How to make climate change a priority in the next farm bill

Next year Congress will renew the farm bill that funds our farmers and ranchers.

Thanks to the Anti-Inflation Act, the Department of Agriculture’s annual spending on farm stewardship practices will increase from $6 billion to $10 billion, including at least $4 billion on practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Agriculture is a significant and growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. emissions from laughing gas from the fertilization of plants and animal feed and from methane of livestock and their manure are growing – and potent – ​​greenhouse gases. Scientists warn that unless we reduce agriculture’s emissions of nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide and methane, we won’t achieve greenhouse gas reductions necessary to avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis.

Voluntary conservation programs managed by the USDA could play a big part in reducing greenhouse gas emissions — and helping farms be better able to withstand the extreme weather conditions caused by climate change. In addition, conservation practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions can also improve air and water quality and provide habitat for wildlife.

Until Congress passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the USDA turn away two out of three farmers seek support to conserve greenhouse gas emissions.

But more funds alone will not meet the challenge. Currently, most of the funding goes to farms that receive USDA conservation support through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program or EQIP, the Conservation Stewardship Program or CSP, the Conservation Reserve Program or CRP, or the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program or ACEP, which has done little to help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

For example:

• Just 23 percent of EQIP funding supports practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and some EQIP funds support practices that do increase emissions.
• More than 70 percent of EQIP funding flows into structural practices such as irrigation infrastructure that do not reduce emissions.
• Methane is a significant source of emissions, but only between 2017 and 2020 $54,000 fed into EQIP practices aimed at improving feed management.
• Just 15 states opted for EQIP rebates for practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and 14 countries provided rebates for practices that do so increase emissions.
• Almost 40 percent of CSP practices offered performed poorly in reducing greenhouse gas emissions between 2017 and 2022.
• Many common CSP practices – including the CSP work out receive most CSP funding – do not reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
• Many of the CSP practices that do well in reducing emissions, such as B. No-till to reduce soil erosion, receive very little funding.
• Most CRP acres will be put back into production after contracts expire, release soil carbon back into the atmosphere, and the number of acres registered in long-term Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program agreements is declining.
• Farmers who protect farmland from development by registering with ACEP do not have to take any action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Historic funding for environmental practices included in the Anti-Inflation Act could help clear the backlog of farmers offering to reduce emissions. But to fulfill the bill’s promise, Congress must also reform these programs to ensure Funding goes to practices that reduce greenhouse gases.

To make climate change a focus of USDA conservation programs, Congress must:

• Make CSP a climate stewardship program. congress should reform the CSP to make reducing greenhouse gas emissions its primary purpose. Congress should reward early adopters by tying CSP eligibility to prior climate stewardship; Focusing funding on practices that reduce emissions; and prioritizing contracts to reward those that include multiple emissions reduction practices.
• Reform EQIP to make climate a top priority. Congress should expand and reform EQIP make climate Main purpose of his incentive contracts. Specifically, Congress should allocate only a 90 percent cost share to EQIP practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions; reducing federal cost-sharing for structural practices that provide little or no environmental benefits; and prohibit EQIP spending on practices that increase greenhouse gas emissions.
• Reform CRP to favor long-term contracts. Congress should expand and reform CRP by increasing program funding – and by concentrating CRP registration on marginal, environmentally sensitive areas long term and permanent easements. Generally, 80 percent of CRP acres should be registered through CLEAR-30, Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program agreements, or rolling registration categories.
• Reform ACEP to demand climate responsibility. Congress should reform ACEP by increasing funding for wetland reserve easements — and by making past and future climate stewardship a condition of inclusion in agricultural land easements.

U.S. agriculture currently accounts for at least 10 percent of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions. If we include emissions from fertilizer production, as well as emissions from deforestation and plowing, agriculture’s share of US emissions is even higher.

B. US emissions from energy and transport keep falling in response to new policies and emissions fertilizer and animals continue to grow due to the increasing demand for animal protein, the contribution of agriculture to the climate crisis will steadily increase. Unlike most other economic sectors, agriculture’s share of greenhouse gas emissions has increased since 2000. Unless climate becomes the focus of USDA conservation programs, this share could soon be eliminated for 30 percent of US emissions.

The next Farm Bill is our best chance to change the direction of greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture.