From Seashore to Stockyard
CA-2 Food Security & Economic Resilience Act
A bold plan to protect our ocean, heal our forests, support our ranchers, feed our communities — and make it all pay for itself.
Our District Is Facing a Perfect Storm
California's 2nd Congressional District stretches from the crashing waves of the Pacific Coast to the cattle ranches of the high desert. It's one of the most beautiful places on Earth — and right now, it's in serious trouble.
Kelp Forests — Gone
Since 2014, Northern California has lost 95% of its bull kelp canopy. An explosion of purple sea urchins — with no sea stars left to eat them — devoured our underwater forests.
Salmon Fisheries — Shut Down
Year after year, our commercial salmon seasons have been canceled. Crab seasons are delayed. Fishing families who've worked these waters for generations can't make a living.
Forests — Way Too Dense
Decades of fire suppression packed our forests with 4 to 10 times more trees than they can handle. That means catastrophic wildfires, costing over $100 billion a year nationwide.
12 Ranches — Pushed Out
At Point Reyes National Seashore, 11 multi-generational ranching families were displaced from 12 ranches through private settlement deals — removing people who had stewarded that land for over a century.
Cannabis Economy — Collapsed
Wholesale cannabis prices crashed from $3,000 to $300 per pound. Small family growers in the Emerald Triangle lost everything — and their communities are struggling.
Pest Damage — No Federal Help
Modoc County ranchers suffered over $52 million in losses from a massive grasshopper outbreak in 2023 because the federal government was too slow to act.
Restoring Our Underwater Forests & Fisheries
The ocean is where this story starts. Our kelp forests are the "sequoias of the sea" — towering underwater jungles that shelter hundreds of species, feed our fisheries, and soak up carbon. Here's how we bring them back.
Clearing the Purple Urchin Barrens
When sea star wasting disease wiped out sunflower sea stars, the purple sea urchin population exploded 60-fold. These spiny grazers ate the kelp down to bare rock, creating vast "urchin barrens." But here's the thing: these starving, nutrient-depleted purple urchins are hollow shells — no value for food, and not enough meat inside for sea mammals to bother eating. The bill creates an Urchin Removal Corps that pays commercial divers at least $3.00 per pound to clear them out, plus a $0.50 bonus when the waste gets recycled into poultry feed, soil amendments, or compost. Important note: the larger, healthy red sea urchins with their prized edible gonads (that's the "uni" you see in sushi restaurants) are a different story. Those are harvested carefully for food — but this bill keeps harvest limits in check so sea otters and other marine mammals still have plenty to eat.
Heat-Resilient Bull Kelp: Future-Proofing Our Forests
The marine heatwaves that helped kill our kelp aren't going away — they're getting worse. That's why this bill funds a pilot program to develop and introduce heat-tolerant strains of bull kelp. Scientists at UC Davis, UC Santa Cruz, and other California universities have already built a "seed bank" of over 1,700 bull kelp genotypes from 14 sites across the state. Researchers at UC Irvine discovered that some kelp populations can actually be "hardened" against heat stress by exposing young algae to warmer water. The bill supports culturing these tougher kelp varieties and outplanting them on cleared reef using techniques like green gravel, spore bags, and ARKEV underwater units — which have already helped bull kelp grow to full maturity in just two months at restoration sites in Mendocino County. It's like planting drought-resistant crops, but for the ocean floor.
Saving Salmon & Stabilizing the Crab Fleet
For fishing families hit by fishery closures, this bill provides income support (up to 60% of average earnings), vessel maintenance help, and retraining in aquaculture and habitat restoration. Crab fishers get assistance during season delays, plus grants for whale-safe gear that prevents entanglement. The goal: keep our fishing communities alive while the fish populations recover.
Building a Blue Economy
The bill creates Aquaculture Opportunity Zones for farming shellfish (oysters, clams, mussels, scallops) and seaweed (kelp, dulse, nori). Startup grants up to $100,000 help fishers transition, and new regional food hubs connect producers with restaurants and markets across the Bay Area.
Seaweed Farming for Cattle Feed
Here's where ocean meets ranch in the coolest way: the bill supports farming a special red seaweed called Asparagopsis right off our coast, then feeding it to cattle as a supplement. Why? Because of something called bromoform — a natural compound in this seaweed that blocks the chemical process that creates methane in a cow's stomach. Read on to see just how much this cuts those infamous "cow burps." 👇
Cow Burps: Shrunk by Seaweed Science 🐄💨
Here's a wild fact: cattle "burps" (technically called enteric methane emissions) are one of the biggest sources of greenhouse gases from farming. Methane is 28 times more powerful than CO₂ at trapping heat. But a landmark UC Davis study proved that adding just a tiny amount of Asparagopsis seaweed to cattle feed reduces methane from beef cattle by up to 82%. In dairy cows, the reduction can hit 67%. For grazing beef cattle on pasture, real-world studies show around a 38% reduction. Some Australian feedlot trials have even seen reductions exceeding 95%. This bill funds the cultivation of this seaweed right here in CA-2, creating a "North Coast Carbon Neutral" beef and dairy certification — premium products that are better for the planet and command higher prices.
