Changing How Arizona Grows Food with Climate-Smart Agriculture

The next several decades in Arizona will include climatic uncertainty with record breaking temperatures and extended periods without seasonal monsoons and rainfall. Climate uncertainty has become the new norm, and farmers and ranchers are looking to old and new ways of growing food to help them adapt. Within this space, a way of producing food dubbed “Climate-Smart Agriculture” has emerged. For Arizona farmers and ranchers, this involves implementing practices that enable food production to become more resilient during disruptions, building healthy soil and promoting carbon sequestration, and conserving water by becoming less reliant on irrigated crops.

What Does Climate-Smart Agriculture Mean?

“Climate smart” is a relatively new term and is becoming more mainstream, with the federal government investing nearly $20 billion for agricultural producers and forest landowners nationwide to voluntarily adopt climate-smart practices. Additionally, over three billion dollars will be paid to hundreds of producers, agricultural organizations, corporations, universities, and nonprofits to implement climate-smart commodity projects. Under the umbrella of “Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities,” 141 collaborative grant projects across the United States will focus on sequestering carbon, paying farmers, ranchers, and forest owners to adopt climate friendly practices, and developing innovative, premium markets for the products grown using such practices.

With a wide range of grant recipients from large agribusiness companies like Tyson to more grassroots organizations, there is no single definition of climate smart, which means varying practices can be used. Additionally, climate-smart farming does not include a list of allowed or prohibited practices. Climate-smart agriculture, however, must show the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and/or an increase in the amount of carbon stored in the soil through measuring, monitoring, and verifying processes. Climate-smart practices can include reduced or no tillage, planting cover crops and trees, the reduction of fossil-fuel based inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, nutrient management, and pasture and forestry management.

What Does Climate-Smart Agriculture Look Like in Arizona?

With no set definition for climate smart, this type of agriculture will vary state to state, as each state also has its own contextual considerations and environmental challenges. Arizona’s context varies between hot, dry desert landscapes to grasslands and forests. Heat, drought, and water scarcity are also on top of Arizona’s list of climate challenges.

In 2022, several USDA “Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities” grants were awarded for two separate Arizona projects:

Climate SMART (Specific Management for Arizona Resilience and Transformation) Agriculture Best Management Practices
Arizona Partnership for Climate-Smart Food Crops

The first $4.9 million project is led by the Arizona Association of Conservation Districts (AACD) and involves a collaboration between 13 organizations and other entity partners, as well as 40 Arizona producers—20 of which are tribal. The project focuses on incentivizing climate-smart practices such as reducing pesticide and fertilizer inputs, low or no tillage, planting diverse cover crops, resting pastures, and rotational grazing. The project also emphasizes cross-cultural knowledge sharing between tribal producers and other Arizona producers, as well as marketing development for these climate-smart commodity crops. Local First Arizona will be participating in this grant by developing markets for food products grown using climate-smart practices, as well as consumer outreach and education.

“This grant project is Arizona agriculture specific,” noted Sharma Torrens, a consultant with AACD. “We have a unique landscape here that is dry and arid, and many best management practices are not designed to necessarily work here. This grant is designed specifically for our climate and water issues and is tailored for our producers and their ag operations. We are paying early adopters to implement organic practices, Indigenous knowledge, and conservation practices, and are also paying conventional producers to implement climate-smart practices that increase soil and ecosystem health.”

Getting consumers on board with supporting producers who are using climate-smart practices and purchasing food grown this way will be critical in developing markets. “Educating the public on why we need to use climate-smart practices will be very important, as well as creating consumer support for climate-smart grown products,” said Patty Emmert, Director of Resilient Food Systems at Local First Arizona.

The second $4.7 million USDA “Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities” project is led by the University of Arizona and focuses on promoting innovative climate-smart food production practices that reduce water use and greenhouse gas emissions. Local First Arizona – a partner on this grant as well – will aid in developing marketplaces for climate-smart crops through branding and collaborative efforts with chefs, local food events, restaurants, farmers markets, and other retailers.

