Biden's Carbon Farming Policy Must Heed Recent Lessons

Agriculture (USDA)Farming/Growing Federal Agency/Executive Branch Infrastructure Opinions Policy Sustainability White House

January 28, 2021

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by Jeffrey T. Manuel and Thomas D. Rogers (The Hill) President Biden has placed the Department of Agriculture (USDA) at the center of his administration’s focus on climate change. “We see farmers making American agriculture first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions and gaining new sources of income in the process,” Biden said in December. He proposes that USDA create a carbon bank from which it “would conduct a reverse carbon credit auction by offering to buy tons of carbon and GHG reductions from producers and forest landowners generated through improved land management practices.”

Excitement about carbon sequestration markets in agriculture has spread to the private sector as well, with several companies vying to tap into this new stream of revenue from farms. Policies that encourage farmers to sequester carbon are undoubtedly a good idea, but as historians who have studied ethanol policies, we urge policymakers to heed the lessons of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) to ensure that new carbon farming policies avoid the pitfalls that befell the RFS over the past 15 years.

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First, policies to promote carbon farming should avoid byzantine complexities and loopholes that may be lucrative but lose sight of the desired endpoint.

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Second, carbon farming policies will need to be adaptable to new technologies and scientific data.

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Third, and perhaps most importantly, the history of the RFS offers a stark reminder that there are no silver bullet solutions in agriculture. READ MORE

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