Positive Climate Perspective: Iowans Educate Democrats on Solutions Farmers, Biofuels Offer on Climate Change

by Chris Clayton (DTN Progressive Farmer) As Democratic presidential candidates traipse through Iowa talking about their plans to address climate change, a mixed group of farmers and biofuel advocates are stressing the role agriculture can play as a solution.

Matt Russell, executive director of Iowa Interfaith Power and Light, also operates Coyote Run Farm with his husband near Lacona, Iowa, where they raise produce and grass-fed beef. Russel also has become one of the more vocal advocates among farmers in Iowa getting the message in front of candidates to incentivize farmers to sequester carbon. Russell's profile was raised in May when he testified before a House Select Committee on Climate Crisis.

"Farmers are so well positioned," Russell told DTN. "Nobody is as well positioned to do this as American agriculture. And it is ours to lose. As a person of faith, that is a great moral failure to have all of those gifts in our wheelhouse to be able to help solve the most pressing problem potentially in the history of humanity, to have the ability to have such a potential impact on an equitable, science-based democratic solution."

"First of all, rural America can be part of the solution instead of being told they are part of the problem," Buttigieg said during the debate. "With the right type of soil management and other investments, rural America could be a huge part of how we get this done."

"We're going to monetize carbon, and when we do that, there is going to be billions and billions of dollars in play," Russell said. "What I don't know is if that is going to be a carbon market or carbon taxes. I don't know how that is going to look, but I'm pretty sure in the next five years it is going to be worked out, and in the next decade it is going to be as developed as the ethanol market is."

Conversations about carbon sequestration are picking up in different circles. In the Southern Plains, the Noble Foundation is working on a carbon sequestration protocol. Indigo Ag, a company focusing on microbiology and digital agriculture, launched the "terraton initiative" in June to remove 1 trillion metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through soil sequestration.

"Four years ago, we could not get Hillary Clinton to say the word 'ethanol.' We sure as heck could not get her to say 'corn ethanol,'" said Monte Shaw, executive director of the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. "All she would say in her talking points was 'advanced biofuels.' And it was concerning, to be honest with you, because Iowa makes a lot of corn ethanol."

A USDA study on ethanol (https://www.usda.gov/…) released at the end of the Obama administration, "A Life-Cycle Analysis of the Greenhouse Gas Emissions of Corn-Based Ethanol," showed corn-based ethanol has 43% lower greenhouse gas emissions than gasoline, based on an energy equivalent basis.

The study looks at two views of the future, including a continuation of current trends, which would achieve that 50% reduction. A more ideal case looks at the most efficient ethanol plants and universal adoption of soil-health practices and nutrient management plans. That idealistic outlook could push ethanol to a 76% reduction of greenhouse emissions compared to gasoline.

A coalition of groups has created Biofuels Vision 2020 to gauge and track candidate positions on ethanol and other biofuels.

"Biofuels is a huge economic opportunity, not just for Iowa, but for the whole country," (New York Sen. Kirsten) Gillibrand said. "We want to make sure we invest in our biofuel producers, giving them money for research and development so they can do next-generation biofuels."

Laura Krouse, a vegetable farmer who owns Abbe Hills Farm and is a Linn County Soil and Water Conservation commissioner, told Gillibrand some farmers have slowly changed their perspective on how and why climate change is happening. Farmers are not only dealing with more extreme weather events, but also warmer summer nights and humidity, which have led to more pests and diseases, as well, she said.

"Farmers, like many people, resist change," Krouse said. "But we have got to have some cultural change real fast and technology change real fast. And the way to make that change happen is to incentivize the things that will work to accumulate carbon in the soil and help rural communities survive." READ MORE

Excerpt from NPR/WVIK: When candidates really oppose a front-and-center issue in Iowa, some just skip the state.

“I can remember candidates from years past, John McCain one in particular, who said, ‘look, I’m opposed to these ethanol subsidies so I know I’ve got no chance in Iowa.’ So in the 2000 campaign, he didn’t even really campaign here,” Hagle said.

Compare that tactic to Minnesota Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who’s already toured an ethanol plant and used the visit to show her support for the Renewable Fuel Standard. And Trump came out in favor of ethanol ahead of the 2016 Iowa Caucus. Though he didn’t win it, Iowa’s Republican senators have made a point to hold him to his commitment.

Hagle sayid that’s the sort of legacy the Iowa caucuses can foster. But it’s not clear whether any agriculture issue will rise to that level for Democrats in 2020. READ MORE