USDA Releases 90-Day Progress Report on Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry

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May 20, 2021

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(U.S. Department of Agriculture) The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today published the 90-Day Progress Report on Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry (PDF, 561 KB).

The report represents an important step toward in President Biden’s Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad and shift towards a whole-of-department approach to climate solutions. The Order, signed January 27, states that, “America’s farmers, ranchers, and forest landowners have an important role to play in combating the climate crisis and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, by sequestering carbon in soils, grasses, trees, and other vegetation and sourcing sustainable bioproducts and fuels.”

“With the right tools and partnerships, American agriculture and forestry can lead the world in solutions that will increase climate resilience, sequester carbon, enhance agricultural productivity, and maintain critical environmental benefits,” said Agriculture Secretary Vilsack. “At this pivotal time, President Biden has called upon USDA to develop a strategy for climate smart agriculture and forestry as part of a whole-of-government effort to addressing the climate crisis. Central to USDA’s approach is the concept that to be effective, whatever we do must work for farmers, ranchers, and landowners.”

Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is engaged in a whole-of-government effort to combat the climate crisis and conserve and protect our nation’s lands, biodiversity, and natural resources, including our soil, air and water. Through research, conservation practices and partnerships, USDA aims to find solutions to agricultural challenges, enhance economic growth and create new streams of income for farmers, ranchers, producers and private foresters. Successfully meeting these challenges will require USDA and our agencies to pursue a coordinated approach alongside USDA stakeholders, including state, local, and tribal governments.

USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. In the Biden-Harris Administration under Secretary Vilsack, USDA is committed to transforming America’s food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov. READ MORE

Excerpts from report: Recommendations for a USDA Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Strategy

A successful CSAF strategy will rely on a multipronged approach. This will allow USDA to meet multiple objectives and provide a unifed strategy across USDA’s agencies and offces to address diverse needs and opportunities throughout the
agriculture and forestry sectors. Below are seven recommended elements of a CSAF strategy:

1. Prepare USDA to quantify, track, and report the benefts of CSAF activities

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2. Develop a CSAF strategy that works for all farmers, ranchers, forest landowners, and communities

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3. Leverage existing USDA programs to support CSAF strategies

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Support and help finance renewable energy and energy effciency activities. USDA is committed to supporting rural communities in completing energy audits, providing renewable energy development assistance, making energy effciency improvements, and installing renewable energy systems. USDA currently has programs that help convert older heating sources to cleaner technologies, produce advanced biofuels, install solar panels, construct anaerobic digesters, buildbiorefneries, and much more.

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4. Strengthen education, training, and technical assistance for CSAF practices

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5. Support new and better markets for agriculture and forestry products generated through CSAF practices

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A wide range of market-based approaches exist for incentivizing climate-friendly agriculture commodities. These include voluntary markets for carbon where agriculture and forestry can provide carbon offsets or credits, sustainable supply chain initiatives, and “insetting” approaches where companies reduce emissions within their
own supply chains and production facilities.

They can also include markets for low-carbon biofuels, renewable energy, and biobased and wood products. These markets can promote voluntary adoption of conservation technologies and practices and leverage private-sector demand for GHG benefts associated with CSAF practices.

These types of market opportunities can offer cost-effective ways to incentivize CSAF practice adoption and provide new income streams. Through the CSAF strategy, USDA should support the identifcation and verifcation of the GHG benefts associated with CSAF practices and facilitate the participation of farmers, ranchers, and landowners in new markets for CSAF goods and services.

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Support the role of agriculture in decarbonizing the transportation sector. The growth of the U.S. biofuels
sector, driven in part by the Renewable Fuels Standard, has reduced GHGs and strengthened the rural economy. Ethanol produced from corn reduces GHG emissions relative to gasoline. Market opportunities such as California’s Low Carbon Fuels Standard and the 45Q Federal Tax Credit for carbon capture and sequestration can further drive down the GHG footprint of the biofuels sector.