Forests, Farms, Ranches & New Economies
From the redwood coast to the high desert, this bill builds a "circular economy" — where forest waste feeds biogas digesters, compost feeds the soil, and everything connects in a loop that mimics how nature actually works.
Tri-Zonal Forest Management
The bill divides our forests into three zones: Zone 1 protects old-growth with zero logging. Zone 2 thins the dangerously overpacked areas near communities. Zone 3 allows careful selective harvest (no clearcutting — ever) with 10–20 year guaranteed timber contracts so sawmills can invest and reopen. The target: thin forests back to 60–80 trees per acre, which cuts crown fire risk by 75–90%.
Forest Slash → Biogas → Compost
All those branches and brush from forest thinning? Instead of burning them or leaving them as wildfire fuel, they go into biogas digesters mixed with livestock manure. Out comes renewable natural gas for energy and rich compost for farms. A 30% tax credit helps ranchers build these systems — and a bonus 5% if they mix in seaweed and urchin waste from the coast.
Wolf-Livestock Coexistence
Wolves are returning to Modoc, Siskiyou, and Shasta counties. Instead of just paying ranchers after a wolf kills a calf, this bill takes a smarter approach: create "Wolf Prey Zones" — areas managed with cultural burning to support lots of elk and deer, so wolves stay anchored there. Combined with drylot calving pens and range riders, this reduces wolf-related losses by 88%.
Acorn-Finished Heritage Hogs
California has over 2 billion native oak trees producing up to a trillion pounds of acorns each year — almost completely untapped. This bill supports raising heritage-breed hogs on acorn-rich oak woodlands, just like the famous Spanish jamón ibérico system. Premium products with 70% oleic acid, commanding top-dollar prices while preserving our oaks.
Cannabis-to-Mushrooms Transition
Those climate-controlled greenhouses in the Emerald Triangle? They're perfect for growing gourmet mushrooms, microgreens, and specialty salad greens. The bill offers forgivable loans up to $250,000 for converting cannabis facilities — plus workforce retraining through Cal Poly Humboldt and College of the Redwoods.
Right of Return for Displaced Ranchers
The 11 ranching families pushed off 12 ranches at Point Reyes National Seashore? This bill gives them a Right of Return — 20-year leases with automatic renewal, cultural heritage restitution payments, and a $100 million fund to help rebuild what was lost. Because Congress never authorized their removal in the first place.
🐂 The Man Behind the Bill
Gregory Burgess grew up near Point Reyes and in Marin County — a third-generation Californian raised around the dairy ranches and working landscapes of the rural coast. At nine years old he was squished against a fence by a bull, and he's carried that stubborn resilience ever since. He knows these ranchers aren't abstractions in a policy paper. They're the families he grew up with. That's why this bill exists.
Tribal Sovereignty, Workers & Community Food Access
This isn't just about economics — it's about human flourishing. Meaningful work, cultural heritage, food on every table, and respect for the Indigenous peoples who've stewarded this land since time immemorial.
Indigenous Co-Stewardship
Tribal Nations get equal decision-making power with federal agencies. Traditional Ecological Knowledge is given the same weight as Western science. Cultural burning is recognized as a sovereign right. At least 10% of all grant funds go to Tribal programs.
Acorn Economy
Indigenous peoples once got 40% of their nutrition from acorns. This bill industrializes acorn flour production — gluten-free, low-glycemic, complete protein — targeting a $4.2 billion global market, with at least 25% of funds reserved for Tribal-led cooperatives.
New Farmer Pathways
Rent-to-own farmland up to 30 years, SBA-backed loans with 90% guarantees, apprenticeships in regenerative agriculture, and a five-tier subsidy system that pays more for healthier soil — up to $400/acre for top-tier regenerative farms.
Food for Everyone
Direct-market grants for underserved communities like Marin City, The Canal in San Rafael, and rural towns across the North Coast. Incentive payments for farmers selling to SNAP and WIC families, and transportation subsidies to reach food deserts.
Workforce Retraining
Cal Poly Humboldt and College of the Redwoods partnerships for marine biology, aquaculture, fire science, biogas operations, and specialty agriculture. Stipends up to $1,500/month during training, plus wage gap assistance for 2 years.
Rural Veterinary Care
Loan repayment up to $25,000 per year for 4 years for veterinarians who serve ethical livestock operations in our rural areas — because healthy animals need doctors close to home.
How It Pays for Itself
This isn't a wish list — it's an engineered financial system with hard spending caps, automatic budget cuts if revenue falls short, and a self-funding Trust Fund that grows as the programs succeed.
Built-In Safeguards Against Government Overreach
💰 I Want Your Vote, Not Your Money
No PACs. No corporate donors. No special interest money. This campaign is funded by the people it serves.
This Is What Legislation Should Look Like
"I Want Your Vote, Not Your Money."
30+ drafted bills. 53 letters to Congress. A self-imposed $100,000 campaign funding cap with a $100 per-person donation limit. Every number sourced, every constitutional question answered, every dollar accounted for. This is the Show Your Work campaign — because voters deserve to see the receipts before the election, not after.
The CA-2 FSERA is one piece of a comprehensive legislative platform called "An Honest Economy for All." It was written to prove that serious policy can be fiscally responsible, constitutionally sound, and still fight for working families, tribal sovereignty, healthy ecosystems, and real food security — from seashore to stockyard.