Sustainable Farms and Fields Grant Program

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The Washington State Conservation Comission was authorized in 2020 to start a grant program to support sustainable agriculture in Washington state. This was to address a relative weakness in state funding for agricultural systems. Because of the emergency of Integrated Floodplain Management efforts, a new funding source to support agricultural aspects of IFM may increase project implementation.

Notes

  • Fact sheet from Washington Audubon promoting the program in late 2019 as part of its overall climate platform.
  • Findings and Intent: "The legislature finds that Washington's working agricultural lands are essential to the economic and social well-being of our rural communities and to the state's overall environment and economy. The legislature further finds that different challenges and opportunities exist to expand the use of precision agriculture for different crops in the state by assisting farmers, ranchers, and aquaculturists to purchase equipment and receive technical assistance to reduce their operations' carbon footprint while ensuring that crops and soils receive exactly what they need for optimum health and productivity. Moreover, the legislature finds that opportunities exist to enhance soil health through carbon farming and regenerative agriculture by increasing soil organic carbon levels while ensuring appropriate carbon to nitrogen ratios, and to store carbon in standing trees, seaweed, and other vegetation. Therefore, it is the intent of the legislature to provide cost-sharing competitive grant opportunities to enable farmers and ranchers to adopt practices that increase appropriate quantities of carbon stored in and above their soil and to initiate or expand the use of precision agriculture on their farms. This act seeks to leverage and enhance existing state and federal cost-sharing programs for farm, ranch, and aquaculture operations."
  • https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=89.08.615