Congresswoman Pingree Introduces the Agriculture Resilience Act to Promote Farmer-Driven Climate Solutions Legislation Sets Goal of Reaching Net-Zero Greenhouse Gas Emissions in U.S. Agriculture by 2040

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March 04, 2020

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(Office of Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine)) Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) today introduced the Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA), comprehensive legislation that sets a bold vision of reaching net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. agriculture by the year 2040.

“Farming has always been a risky business, but unpredictable, extreme weather patterns are creating immense challenges that threaten our nation’s food production and jeopardize the livelihood of American farmers,” said Congresswoman Pingree, an organic farmer of more than 40 years.“Last year, farmers were unable to plant 19.6 million acres of crops due to record-breaking rainfall. We must be proactive to keep farmers on the land and in business.”

“The Agriculture Resilience Act is designed as a roadmap to sequester more carbon in the soil and reduce overall greenhouse gas emissions by supporting farmers where they are. We need to empower farmers with the best available science and provide a range of conservation tools, because what works for one farmer in Maine may not work for another in Iowa or Georgia,” Congresswoman Pingree said of her bill. “I have set an ambitious but achievable goal: to reduce agricultural emissions by 50% before 2030 and make this segment of our economy net-zero by 2040. Challenges of this scale demand bold solutions and, unlike other industries, agriculture has a unique opportunity to draw down massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and store it in the soil.”

Currently, agricultural activities contribute 8.4% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. To reach net-zero agricultural emissions within the next 20 years, the ARA focuses on six concrete policy areas and offers solutions rooted in science that are farmer-driven. These goals include:

Increasing Research: The ARA would ensure existing agriculture research programs prioritize climate change research, increase funding for USDA’s Regional Climate Hubs, support public breed and cultivar research, and create a new SARE Agricultural and Food System Resilience Initiative for farmer and rancher research and demonstration grants.

Improving Soil Health: The ARA would create a new soil health grant program for state and tribal governments, authorize USDA to offer performance-based crop insurance discounts for practices that reduce risk, expand the National Agroforestry Center by authorizing three additional regional centers, and explore new ways to reward farmers such as future carbon markets or tax incentives for soil carbon sequestration.

Protecting existing farmland: ARA would increase funding for the Local Agriculture Market Program, which Pingree championed in the 2018 Farm Bill, and create a new subprogram for farm viability and local climate resilience centers to help farmers reach new markets. The bill would also increase funding for the Agriculture Conservation Easement Program and amend the tax code to exclude from gross income the gain from the sale of 1) permanent conservation easements and 2) farm property to beginning, socially disadvantaged, veteran and young farmers.

Supporting pasture-based livestock systems: The ARA would create a new alternative manure management program to support an array of livestock methane management strategies, a new grant program to help very small meat processors cover the costs associated with meeting federal inspection guidelines, and a Grasslands 30 pilot program within the Conservation Reserve Program to enroll grassland that is exiting CRP or at risk of conversion.

Boosting investments in on-farm energy initiatives: The ARA would increase funding for the Rural Energy for America Program, direct USDA to study dual-use renewable energy and cropping or livestock systems, and move the AgSTAR program to NRCS to provide technical assistance to farmers interested in reducing methane emissions through anaerobic digestion.

Reducing food waste: The ARA would standardize food date labels to reduce consumer confusion, create a new USDA program to reduce food waste in schools, and increase federal support for composting and anaerobic digestion food waste-to-energy projects.

Last week, the USDA announced its “Agriculture Innovation Agenda” which aims to cut American agricultural emissions in half by 2050. Pingree’s bill would help USDA reach this goal more expeditiously by expanding the agency’s authority and increasing funding for key USDA programs.

At the outset of the 116th Congress, House leadership established the nation’s first-ever Select Committee on the Climate Crisis to prioritize the greatest challenge facing the health, environment, economy, and future of our planet. The Committee was authorized by House Resolution 6 to publish a set of public recommendations by March 31, 2020. The Select Committee’s recommendations are expected to set broad climate goals and Pingree’s Agriculture Resilience Act could serve as the Committee’s model for recognizing agriculture as a key part of the climate solution.

