The national conversation around how to address climate change hasn’t always positioned agriculture as an essential tool for mitigating the effects of excess carbon in the atmosphere. But a new bill from Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine brings farming into the climate spotlight with an ambitious goal of reaching net zero emissions in the agriculture sector by 2040.
The Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA), introduced Wednesday, would direct the Department of Agriculture and other federal agencies to build a plan for reaching several climate goals. Among them are maintaining year-round cover crops on 75 percent of farmland, restoring half of lost soil carbon, and reducing food waste by 75 percent.
The bill also expands funding and adds a climate lens for USDA research and programs related to soil health, farmland preservation, livestock management, energy, and food loss.
“Climate change is one of our biggest threats, and I think there’s a huge lack of understanding of the role of agriculture,” Pingree said in an interview. “Farmers are some of the most affected by the extreme weather that we’re having, [and] farmers are also able to be some of our most important partners in terms of the ability for soil to sequester carbon.”
The legislation has been endorsed by many agriculture and food groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, the National Farmers Union, the National Organic Coalition, and Farm Aid. Supporters emphasized the importance of bringing farmers into conversations about how to address the climate crisis.
“Too much of the national conversation about climate change has ignored the role of agriculture, or even worse, singled out farmers as part of the problem without also recognizing them as an essential part of the solution,” said Eric Deeble, policy director at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, in a statement supporting the bill. “This legislation correctly positions agriculture as central to meaningful and long-lasting policy action on climate change.” The NSAC consulted on the bill, Deeble said.
The ARA comes a week after the USDA introduced its own environmental plan, with a goal of reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint. Yet Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue did not mention climate change by name when he announced the plan at the Annual Ag Outlook Forum. The agency has also been criticized for reportedly suppressing internal research on climate change and not going far enough to support farmers in adapting to changing weather conditions.
Pingree said that while the agency has been “recalcitrant” in its treatment of climate change, it is still important to include the USDA in any farm climate plan. “You just can’t write off the USDA,” she said. “One of the roles of Congress is to have oversight, to push them.”
While the bill is unlikely to move forward fully intact, pieces may be incorporated into other farm legislation. And Pingree said that the bill is as much an educational tool as a technical roadmap. After conversations with many farmers and experts, she said the bill tries “to distill that down and help people to understand how we could be helpful on this issue. [I wanted to] clear up some of the confusion, so people can start to better understand how agriculture works.”