Many of the conventional crops currently grown in Arizona are poorly equipped to adapt and survive in Arizona’s harsh desert conditions that are becoming hotter and drier. However, desert foods and wild relatives of modern-day food crops that have grown here for thousands of years – and have adapted to heat, drought, and poor soils – hold the key to weathering the type of climatic stress that Arizona is experiencing. The climate-smart food grant project will incorporate inventive approaches to farming, such as agrivoltaics, as well as time-tested techniques like dryland farming, strip cropping, and agroforestry.

***Jesus Garcia from Mission Garden and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum***

During a panel discussion on climate-smart agriculture at the 2023 Good Food Forum + Expo, participating grant partners Jesus Garcia, Michael Kotutwa Johnson, and Gary Nabhan shared their thoughts on the upcoming climate-smart grant projects and the potential impacts these projects can have on Arizona agriculture. “Instead of viewing the situation we have before us in terms of technology, what about also looking to the old ways?” said Jesus Garcia from Mission Garden and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. “What were Indigenous and earlier Europeans growing here say 300 years ago? What are the plants that have been growing successfully in the desert for thousands of years? Diversity is the name of the game. We need to look at the many heirloom varieties of trees and crops that people have been planting and breeding.”

Michael Johnson, a Hopi dryland farmer and Assistant Specialist at University of Arizona’s Indigenous Resilience Center, will be working with tribal communities through the project. He explained during the panel that Hopi farmers raise crops to fit the environment rather than manipulating the environment to fit the crops. “We have been doing this for a long time,” Dr. Johnson said. “Place-based knowledge is key for adaptability and resilience.”

Gary Nabhan, an ethnobotanist, author, and grant project principal investigator, pointed out that Arizona agriculture is one of the highest water users per acre in the country, and the state is going to continue to see dramatic climatic shifts in the coming years. Incorporating Indigenous agricultural knowledge and drought tolerant crop production is part of the approach to deal with climate challenges. He added, “the next decades in Arizona will be more disruptive and more change. Temperature thresholds will be higher than we’ve ever had. We are hitting temperature limits and saline soil limits. We have to get 20 to 40% more efficient with water use.”

Developing Markets for Climate-Smart Products

A key to ensuring the success of climate-smart agriculture, as well as these Arizona grant projects, will be to create markets and consumer demand for climate-smart products. By generating higher value for climate-smart products, farmers and ranchers will benefit from new revenue streams and diverse market channels.

Making climate-smart, desert-adapted products accessible and changing consumer palates to recognize and enjoy these foods will be crucial. Local First will be collaborating with local chefs, restaurants, retailers, local food businesses, food festivals, and other partners to expand the local marketplace and introduce these products to mainstream and niche markets. While some communities are familiar with desert-adapted foods like nopales, prickly pear, tepary beans, mesquite pods, cholla buds, and agave, these foods are new to many others. “We are much more adaptable as consumers than we think,” Nabhan said.

Agriculture as a Climate Solution

As environmental challenges intensify, and agriculture is viewed as a contributing factor, climate-smart agriculture is a way to show how agriculture – done certain ways – can be part of the solution. While growing food to adapt to environmental conditions is not new, current and future climatic uncertainty requires innovative approaches.

These grant projects are creative collaborations between universities, farmers and ranchers, nonprofits, conservation districts, and tribal organizations to develop solutions that will help Arizona producers keep growing food in a drier, hotter landscape while using less water and improving the ecosystem to mitigate further climate disruptions. For early adopters or those who have been growing and raising food in ways that promote soil and ecosystem health, the projects can valorize the benefits from their agricultural practices and compensate them. For conventional producers wishing to transition to more climate-smart practices, the project payments can help with start-up costs and incentivize them to adopt these practices.

The goal of these projects is to have producers continue to implement and eventually normalize climate-smart practices. By seeing reduced input costs, increased yields resulting from healthier soils, and premium prices for climate-smart products, Arizona producers can continue to be part of the state’s solution in building a resilient food and farming future.

To Learn More:

Sign-up for Local First’s Good Food newsletter that will be spotlighting producers using climate-smart agriculture practices and highlighting ways to support them, like how and where to purchase products grown this way
Read Good Food Finder blogs on farmers and ranchers using climate-smart agriculture practices, like here and here
Get the latest food news. Follow Good Food Finder on social media: Instagram: @goodfoodfinderaz and Good Food Finder on Facebook
Learn more about desert foods for a resilient future: in English, in Spanish