With the resolution of a disputed election in New York State, the House Agriculture Committee is ready for action with climate change as its top issue. “Everything will tie into climate change,” says the committee chief of staff, and the first hearing of the year will focus on climate change’s impact on agriculture.
President Biden, who describes climate change as an existential threat, has said he wants American agriculture to be the first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases. The administration and farm groups agree that mitigation efforts should be voluntary. There are suggestions to tweak USDA land stewardship programs to include “climate-smart” practices and to create a carbon bank at USDA to pay farmers for locking carbon in the soil and trees.