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For the past eight months, San Benito County officials, agricultural leaders and community members have been meeting to shape the future of local farmland. On July 22, they gathered to discuss how agriculture contributes to climate change and how it could play a role in reducing emissions and driving economic development.
The meetings are part of a long-term effort to create the Agricultural Element, a new chapter in the county’s General Plan focused specifically on agriculture. Despite being the county’s largest industry—generating $360 million annually—agriculture doesn’t currently have a separate section in the plan.
The Ag Element aims to change that by establishing strategies to support and protect farmland. The project is funded through a $500,000 grant from the California Department of Conservation, which seeks to strengthen policies to prevent farmland from being developed, preserve open space and support the local economy and food security.
In San Benito County, agriculture is not the main source of greenhouse gas emissions warming the planet. It represents just 1.7% of the total emissions in both San Benito and Santa Clara counties, said Megan Miranda, a consultant with ICF, the firm hired to draft the document. Of that 1.7%, more than 80% comes from methane released by cattle, sheep, horses and goats.
Based on the projected growth of agriculture in San Benito County, Miranda said greenhouse gas emissions are expected to nearly double from 2023 to 2050, largely because of an expected 40% increase in livestock. The net increase, she said, would be more than 58,000 metric tons, equivalent to the amount of CO2 emitted by more than 13,000 gas-powered vehicles in a single year.
Several stakeholders questioned both the relevance and the accuracy of these projections.
“If I can put words in just about everybody’s mouth in here about this data, it seems like it’s unrealistically skewed towards the livestock in this county,” winemaker Donald Wirz said. “The data says that 1.7% of greenhouse emissions in our metro area come from ag. What are we doing here? Given that, I think we should be giving ourselves a little bit of a pat on the back.”
Wirz said he found it “a little hard to believe” that the number of livestock was expected to increase by 40% in 25 years.
Rancher Joe Morris agreed, arguing the data failed to account for how weather patterns—particularly drought—affect livestock numbers.
“I wouldn’t think almost anybody in San Benito County in the agricultural industry would be guessing that the numbers of livestock were going to increase over the next 25 years,” he said. “Because pasture is not going to increase over the next 25 years, and it’s probably going to go the other way with some of the pressures on it. So the trend going up just doesn’t fit.”
Arielle Goodspeed, the county’s principal planner, said that more than focusing on the emissions produced by the ag industry, staff and consultants wanted to focus on the opportunities agriculture offers for carbon sequestration.
“Ag land, working lands, is the best way to help put carbon back into the ground,” she said. “So really, that’s our focus. You know, it’s you guys that are going to be helping with the emissions of all the commuters.”
Miranda outlined several practices aimed at making agriculture more sustainable. For vineyards and orchards, she recommended improved nitrogen fertilizer management and the use of mulch. On grazing lands, she proposed compost application, silvopasture and grazing management. For croplands, she suggested better fertilizer use and transitioning from intensive tilling to either no-till, strip-till or reduced-till practices.
San Benito Resource Conservation District Executive Director Karminder Brown asked that compost application be removed from the list.
“In my experience, I don’t feel that compost application on grazing lands is a feasible practice,” Brown said. “There are a few people in this county who have experimented with it or are experimenting with it, but, you know, these are for the most part very large ranches with a lot of topography. Compost is expensive to haul and transport. So I think these recommendations have come from other parts of California where they have higher rainfall and have more dairy cattle. That practice doesn’t translate to our landscapes.”
Stakeholders, county staff and consultants also discussed the opportunities for economic development offered by agriculture.
Consultant David Ryder highlighted five areas with potential: tourism, organic farming, agricultural processing, agricultural technology and sustainable practices.
Stakeholders were asked to vote on which opportunity they believed had the greatest potential for the county. The top choice was agricultural processing, followed by technology, organic farming, tourism and sustainable practices.
Kay Filice, president and owner of Filice Farms, pushed back on the recommendation to incentivize organic farming.
“I think there are many, many benefits to organic farming—to the environment, to the soil,” she said. “It’s important that you are aware that organic farming for row crops is not increasing. The trend is definitely downward. We shouldn’t incentivize people to go into that when it’s just not profitable. There isn’t the demand that there used to be.”All the recommendations will be included in the first draft of the Ag Element, which the county expects to release for public comment in the fall. The next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 26 and will focus on risk assessment and farmland conservation. The final document is expected to be completed in winter 2026.
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