USDA should identify opportunities for agriculture and forestry to play a role in the production of low-carbon
biofuel feedstocks, and for innovative technologies such as Bioenergy with Carbon Capture (BECCS) to reduce
emissions associated with biofuel production while spurring rural economic development.

• Support renewable energy development in rural America. USDA should help position Tribes, farmers, ranchers, rural landowners, and environmental justice communities to be leaders in renewable energy development. This includes making investments in technologies such as rural wind and solar that can operate on working farms and ranches, liquid fuels, renewable natural gas from livestock, and production of sustainably produced biomass for renewable energy generation. Investments in these technologies can provide new market opportunities for Tribes and rural America and create new uses for agriculture and forestry waste products, while reducing GHG emissions.

• Support deployment and development of methane digesters, biogas, and biobased products. The adoption of on-farm biogas capture technologies and the production of biobased products can provide producers with new income streams while also reducing GHG emissions and improving water quality. Opportunities to
generate income from these technologies include the generation of renewable electricity and the production of biobased products from manure, renewable natural gas (RNG) and liquifed natural gas (LNG). USDA should support producers as they enter these new markets and consider innovative finance mechanisms to provide upfront capital for biogas technologies and encourage the connection of multiple small operations to provide economical renewable energy production.

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6. Develop a forest and wildfire resilience strategy

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7. Improve research READ MORE

USDA Report Notes Role of Biofuels in Carbon Reduction (Energy.AgWired.com)

Carbon storage offers hope for climate, cash for farmers -- All industries are under pressure to reduce emissions, primarily by switching to renewable energy. Farming has something most others don’t: the ability to pull carbon dioxide. (Associated Press/NBC News)

USDA Climate Smart Ag Strategy Neglects Compost As A Tool (BioCycle Connect)

Recent Hearings and Legislation Promote Climate-Smart Agriculture (Environmental and Energy Study Institute)

NCGA CEO SAYS AG HAS TRANSITIONED FROM CLIMATE CHANGE SKEPTICISM (Brownfield Ag News)

WEBINAR: Carbon Reduction & The American Farmer (EcoEngineers)

Farmer Insights Drive America’s Conservation Ag Movement Peer-To-Peer Learning Communities (Trust in Food)

Sustainability is the goal. Here’s what young farmers need to get there (Planet Forward)

Excerpt from Brownfield Ag News: The CEO of the National Corn Growers Association says agriculture has transitioned from climate change skepticism to acceptance of conservation practices that can benefit farmers, ranchers and the planet.

Jon Doggett, formerly with American Farm Bureau, says he was asked to be the Farm Bureau climate change lead after the Kyoto protocol was signed in the late ‘90s, “Farm Bureau was leading among the climate change skeptics and it’s one of the things I kind of regret in my career because we were wrong.”

A panelist on AGree’s recent data innovation session, Doggett says farmers used to be more skeptical than the average American about climate change and now it’s the opposite, “Because they’re the ones that are dealing with it. They’re the ones that are having to suffer the consequences of a planet where the climate is changing so we had to make that transition.

Doggett says it’s important to recognize most of farmed land is owned by somebody else and says USDA should work with landlords to help them understand the benefits of no-till and other climate friendly practices. READ MORE

Tags

45Q Carbon Oxide Sequestration Tax Credit corn ethanol ethanol/bioethanol Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS and RFS2) GHG (Greenhouse Gas Emissions) supply chain carbon credit carbon offsets bio-LNG (Liquified Natural Gas) Biogas Transportation Fuels Policy Transportation Policy government investment funding White House Agricultural Policy environmental policy carbon/CO2 sequestration forestry Agriculture climate change mitigation climate change climate smart/conservation agriculture Department of Agriculture (USDA) LCFS (Low Carbon Fuel Standard) California Bioenergy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) environmental justice/socially inclusive anaerobic digester/digestion Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) BioRefineries/Renewable Fuel Production grants Green Jobs

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