California lawmakers are moving forward on toxic chemical regulation at a critical moment. Four bills sponsored by the Environmental Working Group this week cleared appropriations committees, sending the legislation toward full floor votes in the state assembly as the state legislature enters its final voting stretch before adjournment.
The bills target some of the most pressing consumer health and affordability issues facing Californians—all rooted in contamination by PFAS, the class of synthetic chemicals known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in soil or water. PFAS includes compounds used in nonstick cookware, water-resistant textiles, and firefighting foam. Once released into the environment, they persist for decades and migrate into groundwater, drinking water, and agricultural soil.
The PFAS Crisis in Agriculture
For farmers, PFAS contamination has become an existential threat—one that receives far less public attention than it deserves. Agricultural land across the U.S., including millions of acres in California, has been contaminated with PFAS through the application of biosolids—the sludge left behind when sewage is treated. The EPA allows municipalities to apply this sludge as fertilizer, and it’s loaded with PFAS from industrial discharge and consumer products that enter the waste stream.
Farmers who’ve applied biosolids to their fields are now caught between two bad options: contaminated soil and no way to remediate it, or avoid the free “fertilizer” and face higher input costs in an already fragile economy. PFAS doesn’t wash out. It accumulates in crops, enters the food supply, and persists in the human body, where it’s linked to liver damage, thyroid disease, ulcerative colitis, high cholesterol, and immune system suppression.
The state’s groundwater is already compromised. California’s drinking water systems serve millions of people in rural and agricultural regions where PFAS plumes from industrial sites, airports, and military bases have reached municipal wells. Farmers who rely on well water face a double squeeze: their irrigation water is contaminated, and the premium cost of trucking in clean water isn’t economically viable for most operations.
What the Bills Address
The four EWG-backed bills represent a comprehensive approach to the problem: consumer transparency about PFAS in food products and water; restrictions on new uses of PFAS chemicals in food contact materials; and stronger environmental standards for PFAS disposal and remediation. By targeting PFAS at the point of use and disposal, the legislation closes entry routes into the environment rather than waiting for contamination to spread.
One bill specifically addresses PFAS in drinking water, requiring utilities to test and report contamination levels. Another targets food contact materials—things like takeout containers, pizza boxes, and food wrap—that leach PFAS into food during storage and transport. A third focuses on disposal standards for PFAS-contaminated biosolids, preventing the application of contaminated sludge to farmland.
The bills come as California has emerged as a national leader on chemical regulation, having already banned paraquat, a highly toxic herbicide linked to Parkinson’s disease, and advanced restrictions on other pesticides used widely in agriculture.
The Farmland Connection
California’s agricultural lobby has been quiet on PFAS compared to other toxins, perhaps because the issue implicates both corporate waste disposal (industrial sources of PFAS) and government policy (biosolids application standards). But the impact on farmers is direct: contaminated fields become economically worthless, crops grown on PFAS-laden soil carry PFAS residues that may affect marketability, and well water—critical for irrigation in a drought-prone state—becomes a liability instead of an asset.
Younger farmers entering agriculture in California face an additional burden: they’re more likely to buy land with an unknown contamination history, as older, larger operations consolidate holdings and liquidate marginal acreage to investment firms that will sit on the land speculatively. A PFAS-contaminated parcel looks cheap for a reason.
What Comes Next
The bills are scheduled for full floor votes before the legislature adjourns, likely within weeks. If they pass, California’s PFAS restrictions will be among the strictest in the nation, and they’ll set a de facto standard for food and agriculture supply chains that serve the entire country—much as the state’s previous chemical bans have forced national reformulation by major manufacturers.
Federal action on PFAS has stalled. The EPA proposed limits on PFAS in drinking water in 2023, but final regulations have been delayed. Meanwhile, PFAS continues to migrate into soil and water. State-level action, imperfect as it is, is the only immediate remedy.
For California farmers already dealing with drought, input cost inflation, and consolidation pressure, PFAS remediation standards are a step toward protecting what farmland remains viable. It’s not enough. But in a state where environmental policy now moves faster than federal oversight, it’s the only protection being offered.
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