Election Campaigns Can Boost Role of Agriculture in Combating a Changing Climate

2020 Election Agriculture (USDA)Farming/Growing Federal Agency/Executive Branch Infrastructure Opinions Policy Sustainability

August 28, 2019

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(Solutions from the Land) Rural America drew a considerable amount of attention in the last presidential election. President Trump won the White House in large part due to the support he received from voters in this nation's vast non-metropolitan areas. As a result, most of this year's wide range of candidates seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020 have put a campaign focus on the nation's farms, ranches, forest lands and the communities these sectors support.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee was among those seeking his party's nomination before he left the race last week. But he says he will continue to promote his package of extensive policy proposals - Growing Rural Prosperity - aimed at rural America and include a call for advancing the tools that farmers, ranchers and foresters need to adapt to and combat a changing climate.

Virtually all candidates for the nation's highest office have called for the expansion of rural infrastructure, the renegotiation of trade deals that are more favorable to U.S. farmers, the extension of rural broadband and, to some extent, the cutting of carbon emissions in the agriculture industry. Inslee has made the case, like Solutions from the Land, that those who work the land are in a perfect position to moderate the threat posed by a changing climate.

But even without the stage provided by a presidential candidacy, Inslee's wide-ranging and detailed plans related to climate change will continue to influence the campaign discussions going forward. Specifically, the proposals called for:

Enact a Carbon Farming initiative to reward farmers for the environmental services they provide by removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere to build healthier soils, and by livestock operations capturing methane.
Implement crop insurance reforms to account for climate risk in its actuarial tables, thereby incentivizing soil health and other conservation practices and guarding America's farmers and its food supplies against future floods, drought, and extreme weather events.
Triple funding for the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) to $3 billion annually and expand other USDA programs to promote climate-smart agriculture.
Establish a new Advanced Research Projects Agency-Agriculture (ARPA-Ag) and increase funding to Agricultural Extensions Services and land-grant colleges for next-generation agricultural innovations.
Create new standards - including a Clean & Renewable Fuels Standard (CRFS) - to drive the deployment of advanced, low-carbon biofuels and sustainable bio-based products.

The influence of Inslee's policy proposals can expect to be heard in the responses to questions on the climate that will be addressed to the remaining candidates, many of whom will be required to answer with a degree of specificity not yet seen in any other proposals they may have issued to date....

In addition to damaging the bottom line of producers, the RFS waivers, which result in large volumes of ethanol and biodiesel being taken off the books, undercut a principal way that agriculture is fighting climate change - offering the nation's transportation system the means to reduce and avoid greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by providing alternative fuels with much lower carbon intensity than petroleum-based fuels.

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We urge our SfL alliance members and all who hold a stake in our nation's working lands to make clear to all candidates - be they national, state or local - that making this kind of commitment to enabling policies can optimize the capabilities of agriculture and forestry to address climate change and help achieve global sustainable development goals. READ MORE

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Excerpt from Solutions from the Land: Recently underway is the work of a Florida Climate Smart Agriculture Work Group (FL-CSA), where some of the state's top agricultural, forestry, business, academic, government and conservation leaders are looking at the natural resource protections farmers, ranchers and foresters can provide, in addition to the production of food, feed, fiber and energy. The Work Group is developing a plan for how the state's 26 million acres of agricultural and forestry lands can adapt to changing conditions, while advancing practices and policies that can build a healthier, more resilient food system in the face of growing climate challenges.

The USDA Southeast Climate Hub, a member of the FL-CSA Work Group, has consolidated various informational resources at its website to help agriculture, aquaculture and forest producers prepare for and recover from potential hurricane impacts. Many of these resources will be compiled into a comprehensive technical manual set for publication in early 2020. This manual is one example of the type of resource that producers can utilize to increase resiliency and better adapt their operations to increased threats.

The weather-related events of this week are the latest in an ongoing history of growing disruptions in our climate patterns. Whether you call it "climate change" or not, the volatility of weather patterns across the U.S. are real and growing in consequence. It is important for stakeholders to reach out to policy makers and call on them to support climate smart agriculture systems and practices.

Those could include, among others:

A "carbon farming" initiative - to reward farmers for the environmental services they provide by removing carbon emissions from the atmosphere to build healthier soils or capturing methane within livestock operations.
A reform of crop insurance needs to account for climate risk in actuarial tables - to incentivize soil health and other conservation practices that guard America's farmers and food supply against future floods, drought, and extreme weather events.
A threefold increase in funding for the Conservation Stewardship Program (to $3 billion annually) and expansion of other USDA programs - to promote implementation of climate smart agriculture practices.

Hurricane Dorian and the havoc it is wreaking is just another reminder of the urgency with which policy makers must move to combat the harmful effects of a changing climate. Farmers, ranchers and foresters are in a prime position to help in the fight. READ MORE