is progressing our knowledge of native bee nesting behavior. This effort will help pollinator biodiversity and promote a resilient, diverse pollinator community, vital for the health of ecosystems and agricultural economies. 

Learn more about the project here.  

You can help contribute to this project and advance our knowledge of native bees by uploading photos to the iNaturalist project. Here’s how to upload photos to iNaturalist.  

If you take videos of ground nesting bees, please send them to groundnestingbees@gmail.com.  

An Alternative to Dacthal 

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Author: Kari Arnold, PhD, Western Region IR-4 Associate Director, Environmental Toxicology Dept., UC Davis 

On October 22, 2024, EPA prohibited the use of all products containing the herbicide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate (Dacthal or DCPA) under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). Although the reason for the cancellation was based in science, the decision left many vegetable growers in California at a loss for how to manage weeds at planting. CDFA’s Office of Pesticide Consultation and Analysis (OPCA) has been supporting research into herbicide alternatives through the IR-4 Project, a federal research program ensuring that specialty crop farmers have legal access to safe and effective crop protection products as regulations evolve. Through IR-4, OPCA has funded researchers spearheading the effort to register pyraflufen-ethyl, an alternative to Dacthal. 

EPA’s cancellation came in response to robust studies demonstrating thyroid toxicity related to unborn babies of mothers exposed to Dacthal via handling or working in areas where it was recently applied. Prior to cancellation, Dacthal filled a niche use pattern most herbicides couldn’t. As a “pre-emergent” herbicide, it could limit the emergence of existing weed seed populations in the soil. Dacthal provided this type of protection long enough for a vegetable crop canopy to grow in, but with little to no injury to the various crops listed allowed to use it. This unique capability made many vegetable crops reliant on Dacthal as an integral step in their Integrated Pest/Weed Management (often referred to as IPM) Program. 

Steven Fennimore, a retired UC Davis Professor of Cooperative Extension, invited me down in early 2023 to visit his USDA Salinas station weed management studies. While walking to the trials, he remarked that many specialty crops have been reliant upon the same herbicide chemistries for 60 years, and that we need to see if there are applicable alternatives. Part of Steven’s career consisted of collaborations with registrants and IR-4 to broaden the range of options for vegetable growers to accomplish that goal. In terms of Dacthal alternatives, pyraflufen-ethyl was one material of interest. Although this is a contact herbicide, meaning it must contact the weeds to work and cannot be used before weeds emergeSteven and the registrant, Nichino America Inc., had been testing varying rates and application times to determine an acceptable crop injury use pattern for an over-the-top application to onions and garlic. If successful, this material could control early emerging weed populations during the initial stages of crop development.  

Although there was till on-going research at that time, I encouraged Steven to submit the request in 2023. With support from CDFA-OPCA, the registrant, and Western Growers, submission was prioritized at the IR-4 Food Use Workshop and moved forward for the 2024 field research season. Given our current timeline, the product should be available to growers by 2030. 

CARB report shows California’s natural and working lands absorbed nearly twice the carbon lost to wildfires

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The California Air Resources Board (CARB) released the second edition of California’s Natural and Working Lands Carbon Inventory this week, showing that even with catastrophic wildfires occurring more recently, the state’s natural and working lands have absorbed more carbon than they released since 2001, helping counterbalance emissions from those fires.

The report takes a comprehensive look at how our forests and farms help fight climate change. To reach California’s 2045 carbon neutrality goals, we must scale approaches such as prescribed fire, Climate Smart Agriculture, and ecosystem restoration.

Highlights for Agriculture:

  • In 2022, croplands stored 278 MMT of carbon, equivalent to 5.6% of the carbon stored in California’s natural and working lands. Roughly three quarters of this was contained in the soil.
  • Between 2001 and 2022, total cropland carbon stocks (biomass + soil carbon) increased by 15 MMT, driven primarily by increases in perennial orchard biomass carbon stocks.
  • From 2014 to 2022, biomass carbon increased across most perennial crop types, largely reflecting expansion in orchard area. Almonds contributed the largest increase, followed by pistachios, walnuts, and citrus. Vineyards in contrast showed a decline in biomass carbon associated with loss in vineyard area.
  • Since 2001, gains in perennial biomass carbon have been concentrated in the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys, with other regions showing small net change overall.

