Climate Smart Foodways
Why is Climate Smart Foodways a priority?
Arizona boasts a variety of landscapes and environments including deserts, canyonlands, grasslands, woodlands, rivers, and mountains. The state’s ecological diversity supports not only diverse wildlife species but also many forms of agricultural production at any given time of the year. From Yuma’s multi-billion dollar agricultural industry to small, urban farms and rural livestock operations scattered across the state’s fifteen counties, all food producers have one thing in common – they are feeling the impacts of climate change. Drought is prevalent and persistent. Wildfires are frequent and devastating. Storms and heat are intensifying. In an industry that is exceptionally vulnerable to weather changes and events, the threat of continued climate change is palpable. Long-lasting drought and rising temperatures lead to deteriorated soil health and strain an already limited water supply. The threats loom not just for crops and cattle but for agricultural workers as well.
Responding and adapting to these changes takes significant effort and a collective approach. While taking on climate, land, and water issues can often feel daunting, developing a plan that breaks issues into tangible pieces provides hope and direction. AZFSN’s diverse membership of food systems practitioners and farmers have agreed that building relationships across the agricultural community is critical to addressing the state’s climate issues. Arizona’s farmers and ranchers are innovative, resilient, and adaptive. Despite many major contributors of climate change coming from outside the agricultural industry, food producers are already playing their part to improve soil health practices, reduce water usage, integrate efficient technology, and streamline processing and distribution to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and unnecessary resource consumption. As such, knowledge and practices exist within the network of talented growers across the state. The commitment to address climate change through agricultural practices also holds true in the state’s academic community. Moving forward, there is a need to better publicize and share what’s working in different regions of the state. There’s a need to work together to secure funding for infrastructure and resources that help producers experiment, adopt, and sustain new, climate friendly practices. Importantly, there’s also a need to change consumer and institutional purchasing to demand products that are better for the environment.
Climate Smart Foodways Goal
Increase access to infrastructure and resources related to climate-smart agriculture practices.
What AZFSN members shared about Climate Smart Foodways as a statewide priority
Climate smart foodways is a complex priority area that requires careful navigation of both opportunities and challenges. While participants acknowledged the overwhelming scale of land and water issues, they recognized climate smart foodways as a unifying framework that connects these critical resources – particularly given Arizona’s unique position as a year-round growing state with diverse microclimates that demand region-specific solutions. Key strategies include developing community networks for sharing environmentally sound growing practices and building relationships to encourage commodity farmers to dedicate parcels to regenerative, local production. Participants emphasized the need for authentic engagement rather than performative use of climate-smart terminology, calling for an open-source knowledge base that documents practices and impacts through before-and-after stories and data. Crucially, participants stressed the importance of acknowledging and centering Indigenous knowledge systems and climate-smart practices that have long existed in Arizona, while developing business models that promote Indigenous-grown products and technical assistance approaches rooted in traditional ecological knowledge (TEK).
Potential Climate Smart Foodways Activities
| Water Conservation & Management |
| Conduct outreach and education around water conservation methods by connecting those who are using these practices with those who are interested in using them |
| Implement closed-loop water resource practices, such as rain tanks or energy-saving homes, to enhance food production with rainwater while promoting infrastructure investment and accessibility for farmers to optimize water usage and yields |
| Increase access to water infrastructure for scaling up on farms and ranches |
| Provide targeted technical assistance and funding to empower growers to adopt climate-smart practices while implementing tariffs and policies to discourage the export of water-intensive, non-food commodity crops that deplete vital groundwater resources |
| Market Development & Distribution |
| Create a cooperative distribution model that includes a framework for climate-smart practices, gets affordable local food into local markets, and pays farmers a fair wage for their products |
| Shift institutional purchasing priorities to align with arid climate-smart approaches to drive food supply chain resiliency, foster market independence from grant funding, and promote the widespread adoption of climate-smart crops by Arizona farmers |
| Financial Incentives & Support |
| Create financial incentives to encourage sustainable food procurement, land stewardship, and food waste reduction |
| Advocate for government investment in smaller farms growing climate-smart crops |
| Expand the adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices, and work toward assuring their sustainability, by finding resources that can help producers adopt such practices and assure increased revenue streams through grants, carbon credits, and/or marketing assistance |
| Field-test strategies for using biochar application as a means of carbon sequestration, improving soil quality and agricultural yields, and improving land access and retention through carbon credits |
| Incentivize opportunities to implement climate-smart practices among growers |
| Education & Training |
| Implement food systems education at K-12 schools and universities, highlighting where food comes from, school gardens, and sustainability |
| Provide climate smart/sustainable growing practices training to farmers |
| Develop network of community educators to disseminate climate smart practices and resources |
| Develop a working set of guidelines, tailored to Arizona’s diverse agricultural regions, of climate-smart agriculture practices, and build a robust set of educational resources to help producers learn about them |
| Work with Indigenous partners to acknowledge and share the origins of “climate smart agriculture” in Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) |
| Develop a resource hub for sharing region-specific sustainable growing practices being utilized across the state |
| Soil Health & Carbon Sequestration |
| Field-test strategies for using biochar application as a means of carbon sequestration, improving soil quality and agricultural yields, and improving land access and retention through carbon credits |
| Waste Reduction |
| Create financial incentives to encourage sustainable food procurement, land stewardship, and food waste reduction |
| Diversify composting processors across the state |
| Community & Urban Agriculture |
| Increase native trees and edible landscaping in urban areas to enhance community aesthetics, provide shade, and reduce resource consumption |
| Seeds & Biodiversity |
| Regional investment in locally adapted seeds (not for patenting – open source only) to increase local bioregional resiliency of produce growers vs climate change |
Are you working on a relevant climate-smart foodways initiative?
We are asking AZFSN partners to help us gather and collect data across the state to help track and monitor the progress of the food action plan.
