2026 Legislative Session Highlights: $60 M for Farmland Conservation, $70 M for Climate Smart Ag and Local Food Systems, and Goat Grazing Contractors Protected

By Brian Shobe

The 2026 California legislative session is over and the deadline for Governor Newsom to sign bills has passed. Here at CalCAN, we’re celebrating some hard-fought wins amidst a tough budget year, including:

• $60 million for farmland conservation
• $70 million for climate smart agriculture and local food system programs
• Protected goat contract grazing in California

In this blog, we summarize the 2026 legislative session’s wins and losses, both for efforts that CalCAN led and CalCAN supported. Have questions about any of them? Email our Policy Director Brian [at] calclimateag.org.

State Budget Wins

The budget context for fiscal year (FY) 2026-2027 was another difficult one, with the state facing a budget deficit for the fourth year in a row, prompting the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office to diagnose the state’s negative fiscal situation as “chronic.” This situation was made worse by changes the California Air Resources Board made to the state’s Cap-and-Invest Program in May that reduced current and projected future investments in climate programs. That context made the following budget wins both remarkable and bittersweet: