Planning for and accelerating the transition away from fossil fuel–based pesticides and fertilizers must be a high priority in the transition to agricultural climate resilience.

This transition needs to happen even as climate change leads to new pest, weed, and disease patterns and pressures, and it must be done while safeguarding our food supply and keeping family farmers in business.

Reducing fossil fuel–based agrochemical inputs (referred to in this report as fertilizers and pesticides) has a critical role to play in reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the agriculture sector. Approximately 16 percent of California’s agricultural GHG emissions come from fertilizers that metabolize to nitrous oxide, a GHG nearly 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide.