Advocacy in Action

California Farm Bureau has submitted a letter supporting efforts by the California Dairy Research Foundation to develop planning and strategies for using organic waste to develop fuels.

The foundation is partnering with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Bioenergy Technologies Office, which supports research and technology development to convert biomass and other wastes to high-performance fuels while lowering greenhouse gas emissions.

Farm Bureau is collaborating on a proposal to conduct a scoping project that would evaluate the environmental and economic impacts of using dairy anaerobic digester effluent on a wide scale for development of hydrogen fuels.

Partners in the proposal include: Sandia National Laboratories, which works to ensure stable energy and water supplies; Dairy Cares, a coalition working toward sustainable practices for dairy farms; and California Bioenergy LLC, a developer of dairy digester projects for generating renewable vehicle fuels and electricity.

Most of California’s anaerobic digesters currently produce renewable natural gas. The scoping project would provide information on future income pathways for dairy digesters, including securing Department of Energy funding for exploring additional clean-fuel production from the dairy sector.

The California Farm Bureau opposes Assembly Bill 1963 by Assembly Member Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, which seeks to phase out the use of the herbicide Paraquat.

The bill was recently amended and voted out of the state Senate Appropriations Committee.

The measure had sought to require the California Department of Pesticide Regulation to complete a reevaluation of Paraquat to determine by Jan. 1, 2029 whether to cancel or suspend its registration or to place new restrictions on the use of pesticide products containing the active ingredient paraquat dichloride. However, the cancellation timeline has accelerated as the bill was amended.

If passed in its current form, the bill would prohibit the manufacture, sale and use of materials containing paraquat dichloride starting on Jan. 1, 2026.

The bill is on the Senate floor waiting to be heard, and Farm Bureau and other agricultural organizations continue to oppose and meet with Senate legislative offices to stop the measure from moving forward.

Farm Bureau is working with the California Department of Transportation to gather information on the range of fiscal impacts of another measure, AB 99.

The bill, by Assembly Member Damon Connolly, D-San Rafael, would require Caltrans to adopt a statewide policy by Jan. 1 to use integrated pest management on state roads and highways and report on its website about its use and application of pesticides and herbicides.

The measure is a deference to local and more prohibitive weed management standards. It would require Caltrans to post information online on the type, formula and amount of materials it intends to use in any city or county and identify the location at least 24 hours before any pesticide or herbicide applications.

(To read the full version of the California Farm Bureau’s Advocacy in Action newsletter, visit cfbf.com/advocacy.)