Highlights from USDA’s Leadership Briefing at Alternative Fuels and Chemicals Coalition Conference

by Joanne Ivancic* (Advanced Biofuels USA) Investment, Climate smart agriculture. Incentives. Markets. These are words heard repeatedly at the opening sessions of the Alternative Fuels and Chemicals Coalition Global Biobased Economy Conference & Exhibit this week near Washington, DC.

The first day of the conference was the US Department of Agriculture Leadership Briefings moderated by Doug McKalp and featuring Robert Bonnie, Regina Black, Andy Jermolowicz, William Goldner and Julie Tucker.

McKalp gave an overview of USDA involvement with the bioeconomy from renewable fuels to biochemicals, noting how consumers are taking more interest in not only where products come from; but also, the ethics of the companies that produce and sell them.

Bonnie focused on how the USDA is thinking about climate change, emphasizing climate smart agriculture. A number of speakers noted the valuable work of Solutions from the Land in explaining the concept over the past few years, most recently at side events at COP26, mentioned by Black who recommended watching the USDA COP26 events recordings on YouTube. She noted that climate is the first issue raised by Secretary Tom Vilsack at international meetings.

Bonnie mentioned the climate change effects from agriculture; but directed attention more to the opportunities for climate smart agriculture to improve soil and forest health as well as lower greenhouse gas emissions with new markets, spurred by necessary innovations and investment. USDA wants to start with existing programs to create a toolbox so that agriculture can scale up quickly. Jermolowicz reviewed many of USDA’s current programs and how they plan to incorporate climate smart policies.

A few other words heard repeatedly at these sessions were measure, monitor and verification. These are needed to inform the public about the climate effects and benefits of agriculture and forestry; and of existing and new USDA programs, to demonstrate that the investments and innovations matter, that they make a positive difference.

With forestry a key section of the USDA, the challenge of managing forests to mitigate fires came up with a number of speakers. Reforestation should be accomplished thinking about the impact of climate change on the ecosystems, thinking about resilience as part of restoration. Native plants were mentioned, and speakers acknowledged that the effect of climate change could be to change what species grow where and how ecological assemblages of species will change. It is a USDA challenge to balance species protection with the changing ecologies.

William Goldner appeared on remote link to go over specific USDA programs focused on sustainable aviation fuels (SAF), programs that have been on-going for quite a few years. He reviewed the White House’s SAF Grand Challenge announced in September and the 80+ page outline being reviewed by Departments of Energy, Transportation and Agriculture and CAAFI that formalizes their MOU.

The most impassioned and inspiring talk was by Tucker who provided intense illustrations of not only the devastation wrought by wildfires in the west, but the mitigation practices that visibly impact and limit the spread of wildfires. One problem is that one in 14 trees in US forests are dead. If they are not removed, they not only stoke rampaging fires, but they are lost to potential markets. Rescuing those trees for useful purposes would not only bring them to markets, but would also mitigate further fire damage.

One possibility relevant to the bioeconomy audience is biofuels and the related co-products. To make that economically feasible, a reassessment of some regulatory interpretation of the Renewable Fuels Standard is in order. USDA is trying to work on this with the Environmental Protection Agency. As Tucker said, biomass from areas at risk of wildfire should find some purpose other than going up in smoke.