“California’s natural and working lands are proving to be powerful allies in our effort to address climate change,” said CARB Chair Lauren Sanchez. “Even in the face of devastating wildfires, California’s ecosystems continue to grow and absorb carbon dioxide, helping us move toward carbon neutrality. This inventory shows the incredible power of nature and is yet another example of how California continues to stand up for science with innovative programs and policies.”

The inventory is developed to identify how lands can help California achieve carbon neutrality by measuring annual gains and losses year over year. It complements the state’s annual greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) inventory which counts emissions and reductions from about 80 percent of California’s sources of human-caused climate emissions. 

The inventory shows that California lands store nearly five billion metric tons of carbon with over 70% of all carbon in forests and shrublands. The inventory accounts for all organic carbon stored in living and dead biomass, near-surface soils, and wood products harvested from within the state.

While the report shows that nature has helped counterbalance wildfire emissions since 2001, California’s lands have more recently lost more carbon than they absorbed because of record-breaking wildfires driven by climate change. 

This demonstrates how climate change and other human-induced factors continue to impact the carbon balance of our ecosystems and the importance of California’s efforts to reach carbon neutrality to avoid even worse impacts in the future. It also shows the important role of prescribed fires, which help reduce overgrown vegetation and keep ecosystems healthy, helping prevent destructive wildfires and protect communities.

The inventory underscores the massive amount of carbon in California’s vegetation and soils and the importance of achieving state’s Nature-Based Solutions Climate Targets.

This work is further supported by Governor Newsom’s commitment to conserve 30% of the state’s lands and coastal waters by 2030 (known as 30×30) to help protect natural systems and combat biodiversity loss.

See the full announcement on CARB’s site.

A Note from Our Director | January 2026

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As we step into 2026, I want to take a moment to reflect on our progress in 2025 and share what lies ahead for OARS in the coming year. At OARS, we remain committed to building a sustainable and thriving future for California’s farmers and ranchers. Shifts in climate and the environment continue to challenge producers to adapt and innovate. In the last year, sharp changes in the costs of doing business, regulations and markets have layered additional challenges.  

The resilience of our state’s producers is impressive and I’ve enjoyed every opportunity I’ve had to visit farms and ranches and learn not only how producers are adapting to the present moment, but how they are preparing the ground for the next generation. It is our privilege in OARS to advanced science-driven solutions and strengthen partnerships to help producers navigate these challenges and plan for the future.  

Key Highlights: 

Looking ahead, 2026 marks an exciting new chapter. Thanks to the passage of Proposition 4, the $10 billion Climate Bond approved by voters in November 2024, CDFA received critical new funding to expand climate-smart agriculture: $40 million for the State Water Efficiency Enhancement Program (SWEEP), $65 million for soil health and carbon sequestration practices that we will use to support the Healthy Soils Program (HSP), and $15 million to launch a new Equipment Sharing Program (ESP). 

We are pleased to share that public comment is now open on the draft Application for Guidelines and Grant Award Procedures for both HSP and SWEEP.  Your feedback during this public comment period is essential as we refine these programs and prepare to launch the next round of climate-smart investments.  Visit our Climate Bond Funding for Climate Smart Agriculture webpage for more information.

I’m grateful for your continued dedication, and I look forward to the work we will do together to build a stronger, more resilient agricultural system for generations to come. 

With Gratitude,
Dr. Tawny Mata

Update on Cannabis Appellations Program 

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OARS has been working on the preparation of a rulemaking to make amendments to the Cannabis Appellations of Origin program (CAP). The CAP was established through voter-initiative with the passage of Proposition 64 in 2016 and CDFA is responsible for establishing the rules for participation in the program and administration of the program. An appellation of origin legally defines products and production methods of specified geographic regions, protecting them from false or misleading labelling and marketing.  

