President Biden wants U.S. agriculture to be the first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, with Tom Vilsack guiding the effort as agriculture secretary. Vilsack, who will have the opportunity to spell out the details of climate mitigation on Tuesday, already has the backing of Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.
Schumer listed the USDA among six federal departments awaiting a Biden-nominated leader and said on Monday, “We have a lot of work to do here but the Senate is going to press forward on these nominations as quickly as possible.” The opportunity to vote on Vilsack could arrive quickly; the Senate Agriculture Committee planned to vote on the nomination on Tuesday afternoon, hours after holding a confirmation hearing.
Vilsack was agriculture secretary during the Obama years when farm groups helped defeat a cap-and-trade plan to slow global warming. Attitudes have changed in farm country, the former two-term Iowa governor told a home-state newspaper two weeks ago.
“Agriculture writ large is ready for this, much more than before,” said Vilsack during an interview with the Storm Lake Times. “We can create a whole new suite of revenue stream to protect (farmers) from the vagaries of trade.” The USDA could create demonstration projects on carbon capture that might become full-scale programs in the 2023 farm bill and it could develop scientific standards for sequestration that would be crucial for carbon trading.
Biden directed the USDA last Wednesday to recommend a climate strategy for agriculture and forestry within 150 days, or late June, if work started right away. The effort would begin with 60 days of consultation with landowners, farmers, conservation groups, and other interested parties on how to encourage voluntary adoption of climate-smart practices that result in verifiable carbon sequestration and reductions in carbon emissions and that produce biofuels and bioproducts.
“We see farmers making American agriculture first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions and gaining new sources of income in the process,” said Biden, who signed an executive order for action government-wide on climate change.
Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, the incoming chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, says she will pursue “voluntary, producer-led” solutions, such as carbon markets, to generate agriculture’s contribution to climate mitigation. Farm groups also call for voluntary rather than mandatory initiatives. Incentives have been the preferred federal approach to land stewardship for decades.
Vilsack has broad support for a return to USDA. If confirmed, he would have the second-longest tenure as agriculture secretary. “Tama Jim” Wilson, also from Iowa, holds the record — 16 years under Presidents William McKinley, Theodore Roosevelt and William Taft more than a century ago.
After the Obama years, Vilsack was chief executive of the U.S. Dairy Export Council, a trade promotion group, with a salary of $833,000. He also worked for Colorado State University as a strategic advisor, worked as a lawyer, did some consulting work and won $150,000 in the Iowa Lottery. With his state pension, Vilsack earned more than $1 million during 2020, according to his financial disclosure statement.
Vilsack and his wife, Christie, listed assets of $1.3 million-$6.5 million and no liabilities. The largest asset was farmland in Davis County in southeastern Iowa, valued at $1 million-$5 million. Rent from the farm is $50,000-$100,000 a year. By comparison, Sonny Perdue, the former two-term governor of Georgia and businessman who was agriculture secretary during the Trump administration, listed assets of $11 million-$47 million and liabilities of $1.3 million-$2.6 million when his nomination was sent to the Senate in March 2017.