DEFINING REGENERATIVE AGRICULTURE WORK GROUP ESTABLISHED

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SACRAMENTO, January 22, 2024 - The California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) has established a Regenerative Agriculture Work Group to assist the State Board of Food and Agriculture in defining “Regenerative Agriculture” for State Policies and Programs. The 13-membergroup represents a diversity of agricultural stakeholders and members of the State Board and EFA SPA.
 
Regenerative Agriculture Definition Working Group: 
1. Doria Robinson, State Board of Food and Agriculture (member) 
2. Bryce Lundberg, State Board of Food and Agriculture (member) and certified regenerative organic farmer 
3. Derek Azevedo, Bowles Farm 
4. Dr. Daniel Rath, Natural Resources Defense Council 
5. Dr. Cynthia Daley, Director, Chico State University Center for Regenerative Agriculture 
6. Elizabeth Whitlow, Regenerative Organic Alliance 
7. Dr. Jeff Dlott, Chair, CDFA Environmental Farming Act Science Advisory Panel 
8. Dr. Qi Zhou- California Association of Resource Conservation Districts 
9. Matt Byrne, Byrne Cattle
10. Blake Alexandre, Alexandre Family Farms 
11. Eric Morgan, Braga Fresh 
12. Krystal Acierto, Deputy Secretary for Public Policy, California Environmental Protection Agency 
13. Virginia Jameson, Deputy Secretary for Climate and Working Lands, CDFA 
 
The Regenerative Agriculture Definition Work Group will consider input from the public and CDFA’s Environmental Farming Act Science Advisory Panel proposed framework to draft a recommendation for a definition of regenerative agriculture. The draft definition is anticipated to be submitted to the State Board for consideration in June 2024. 
 
The department anticipates up to three public meetings in Sacramento for the group. These meetings, estimated to be three hours each, will allow the review of feedback provided through public listening sessions, discussion on key elements of a regenerative definition and development of a draft definition for consideration by the California State Board of Food and Agriculture. 
 
In October of 2022, in response to growing interest in “regenerative agriculture” and use of the term in legislation, CDFA’s State Board of Food and Agriculture initiated a public process to define the term for the purpose of state policies and programs. In addition to the three working group meetings, the public process will include a series of five public listening sessions, two of which have been held so far; for information about future listening sessions, please visit https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/RegenerativeAg/. 
  
The first meeting will occur on January 31 from 12:30 to 3:30 in the CDFA Auditorium at 1220 N Street. The final 30 minutes of the meeting will be open for public comment. An option to listen to the meeting and make public comment remotely will be available. Registration for online participation will be available on the CDFA website at https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/RegenerativeAg/.

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