EDITOR’S NOTE: When we talk with farmers, we repeatedly hear comments like “The soil doesn’t hold the water like it used to …crop yields are slipping down … sometimes I think the seasons are changing… it’s hotter than it used to be.” Yet, somehow – despite hearings all over the country, we seem to have too many folks on the Ag Committee who only want to do things like we used to — no new thoughts at all. MY RURAL AMERICA is grateful for the following report:
Politico and E&E Daily report:
“Senate Agriculture Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) has vowed to protect climate spending in this year’s farm bill.” Francis Chung/POLITICO
E&E DAILY | “Supporters of using farm programs to fight climate change are putting new pressure on congressional Democrats to keep that idea alive as the 2023 farm bill begins to take shape.
“The advocacy group Evergreen Action said it’s targeting Democrats in a push to preserve climate-related funding in the Inflation Reduction Act, an issue that has become a potential stumbling block to finishing the five-year farm bill this year. “Losing climate-smart agriculture funds could destabilize small farmers and their families’ economic security while rendering farms more vulnerable to severe weather impacts like flooding and drought,” the group said in a blog post and position paper distributed to Democratic offices.
“The Inflation Reduction Act enacted last year included $19.5 billion for climate-smart agriculture, pouring money into already-existing conservation programs such as the Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
“The law stipulates that the new money must be targeted toward farm practices that address climate change, including sequestering more carbon in the soil or reducing greenhouse gas emissions from farms.
“No Republicans voted for the Inflation Reduction Act, so Evergreen said it’s focusing on Democrats in the hope they’ll agree the IRA funding should maintain the boundaries set out in the law — even though the programs, authorized in the farm bill, have historically been used for a wider array of practices.
“‘We want to see that these popular programs are protected,’ said Mattea Mrkusic, who heads Evergreen’s work on energy transition policy.
“Mrkusic said the group isn’t for or against the Inflation Reduction Act coming into the farm bill, so long as the climate connection remains. And it’s not worried yet about when the flush of money from the climate law runs out in a little less than a decade. “In the meantime, the climate crisis is here,” she said.
“Among other benefits of the IRA’s climate focus, Mrkusic said, the conservation programs could help reduce farmers’ need for chemical nitrogen-based fertilizer, which contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
“Researchers at the University of Exeter said in a 2022 paper published in the journal Scientific Reports that nitrogen-based fertilizers may contribute as much as 2.1 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“Debate stuck Congressional Republicans working on the farm bill say they’re looking to protect conservation programs, too — by keeping them focused on the broad purposes they’ve served for decades. ‘Many farm practices traditionally funded through the programs wouldn’t qualify as “climate-smart,”‘even though they serve environmental goals like keeping manure out of waterways, they’ve said.
“‘The policy debate has been stuck for weeks. The top Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee, John Boozman of Arkansas, says he’d like to tap the IRA money for the farm bill and broaden its focus. Chair Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) says she’d only agree to use IRA funds if the climate focus remains.
“Boozman told reporters last week that he and Stabenow are still trying to figure out whether and how to wrap money from the Inflation Reduction Act into the farm bill.
“Same deal. We’re discussing it,” Boozman said. And while he’d prefer to include IRA funds in the farm bill to increase its budget baseline, Boozman said, he could accept leaving the money where it is. “That’s fine if we do.”
“Stabenow told E&E News she doesn’t intend to change the focus of the conservation programs spelled out in the Inflation Reduction Act, which will carry on as written if Congress leaves it out of the farm bill. “We don’t have to do anything — that’s outside the farm bill.”
“While that issue remains unresolved, some sections of the 2023 bill are already in draft form, Boozman said. Committee leaders say they still intend to have a farm bill in place by the end of the year. An extension of the 2018 farm bill probably wouldn’t need to be in place until January, when the effects of an expired bill would become more significant, Boozman said.
“Agroforestry backers flex muscle in the House, committee Chair Glenn Thompson (R-Pa.) has said he wants to tap the Inflation Reduction Act money and that he doubts the USDA can otherwise spend all of it by the climate law’s expiration in 2031 — even with the robust demand from farmers.
“Thompson, who’s said he aims to release a draft this month, is under pressure on a wide variety of policies. In his own state, advocates for agroforestry — the mixing of forest and crops — are urging him to put a greater emphasis on that practice.
‘Thompson’s home state is among the nation’s leaders in agroforestry, yet the Agriculture Committee could do a lot more to support the practice, a handful of farm and conservation groups told Thompson in a recent letter.
“With a late freeze and devastating flooding challenging Pennsylvania producers already this year, we need Congress to imbed and integrate support for agroforestry adoption in the upcoming Farm Bill,” said the organizations and farms, including Pennsylvania Farmers Union, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Pennsylvania-Delaware chapter of the Nature Conservancy.
“Supporters said they’d like to see agroforestry — which also has climate-smart aspects — wrapped into multiple conservation programs such as the Conservation Reserve, a set-aside program that normally takes land out of crop production for periods of 10 years or more.
“Pennsylvania is one of the top states for the practices, along with Virginia, Missouri, Texas, and Oregon, according to the Forest Service.
“As recently as 2017, Pennsylvania had more than1,600 farming operations using at least one agroforestry practice such as integrating trees and pastures or planting nut trees along waterways to both protect the watershed and generate a cash crop, they said, citing that year’s census of agriculture. An updated census is scheduled for release in February.”