Climate talks continue to touch almost every policy coming out of the new Biden administration and the ag industry has largely agreed to play its part.
The Food and Agriculture Climate Alliance broke through historical barriers to bring together farmers, forest owners, the food sector, and environmental advocates to develop a plan for agriculture to lead the way in climate policy.
The group calls for voluntary, market driven policy that promotes resilience in rural communities and advances science based outcomes.
The policies could be part of the answer to one of President Joe Biden’s recent executive orders, directing the Secretary of Agriculture to collect stakeholder feedback on how to engage the industry in carbon sequestration.
“When we think of renewable energy, we see American manufacturing, American workers racing to lead the global market. We see farmers making American agriculture first in the world to achieve net zero emissions and gaining new sources of income in the process,” President Biden states.
For livestock producers, that could include a 30 percent tax credit on the cost of manure digestors that can turn waste into cleaner energy for the farm. The alliance says that USDA should partner with the Department of Energy to advance the technology.
The group also recommends an additional tax credit for carbon sequestration and a carbon bank within USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation. Incoming Senate Ag Committee Chair, Debbie Stabenow plans to bring up the Growing Climate Solutions Act to lay the groundwork for carbon markets.
“Senator Braun and I, and others, are putting this forward as a bipartisan approach to put together a structure and provide the technical expertise to our growers and foresters so they have the information they need and the tools they need to be able to enter the private climate markets that are there now and more being created,” the Senator states.
The alliance also calls for a 10-20 percent increase in funding for USDA’s Natural Resource Conservation Service, to provide technical assistance to farmers on soil health practices and manure management on farms.
The group says that more research is also needed on the interaction of crop insurance and soil health practices, plus new technologies that can make conservation more accessible for farmers.
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