From Seashore to Stockyard
A big plan to feed our families, save our coast, and bring our small farms back to life — for all nine counties of California's 2nd District.
One bill that connects the ocean, the forest, the ranch, and the dinner table.
Northern California is in trouble. Our salmon are gone. Our forests are too thick and they burn. Ranchers are losing their land. Small farms are closing. Whole towns are hurting.
This bill is a plan to fix it — all of it — at the same time. Not with big rules. Not by forcing anyone. But by paying people to do good work, and letting the work pay for itself.
This is what's broken.
Of our giant bull kelp forests are gone since 2014. Sea urchins ate them.
Salmon fishing seasons in a row, closed. Fishermen have no work.
Too many trees in our forests. They are packed in and ready to burn.
We spend three billion dollars every year just fighting wildfires.
Cannabis prices crashed from $3,000 a pound to $300. Small growers are ruined.
In crops eaten by grasshoppers in Modoc in one year because help came too late.
Of America's beef market is controlled by just four giant companies.
U.S. lumber output is down by four-fifths from its peak. The mills are gone.
A journey from the sea, through the forest, across the ranches, to your table.
Each part fixes one piece. Together, they bring back our food, our jobs, and our wild places.
Bring back the kelp. Bring back the fish.
Our coast is supposed to be the richest fishing ground in America. Right now it's almost empty.
The plan pays divers to scoop out the hungry sea urchins that ate all the kelp. We pay $3.00 a pound. Divers can earn $700 to $1,400 a day cleaning up the seafloor.
Then we use the urchin shells as plant food and chicken feed. Nothing goes to waste.
While salmon fishing is closed, fishermen get paid a steady wage to help fix the rivers and watch the ocean. The crab fleet gets help when seasons are late.
We also grow seaweed. Some seaweed, when fed to cows, cuts cow burps by up to 82%. That's huge for the climate.
- Pay divers to clear sea urchins and grow kelp back
- Steady paychecks for salmon fishermen while seasons stay closed
- Help fishing boats switch to whale-safe crab gear
- Start seaweed and shellfish farms — new jobs on the coast
Thin the trees. Stop the fires.
Our forests have four to ten times more trees than they should. That's why they burn so big.
The plan splits our forests into three zones:
Zone 1 — the oldest, biggest trees stay protected. No cutting.
Zone 2 — near homes and towns. Workers thin trees and clear brush, so fire can't jump.
Zone 3 — working forests. Loggers can cut some trees, never clear-cut. The mills come back. The towns get jobs.
Native tribes lead the way with "cultural burning" — small, careful fires done their way for thousands of years.
- 20-year contracts so mills can reopen and invest
- Tribes get full power as fire leaders again
- Slash (the leftover branches) feeds new energy plants
- Grants up to $15,000 to fireproof homes
Cows, wolves, and oak trees — all together.
Ranching families have worked these hills for generations. We help them keep going.
Wolves are coming back. That's good for nature, but it's hard on ranchers. The plan creates "wolf prey zones" — wild spaces where elk and deer can grow in big numbers. Wolves go there. They leave the cows alone. Losses go down by up to 88%.
Ranchers get cash to use safer ways of raising animals: gentle handling, "silvopasture" (cows under trees), and rotating where they graze.
And here's something cool: California has 2 billion oak trees. They drop a trillion pounds of acorns every year. The plan helps ranchers feed pigs on acorns — the same way Spain makes its world-famous ham. Premium pork, made right here.
If your family was kicked off your ranch in Point Reyes — you get a Right of Return. A real chance to come home.
- Wolf prey zones cut livestock losses by 88%
- $25 per acre to protect oak trees
- Right of Return for displaced ranching families
- Mobile slaughter trucks so small ranches don't need big plants
Turn cannabis sheds into mushroom farms.
Cannabis prices dropped almost 90%. Whole towns are hurting. But the buildings can become something new.
The plan gives small loans — up to $250,000 — to switch a cannabis grow room into something else:
A mushroom farm (oyster, shiitake, lion's mane). Sales up to $20,000 a month.
A microgreens farm that grows fresh greens in trays. Up to $100,000 per acre.
A specialty herb or heirloom garlic operation.
And here's the big one: an acorn flour industry. Acorn flour is gluten-free, has no fat, and tastes great. It's a $4 billion a year market we are not in yet.
New food hubs in Eureka, Ukiah, and Willits help local farmers reach customers everywhere.
- Forgivable loans to switch cannabis sites to new crops
- Tax breaks for organic farms — up to 40% off costs
- SBA loans up to $1 million for new small farmers
- Three regional food hubs to get crops to market
Feed the families. Honor the tribes.
No plan works unless it helps the people who live here.
Native tribes have managed this land for thousands of years. The plan gives them what they should have had all along — real power over their fisheries, their forests, and their food. Cultural burning becomes a sovereign right. Tribal knowledge is treated as equal to science.
Marin City, the Canal District, Eureka, and Crescent City get help getting fresh local food. Farmers who deliver to SNAP and WIC customers get extra paid.
Salmon fishermen who lost their jobs get paid while they help fix the rivers. Cannabis workers who lost their jobs get retraining and bridge wages while they switch careers.
Workers get registered apprenticeships in five new fields: regenerative ranching, biogas, mushrooms, acorns, and seaweed.
- 10% of every program reserved for tribal nations
- $30 million a year for tribal regenerative farming
- Free apprenticeships in five fast-growing fields
- Direct-market grants to feed food deserts
The bill pays for itself.
Most of the money doesn't come from taxes. It comes from saving on things we already spend — and from new jobs the bill creates. We call it the CA-2 Food Security and Economic Resilience Trust Fund.
Money In
- ↓ Less spent fighting fires
- ↓ Less spent on fishery disasters
- ↑ Timber jobs come back — 25% of sales go in
- ↑ Small fees on aquaculture leases
- ↑ Renewable energy from manure and slash
- ↑ Sales of compost and acorn products
Money Out
- Paychecks for fishermen and divers
- Grants to small farmers and ranchers
- Tax breaks for organic and regenerative
- Tribal programs and cultural burning
- New mills, food hubs, and processing plants
- Worker training and apprenticeships
If the money runs short, programs get smaller — they never run a deficit. Every year is checked by the Treasury. Every three years by the GAO. If we fail 70% of our goals by year five, the whole thing turns off.
Real goals. Real numbers.
Every part of this plan promises:
Our food is our defense. Our land is our home.
For too long, Washington has treated the North Coast like a place to ignore. We are 740,000 people across nine counties. Our salmon, our forests, our farms, and our towns feed America.
This bill says: fix it all at once. With clear rules. With careful spending. With respect for the people and the land.
It is voluntary. It is paid for. It is built to last 10 years and to check itself every year. It costs about $136 per person per year — less than a Costco membership.
— A public draft from the Show Your Work platform.