Pingree has been an organic farmer since the 1970s and is a recognized national policy leader on sustainable food and farming. She was the 2017 recipient of the James Beard Leadership Award for her advocacy to make sustainable food more accessible to all Americans. In the spring of 2018, Pingree launched Congress’s first-ever Bipartisan Food Recovery Caucus. She is a member of the House Agriculture Committee and the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture.

Read Statements of Support for the Agriculture Resilience Act (H.R. 5861) HERE.

To learn more about the Agriculture Resilience Act, visit: pingree.house.gov/netzeroagriculture READ MORE

Maine Representative Introduces the Ag Resilience Act (American Ag Radio Network)

Pingree introduces net-zero ag bill that supports biogas energy (Biomass Magazine)

Pingree introduces Ag Resilience Act (Fence Post)

Agriculture Resilience Act introduced by Congresswoman Pingree (ME) (Sierra Club)

What Would It Take to Get More Farmers Fighting Climate Change? (Mother Jones)

Biogas, Compost In Proposed Ag Resilience Act (BioCycle Magazine)

Excerpt from American Ag Radio Network: The bill was endorsed by the National Farmers Union, the American Farmland Trust, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, and the Union of Concerned Scientists. READ MORE

Excerpt from Biomass Magazine: According information posted to Congress.gov, the bill, titled the “Agriculture Resilience Act,” or H.R. 5861, was introduced on Feb. 12 and referred to the Committee on Agriculture, along with the Committees on Ways and Means, Education and Labor, Energy and Commerce, Oversight and Reform, and House Administration. To date, no cosponsors have signed on in support of the bill. READ MORE

Excerpt from Mother Jones: Called the Agriculture Resilience Act, the bill would enlist growers to help slow global warming by using their soil to sponge up carbon dioxide.

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“I wanted [the bill] to suggest a partnership between agriculture and the environment, particularly looking at the ability of soil to sequester carbon,” Pingree told me. “What would it take to support farmers in that? What are good practices we could be supporting, but what else could be doing: more research, technical assistance to farmers, assistance with renewable energy.”

Pingree’s bill directly takes on a challenge plaguing Midwestern farmland: Farmers leave huge swaths of corn and soybean territory uncovered all winter and most of the spring, leaving its soil vulnerable to massive erosion events when storms hit in the off-season. Eroded soils not only trap less carbon, they also leave crops more vulnerable to the increasing floods and droughts brought by climate change. The Pingree bill calls for farms to “maintain year-round cover on at least 75 percent of cropland acres.” When last year’s bomb cyclone storms lashed Iowa last year, only around 3.9 percent of the state’s acres were buffered from erosion by off-season cover crops.

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Pingree envisioned the bill as “a fairly comprehensive response to the relationship between agriculture and climate change,” she told me. Farmers often clash with environmentalists; powerful lobby groups like the American Farm Bureau Federation have opposed many regulations on agriculture, including those related to climate change. Pingree’s bill would instead enlist them in the effort to prepare their land for shifting conditions.

In order to qualify for crop insurance subsidies, farms will have to present a “soil health plan” to the US Department of Agriculture showing they’re taking steps to reduce erosion and capture carbon in their soil. According to Ferd Hoefner, senior strategic advisor for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, which aided Pingree’s office in drafting the bill, that stipulation could go a long way to inspiring farmers to plant more cover crops, a key booster of soil health.

It’s the “most comprehensive agriculture and climate bill yet introduced,” Hoefner said. While it has no chance of passing the current divided Congress and a climate-skeptic president, it sets the table for 2021, if the Democrats do well in this year’s election. “It’s conceivable that we could be looking at comprehensive climate legislation in the next Congress,” he said. “We want to make sure agriculture doesn’t get left out if that happens.” READ MORE