By Frank Giles
USDA photo by Tom Witham
As talks get underway for the 2023 Farm Bill, the Biden administration has made it clear that its focus will be on climate change. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack made the priority clear when he took the lead of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
“USDA is committed to addressing climate change through actions that are farmer, rancher and forest landowner-focused and that create new market opportunities for the sector in a fair and equitable way,” Vilsack said recently of the administration’s climate-smart agriculture initiative. “We want your ideas on how to position the agriculture and forestry sectors to be leaders on climate-smart practices to mitigate climate change. This includes making the most of USDA programs, developing new USDA-led climate strategies, strengthening existing markets and developing new markets that generate income.”
NEW REVENUE STREAM?
So far, much of the mitigation talk has focused on ecosystem services. The idea would provide incentives for growers that adopt practices to sequester carbon. Practices like reduced tillage and cover crops would fall into this category.
If ecosystem services can be a new revenue stream for growers, that is good. But other policies, like bringing back the Environmental Protection Agency’s waters of the United States rule, would bring uncertainty to farms. This is something we can’t afford right now.
FEEDING THE WORLD
We are blessed in the United States that we have an abundant food supply. But if the world is headed toward food shortages due to the war in Europe and other factors, we might need to produce more food here to help fill the gap.
Several U.S. agricultural groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Grain and Feed Association, have asked USDA for flexibility on acres within the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). A letter was sent to Secretary Vilsack in March, requesting that growers be able to plant on “prime” farmland in the program without penalties or allowed an early-out of contracts.
According to USDA’s 2017 National Resources Inventory, 4,164,000 acres of the 15,941,000 acres in CRP’s general signup were deemed prime farmland. Prime farmland is defined as “land that has the best combination of physical and chemical characteristics for producing food, feed, forage, fiber and oilseed crops that is also available for these uses.”
In addition, some have suggested that U.S corn ethanol mandates be eased to direct production to food and feed uses. Nearly 40% of corn use in the United States is dedicated to ethanol.
When it comes to the next farm bill, growers should be provided with a good safety net to weather downtowns in the agricultural sector. This should apply to the specialty crop sector, not just the commodity crops. The farm bill also should seek ways to mitigate the inflation in prices for the many inputs needed to grow crops. We should protect growers from unfair foreign competition in crops like tomatoes, strawberries, blueberries, peppers, and the list goes on.
Addressing climate change is important. It has a place in the next farm bill, but it must be balanced with assuring we have an abundant and affordable food supply produced by U.S. growers. The climate is warming, but the world’s geopolitical events are hot right now, so immediate food-security concerns should be prioritized.
We are blessed in the United States that we have an abundant food supply. But if the world is headed toward food shortages due to the war in Europe and other factors, we might need to produce more food here to help fill the gap.
