The USDA will spend $1 billion on climate-smart pilot projects, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced on Monday, delivering on a pledge made last September to help farmers develop a market for sustainably produced commodities. The demonstration projects could change the shape of U.S. farm policy, but the clock already is ticking toward the 2023 farm bill and funding for climate mitigation is not certain.
Anticipated start date for the pilot projects is this summer and they would run for one to five years, with two-year extensions possible. Applications are due by April 8 for large-scale projects costing from $5 million to $100 million, and by May 27 for smaller-scope projects with budgets up to $5 million.
“USDA will provide targeted funding to meet national and global demand and expand market opportunities for climate-smart commodities to increase the competitive advantage of American producers,” said Vilsack in launching the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. He spoke at Lincoln University, a historically Black land-grant university in Jefferson City, Missouri, to underscore the goal of including under-served farmers and ranchers in the initiative.
For purposes of the competitive grant program, climate-smart agricultural commodities are those produced with farming, ranching or forestry practices that reduce greenhouse gases or sequester carbon. Projects will provide incentives for producers and landowners to implement climate-smart practices on working lands, measure and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits of the practices, and develop markets for the commodities and promote use of them.
As he did last fall, Vilsack said the money can be drawn from a $30 billion reserve that also pays crop subsidies. “We’re authorized to use funds for the expansion of markets for U.S. commodities and the promotion of U.S. exports,” he said.
President Biden took office saying that U.S. agriculture could be first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, and that farmers would profit while slowing global warming. Farm, environmental and food industry groups applauded ideas such as a USDA “carbon bank” to share the cost of climate mitigation through voluntary, incentive-based programs, the same approach as USDA’s long-standing stewardship programs.
The administration’s momentum slowed as key Republican senators said USDA had no authority to tap its $30 billion reserve for a carbon bank and some early backers said trial runs would be more prudent than splashy new programs. And this month, the Republican leader on the House Agriculture Committee warned against “a rush to implement climate proposals” by commandeering USDA’s soil and water conservation programs. The House-passed “build back better” bill included $28 billion for conservation, including payment of $25 an acre for planting cover crops, but it hit a brick wall in the Senate.
Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow said feedback and data from the pilot projects “will help inform the writing of the next farm bill. It’s critical that we make sure that climate-friendly practices are profitable and practical for farmers — no matter what crop they produce, what region they’re in or the size of their operation.”
The House Agriculture Committee held its first hearings for the 2023 farm bill last week, and was scheduled to hear from Agriculture Undersecretary Robert Bonnie, who oversees farm subsidies and conservation programs, on Tuesday. The unofficial target for completing the new farm bill is fall 2023.