Rfk Jr.’s Into Regenerative Ag. California’s Still Figuring It Out.

SACRAMENTO, California — Indigenous farming practices are the trendy new agricultural craze sweeping both sides of the political aisle. The fight is over how to define them.

California farming regulators like "regenerative agriculture" for its potential to boost soil health, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has name-checked it as part of his argument that conventional production methods are making Americans sick. Former California Rep. and Democratic firebrand Katie Porter has also said she’s a fan.

But as California contemplates steering more state funding toward it, a definition has proven elusive. The state Board of Food and Agriculture voted Tuesday to postpone adopting a draft definition until its next meeting Jan. 7.

"We want to be careful of what we're setting out in the first definition," California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross said at the meeting.

The challenge: Making the definition broad enough to get people on board, but narrow enough so that it actually means something.

The term generally refers to a style of farming stemming from indigenous practices that prioritizes soil health and biodiversity over crop yields. Touted as a climate solution, the practices are key to the state’s nature-based solution targets to transition millions of acreage of croplands to healthy soils practices by 2045 and to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order to protect biodiversity and advance carbon neutrality through agriculture.

The term has become increasingly common in the marketplace as well as in legislation and government programs: It’s popped up in a 2021 law setting up a pilot program for ag laborers without documentation and a 2022 law on a state grant program, for example.

But agreeing on a definition hasn’t been easy. In California, the main question has been whether regenerative agriculture should require an organic certification, which prohibits the use of synthetic pesticides and synthetic fertilizers among other requirements but has proved to be costly and time-consuming.

Tribal groups and small farmers have expressed concern that requiring an organic certification might represent a barrier to entry, meaning only farms with deeper pockets can access the pathway to regenerative, and therefore, more funding from state initiatives.

“I keep trying to keep the big picture in my mind; we need to move hundreds of thousands of acres into better practices, not thousands,” said Doria Robinson, executive director of Urban Tilth and CDFA board member.

But many retailers, larger farmers, and small business owners and community members are arguing that not requiring organic as a starting point risks turning “regenerative” into an empty marketing term.

“I’m terrified that this [term] is going to be used in the marketplace as a marketing tool, and it’s way too vague for that,” said Mark Squire, a longtime Marin County grocery retailer, at one of CDFA’s meetings this summer. He's pushing for guardrails, a trackable framework and possibly even a free state-sponsored organic certification.

On the national level, the Biden administration hasn’t formally embraced a definition of climate-smart or regenerative agriculture for marketing purposes. But officials at the Department of Agriculture have already expanded what qualifies as climate-smart for the purposes of obligating grant money from the Inflation Reduction Act and other farm bill programs, illustrating how squishy the definition remains. Green groups like the Environmental Working Group criticized the changes for lacking any climate benefits.

Whatever California eventually decides could be a model for a federal definition down the line.

Some companies aren’t waiting around, adding the label to their packages as part of their marketing. Even agrochemical companies like Syngenta and Bayer/Monsanto have used the term in their resilience goals.

“The devil is in the details. Right now, it’s already a risk that it can be an empty marketing label, because it has no definition,” said Assemblymember Steve Bennett, a Ventura County Democrat who's long pushed bills aiming to boost small and organic farmers.

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