[...They’re
doing it because their donors and farm base are demanding it. Our food
production capacity is in peril now, not tomorrow. The new farm bill will be
written with a much stronger emphasis on conservation over sheer crop and
livestock production. It can make a real contribution to water pollution and
the climate crisis fast.]...
Editorial: Crisis breeds bipartisanship
July 06, 2021
Art Cullen | The Storm Lake Times
Necessity may have more than one child: invention and
bipartisanship. Just before it took a holiday break, the U.S. Senate on a 92-8
vote approved the Growing Climate Solutions Act that paves the way for a
national carbon credit trading market. The bill, cultivated in the Agriculture
Committee, instructs the U.S. Department of Agriculture to establish credible
scientific framework under which polluters like coal power plants could buy
offsets from farmers and foresters who sequester carbon in grass, trees and
soil.
The bill was sponsored by Committee Chair Sen. Debbie
Stabenow, D-Mich., and Sen. Mike Braun, R-Ind., a conservative with
unimpeachable Trump credentials. The third-ranking Republican, Sen. John
Barrasso of Wyoming, voted for the bill despite having pledged to make Joe
Biden a “half-term president.” Biden supports the bill. So does Republican
Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
The Farm Bureau and Farmers Union on right and left
agree that farmers should get paid for environmental services. So do 175 big
agribusinesses and environmental groups who signed on to the legislation. The
Chicago traders are on board with climate action, seeing as how they can skim a
profit from the margins. Cargill is working with the Practical Farmers of Iowa
on sustainable ag practices like cover crops. With California on fire and the
Great Plains running dry, everyone is keen on turning around the battleship and
realizing there is money to be made.
Hence, heads come together in the Capitol.
The carbon credit legislation is the first step of a
country mile in agribusiness acknowledging that we have a food security crisis.
Four years ago, Stabenow couldn’t even get a hearing on global warming; she had
to call it a hearing on “extreme weather.” Times change. Floods and droughts
are routine. Farmers in western Iowa are getting a full taste. The smart money
has concluded, after the huge shock to the food system in the pandemic, that we
need to build in some resiliency — and not a moment too soon.
The science is not settled on carbon sequestration in
the soil. Many environmentalists believe it’s greenwashing — corporations could
buy cheap carbon offsets from farmers who aren’t really sequestering that much
carbon. USDA is expanding its research into the question. Science can confirm
carbon sequestration, but it varies widely depending on soil types, plant
species and cultivation techniques.
Without a hard federal cap or a tax on emissions a
carbon trading market remains an experiment in paying farmers for conservation
stewardship.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack believes it could
be an important revenue stream among many to incent farmers to net-zero carbon
emissions. He and Stabenow believe that a different approach to the land can
make it more productive while capturing excess greenhouse gas. Each of them are
trying to pull along corporate interests that can make or break climate
initiatives, while trying to hold the environmental base.
The Senate Ag Committee is a bastion of
bipartisanship driven more by regional interests than partisanship. The Midwest
takes care of corn, the South tends its cotton. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa,
and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., can embrace over ethanol. And, they spread
their work to the Justice Committee where they are loading for bear over beef
markets. They want at least half the nation’s cattle traded in open markets as
opposed to contracted production. Stabenow is working with Republicans like
Grassley on promoting wind and solar energy. Sen. John Hoeven, D-ND and Sen. Ben
Ray Lujan, D-NM, are arguing for increased land-grant university ag research
funding, a critical area long ignored.
They’re doing it because their donors and farm base
are demanding it. Our food production capacity is in peril now, not tomorrow.
The new farm bill will be written with a much stronger emphasis on conservation
over sheer crop and livestock production. It can make a real contribution to
water pollution and the climate crisis fast.
The Senate certainly is acting with more urgency than
just four years ago. The pandemic relief bills were enormous and passed with
lightning speed. We are reshoring critical drug and computer component
manufacturing from China — that vote, too, was overwhelmingly bipartisan. Biden
just endorsed a bipartisan infrastructure deal. He will get Republican
support on subsequent climate infrastructure bills because we have no other
choice. The temperature hit 120 degrees last weekend — in the Arctic Circle!
The
people recognize it. So does capital. Politics follows.
National Latino Farmers & Ranchers Trade
Association
1029 Vermont Avenue, NW, Suite 601
Washington, DC 20005
Twitter: @NLFRTA