CDFA’s CAP incorporates aspects and traits of various established appellation programs for agricultural products throughout the world, like wine, and applies them to the context of the California cannabis industry. The program will only be available to licensed outdoor cannabis cultivators. Cultivators must submit a petition in accordance with regulations to establish an appellation of origin. This program will promote regional cannabis products and local businesses, prevent the misrepresentation of a cannabis product’s origin, and support consumer confidence about a cannabis product’s origin and characteristics.     

CDFA released the latest rulemaking on January 2, 2026. A 45-day public comment period will run until midnight on February 17, 2026. The proposed changes reduce the number of cultivators per appellation of origin petition from 3 to 1 and provide clarity on the usage of names in conflict with an approved appellation of origin. To learn more about the program, the open rulemaking, and how to comment, please visit the program’s webpage at cdfa.ca.gov/oars/cap. 

As the rulemaking proceeds, we look forward to updating stakeholders and the public on the program’s opening, currently expected for summer 2026. For questions, please contact the program directly at CannabisAg@cdfa.ca.gov 

Stakeholders provide input on draft of the Climate Resilience Strategy for CA Agriculture 

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Over the last year and a half, CDFA has been hard at work on our first ever Climate Resilience Strategy for California Agriculture (RSA) led by Deputy Secretary for Climate and Working Lands Virginia Jameson. The RSA lays out the climate change challenges affecting our agricultural system and what the state is already doing—including investing in tools and innovations, developing and administering programs, offering technical assistance—and highlights where there are opportunities for the state to do more.  

State agency staff, including staff from the Office of Agriculture Resilience and Sustainability (OARS), utilized their expertise in agriculture and climate impacts to prepare a draft of the RSA for public comment that was available October 7, 2025 – November 21, 2025. CDFA received 30 letters by email and more than 250 comments through the online commenting system. CDFA is very grateful to all of you who took the time to provide thoughtful and detailed comments. 

Generally, stakeholders were supportive of the RSA and were happy to see its comprehensive approach. Many commenters offered support for existing OARS Climate- Smart Agriculture programs. Below are a few of the common themes we saw in the comments: 

  • Stakeholder interest in a focus on regulatory streamlining and improved state agency collaboration
  • A need for tools to improve fertilizer use and nutrient management  
  • An interest in pursuing California’s energy and farmland conservation goals simultaneously through solutions like agrivoltaics 
  • Revisions on the discussion of voluntary carbon and ecosystem service markets 
  • The development of metrics to track progress on climate action in agriculture 
  • Recognizing the impacts on and the importance of targeted resources for small and diversified farms  
  • The need for on-farm technological advancements and equitable access  

OARS Staff are collaborating with other state agency staff to review and address comments to refine the RSA and uplift stakeholder suggestions where possible. We expect the final RSA to be available in 2026 – check out the RSA website for more updates and information. Stay tuned! 

The Strategy is organized into three pillars that describe CDFA’s plan for climate resiliency.
Within each pillar, the chapters detail agricultural topics important to the pillar’s objective.

Catch Up: The Latest Dairy Methane Reduction Investments 

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In case you missed it, three of the manure methane reduction grant programs administered by CDFA OARS announced awards in December 2025, closing out the year with some exciting news. The awarded projects represent important progress in the dairy and livestock sector towards meeting the State’s methane reduction targets and expands the overall impact of these incentive programs. Including the newest awards, projects supported by the three programs to date will reduce an estimated 27.43 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents over their minimum projected lifetimes. 

California dairy cows and the environment can benefit from improved manure management projects.

AMMP and DDRDP:  

In the fall of 2025, the Alternative Manure Management Program (AMMP) and the Dairy Digester Research and Development Program (DDRDP) received $7 million in Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds as part of an amendment to the Budget Act of 2025 – these funds were part of a previous appropriation split across two fiscal years. The arrival of the $7 million allowed the two programs to offer some additional awards to those that had applied in the most recent grant round but had not yet received an award due to insufficient funds, boosting the total number of projects captured by the 2024 AMMP and 2024 DDRDP solicitations. 

In December 2025, the AMMP announced the addition of 5 new projects, receiving $3.69 million in grant funds, to the 25 projects originally awarded in April 2025. The DDRDP added 2 new projects, receiving $2.6 million, to its list of 5 originally awarded projects.  

Dairy Plus Program: 

The Dairy Plus Program is a collaborative effort between CDFA and the California Dairy Research Foundation, funded by the USDA Advancing Markets for Producers initiative. Just before the end of 2025, DPP announced awards for its second grant solicitation round. The program awarded 23 projects associated with newly awarded, in-progress, or previously completed AMMP or DDRDP projects a total of nearly $27 million in federal grant funding, matched by more than $28 million from private sources and state Greenhouse Gas Reduction Funds. 

Despite a lengthy delay due to federal transitions, the awards were highly anticipated as these projects install advanced, larger scale manure management practices. These practices not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions but also help manage nitrogen and salt surplus, improving water quality and making great strides in dairy sustainability. 

Stay up to date on methane reduction program news, including the next call for applications for the Dairy Plus Program expected in early 2026 – visit our webpages or follow us on social media! 

A Note from Our Director | August 2025

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Dear Stakeholders, 

I hope you enjoy this newsletter showcasing the accomplishments of our grantees and partners and giving you a peek at how we lead our programs to serve producers while contributing to the state’s sustainability goals. Additionally, I want to take this opportunity to summarize the funding status of OARS programs, so you know which opportunities are in the future. 

OARS expects to receive $65M in funding for our Healthy Soils Block Grant Program (HSP) and $40M in funding for our State Water Efficiency Enhancement Block Grant Program (SWEEP) from Proposition 4 – Climate Bond and we tentatively plan to offer all of that funding as part of one funding opportunity in fall 2025. Through Prop 4, OARS also expects to receive $15M for a new Equipment Sharing Program (ESP) that will require extensive stakeholder consultation before opening for applications in 2026. The legislature has not appropriated the Prop 4 funding, and the state is still in the process of finalizing rules and guidelines for using the funding. The timeline of these two key external processes may affect OARS’ timeline.  

All state funding appropriations have an “expiration date,” and it is always our goal to give grantees a generous grant term within that expiration date to allow for bumps in the road. To that end, we will keep pushing forward with refining framework for the HSP and SWEEP solicitations at our August 15th Environmental Farming Act Science Advisory Panel (EFASAP) meeting, followed by a written public comment period and simultaneous stakeholder workshops that will inform the final Request for Grant Applications. We look forward to your participation and help refining our block grant model. 

Our Dairy Plus Program, which is a subaward from the California Dairy Research Foundation of a grant funded by the USDA Alternative Markets for Producers initiative (formerly the Partnership for Climate Smart Commodities program), is ongoing but undergoing federal review and revision. This program funds infrastructure on dairies that reduces greenhouse gases and improves nutrient management, and we have approximately $58M remaining in the budget for new grants to producers. We are hopeful that we will be able to announce the results of the 2024 solicitation and run a new solicitation soon, pending a final and functioning grant agreement. At this time, there is no additional funding for the Alternative Manure Management Program and Dairy Digester Research and Development Program. 

Lastly, the Office of Pesticide Consultation and Analysis received a $1.5 million increase in spending authority and an increase in the amount of agricultural mill fee the office can use. Using reserve funding first, OPCA will use the spending authority to address increased research costs, meet the Program activities identified in the Sustainable Pest Management (SPM) Roadmap, and perform increased consultative work for the Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), as required by Assembly Bill (AB) 2113 (Chapter 60, Statutes of 2024). In the short term, the increase will also go towards funding our Biologically Integrated Farming System (BIFS) grant program at $1-3 million a year and support for the California IR-4 Project. As AB 2113 related work increases, OPCA will increase spending on research awards related to regulatory work and decrease BIFS Funding. 

We will be in contact with you through our mailing list with all updates related to our grant programs. If you know organizations who are likely to be good applicants or partners for these programs, particularly those that serve socially disadvantaged and underserved producers, please encourage them to sign up for our mailing list and reach out to us directly for more information.  

May the rest of your summer be full of delicious in-season California berries, stone fruit, and tomatoes. I know I’ve been doing my part to support that part of our agricultural economy. 

Sincerely, 

Dr. Tawny Mata
OARS Director
CDFA Science Advisor