Water Smart Farming & Policy
On September 1st, Conservation Works hosted a Water Smart Farming and Policy Workshop in Petaluma, California in partnership with the Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF). The goal of this workshop was to bring together farmers, policy experts, advocates, and community members to engage around one of Sonoma County’s most precious resources: Water.
As the state continues to struggle with severe drought, a number of policies continue to flow down the pipeline that are well-intentioned at best but ill-designed to support small farmers, and at worst neglect the needs of small farmers entirely. A panel of small farmers spoke to these challenges, detailing difficult harvests, crop failure, land insecurity, and the stress of working without a safety net.
While the stories shared by producers were sobering, many shared great interest and hope in the series of programs and other varied support being crafted at the state and federal levels for small farmers. Technical assistance providers from Conservation Works, CAFF, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, and UC Cooperative Extension dove into opportunities available through USDA and CDFA, including the Healthy Soils Program, the State Water Efficiency, and Enhancement Program (SWEEP), the Sustainable Agricultural Lands Conservation Program (SALC), the Conservation Stewardship Program, and more. Many producers in the room were aware of several of these programs, but unaware of the technical assistance that could be provided by the multiple organizations in the space.
Connecting producers to technical assistance soon emerged as one of the most prominent themes of this workshop, as well as the importance of engaging in the creation of future programs (through listening sessions, community meetings, and interfacing with TA providers) meant to support small farmers.
The North Coast Farmer Workshop Series is made possible through grant support from the California Department of Food and Agriculture and the National Association of Resource Conservation & Development Councils.