Climate Change & Agriculture

A look at legislative activities, administration priorities and industry actions.

WRITTEN BY Howard Olson, SVP Government and Public Affairs

Climate change and climate policy are top priorities for President Biden, United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary, Tom Vilsack, and the new administration. Legislation has been introduced in both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House that gives USDA authorization to act as a facilitator for the carbon markets. This has several agricultural organizations putting together workgroups, white papers and recommendations on climate responses. Agriculture will play a key role in the climate change fight. The question is how, and can we have input that benefits our industry?

LEGISLATION

Last June, Senate Ag Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow and others introduced a bill in the Senate, with a similar bill dropping in the House, called the Growing Climate Solutions Act. The goal of the legislation is to bring transparency and build trust among farmers and ranchers who want to participate in private carbon markets. It creates a carbon market certification program at USDA, a Greenhouse Gas Technical Provider and a Third-Party Verifier Certification program to provide transparency and legitimacy to the ag carbon markets. They want to help private landowners generate carbon credits through a variety of agriculture and forestry-related practices and connect landowners to private sector carbon markets. It also calls for USDA to create a website, which will serve as a “one-stop shop” of information and resources.

ADMINISTRATION AND USDA

The Climate 21 Project is considered a blueprint for the new administration and has a section specific to USDA. The plan includes recommendations to invest in natural climate solutions and make climate-smart investments, such as:

• Establish a carbon bank using Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) authorities and funding;

• Fund climate-smart practices through USDA conservation programs;

• Create incentives in climate-smart agriculture through crop insurance policies; and

• Increase the adoption of methane digesters for livestock.

DAIRY METHANE RESEARCH

Dr. Frank Mitloehner, also known as the GHG Guru, from the University of California Davis is sharing new information that livestock herds are not adding to greenhouse gases and that with the use of methane digesters, can actually be a part of the solution to reduce greenhouse gas levels and slow climate change. Livestock and other animals are net neutral to greenhouse gas levels. They only increase greenhouse gases if herd size increases and that’s not happening.

According to Dr. Mitloehner, in the U.S., dairy cow numbers have shrunk from 25 million in 1950 to 9 million cows in 2020. At the same time, milk production has increased nationally by 60%. The carbon footprint of a glass of milk is two-thirds smaller today than it was 70 years ago! More information on Dr. Mitloehner’s research can be found: clear.ucdavis.edu/. The video resource on that website, “Rethinking Methane,” is a very interesting, five-minute video to help viewers understand livestock methane and how it can be a part of the solution.

AG INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENTS

Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance (FACA), was launched last summer by the American Farm Bureau, the National Farmers Union, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives

and the Environmental Defense Fund. They created workgroups and developed policy recommendations. FACA recommends federal policy should provide incentives and support for farmers, ranchers and forest owners as they tackle the challenges created by climate change. Their report includes several specific recommendations to achieve this. They have presented their full report to members of Congress, the Biden administration and USDA with favorable reviews and support. Since the inception, the number of organizations associated with FACA continues to grow.

Just recently, Land O’Lakes announced that their agronomic business Truterra has launched a program called TruCarbon that will be the first farmer-owned carbon program. They also announced their first buyer of carbon credits will be Microsoft. Farmers can sell carbon credits for $20 per ton and may be eligible for agronomic practices completed in the past five years.

The climate change issue and response started years ago as a ripple and now feels like a full-scale tidal wave coming at us. Farmers, ranchers and the agriculture industry now have a choice to make – we can either try and fight this and attempt to push back against the tidal wave, or we can grab a board and ride this wave in a direction favorable to farmers, ranchers and American agriculture.

IMAGE SOURCE:HTTPS://CLEAR.UCDAVIS.EDU/EXPLAINERS/BIOGEN- IC-CARBON-CYCLE-AND-CATTLE