The Newsom administration has released a long-awaited roadmap for easing the way farmers and ranchers navigate California’s food safety and water quality rules. It calls for more technical assistance, better data systems and closer coordination among state agencies.
The final Regulatory Alignment Study, released Wednesday by CDFA, CalEPA and the State Water Resources Control Board, lays out 18 recommendations for improving how the state administers overlapping requirements under the Produce Safety Program, the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program, confined animal facilities permits and the statewide Winery Order.
The report does not recommend lowering food safety or water quality standards. Instead, it focuses on making regulations clearer, more consistent and easier to comply with, particularly for small, diversified and multilingual farming operations that often lack staff, broadband access or technical support.
“California agriculture leads the world, not by standing still but by constantly innovating,” said Gov. Gavin Newsom, in a statement. “This roadmap is about making the regulatory process work better for the people growing our food and sustaining communities across the state, while maintaining the food safety and water quality standards that Californians depend on.”
The alignment effort has roots in a 2010 recommendation from the State Board of Food and Agriculture to pursue smarter regulation through better agency coordination.
The study, funded in the 2021-2022 state budget and conducted by Crowe LLP and Blankinship & Associates, was based on nearly three years of research, more than 70 listening sessions, eight public workshops, 30 subject-matter expert interviews, 40 agency staff interviews and 29 written submissions.
CDFA Secretary Karen Ross said farmers, ranchers, local leaders, advocates and agency staff helped shape “a roadmap for smarter regulation – one that keeps pace with the complexity of today while preparing for the challenges of tomorrow.”
The recommendations are split into three tiers. The near-term “foundational” steps include creating a small farm regulatory support team within CDFA’s Farm Equity Office; expanding coordinated outreach and education; building a technical assistance request tool tied to the Produce Safety Program portal; and improving reporting options for confined animal facilities.
Medium-term recommendations include developing a departmentwide CDFA farm inventory; using produce audit certificates to inform risk-based inspection priorities; supporting water board-accepted sustainability programs; moving confined animal facility reporting online; simplifying Irrigation and nitrogen management plans for some small diversified farms; and developing agricultural water quality progress dashboards.
The most ambitious recommendations call for a California agricultural data exchange framework, a digital permit navigation tool, a map to track cross-program participation, modernization of CDFA program platforms, recognition of qualified third-party food safety audits, and centralized nitrogen data to advance groundwater protection.
State water board Chair Joaquin Esquivel said the report highlights the need to strengthen data systems “to maximize their value to decision-makers and the public while minimizing the cost of compliance for growers.”
The report also recommends creating a joint implementation working group and using progress reports and community feedback loops to keep the process moving. It cautions that some recommendations may not be appropriate statewide and should allow regional discretion, particularly for water board programs.
Whether the plan leads to meaningful relief for producers will depend on funding, staffing and how well agencies align systems that have historically operated separately. But the report frames the effort as a necessary step as growers face rising costs, climate volatility, evolving water quality rules and new federal food safety requirements.
