Climate Farm Internship on Midnight’s Farm, Lopez Island, Washington – 2021 Live, work, learn, and connect on Midnight’s Farm while taking a deep dive into the landscape of climate change through the Terra.do “Climate Change: Learning through Action” course. Study with a worldwide climate network while getting your hands dirty with experiential, in-the-field farm work. […]
Senate passes first-ever climate mitigation bill for agriculture Senate Agriculture chairwoman Debbie Stabenow was certain on Thursday that the House would follow the Senate in passing the first-ever climate mitigation bill for agriculture. Under the bill, the USDA would help farmers enter the carbon market, touted as the private enterprise way to earn money while […]
The New York State Soil Health and Climate Resiliency Act – 2021 With over seven million acres of farmland in New York State, the solution to healthier food, more profitable farms, and protection of natural resources is beneath our feet. The New York State Legislature has passed S.4722A/A.5386A, which will establish the New York Soil Health […]
Climate change prompts talk of permanent USDA disaster fund The government must respond rapidly to the destructive weather that accompanies climate change, said House Agriculture chairman David Scott on Tuesday, so he is working on legislation to create a permanent disaster aid fund at the USDA. “Many of our farms are done away with because […]
Before a USDA carbon bank, try some pilot projects, says climate alliance A few weeks ago, USDA climate adviser Robert Bonnie used a variant of “walk before you run” to describe the Biden administration goal of bipartisan support for climate mitigation in agriculture. On Monday, a sector-spanning coalition said the USDA “needs to crawl before […]
USDA harnesses Conservation Reserve for climate mitigation The USDA said it will offer higher rental rates and larger incentive payments to landowners who agree to idle environmentally fragile farmland and introduced a new payment for climate-smart practices to slow climate change. The expansions would boost spending on the Conservation Reserve by $ 300 million or […]
Calls for rural broadband and climate mitigation as pandemic aid hits $ 24 billion Rural communities “must have access to broadband” to succeed and climate mitigation provides an opportunity for rural jobs, said a letter drafted for House Agriculture Committee approval on Tuesday. Eliminate time limit on food stamps for ABAWDs, says Center on Budget […]
Biden nominates USDA climate adviser to oversee farm supports Robert Bonnie, named USDA climate adviser on the same day President Biden took office, will soon be in charge of all farm support programs, from land stewardship to farm subsidies and crop insurance, if confirmed by the Senate. Biden nominated Bonnie for undersecretary for farm production […]
Climate mitigation on USDA conservation programs, senator suggests The government should use USDA conservation programs as the starting point for climate mitigation on the farm and “tread lightly” with unproven ideas like a carbon bank, said the senior Republican on the Senate Agriculture Committee on Tuesday. USDA hits ‘pause’ on cattle tracking proposal Nine months […]
We don’t have a day to waste’ on climate mitigation, says Vilsack U.S. agriculture faces a triple imperative — market, environment, and income — in responding to climate change, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday, his first day on the job. “We don’t have a day to waste on this,” he told reporters while […]
The template for climate mitigation is soil conservation, says farm-enviro alliance The new era of climate mitigation on the farm would look like a beefed-up version of longstanding USDA conservation programs, augmented by a carbon bank that sets a floor price for carbon sequestration and reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, said leaders of the Food […]
House Ag panel will start with climate change 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 […]
USDA seeks ways to ‘de-risk’ climate mitigation, says Bonnie Farmers face significant expenses in adopting climate mitigation practices, and the Biden administration is pondering how to “de-risk those investments,” possibly through a so-called carbon bank, said USDA climate adviser Robert Bonnie on Thursday. “Can we look at some new authorities to create some new financing […]
Agriculture may be ‘first and best place’ for climate gains, says Vilsack The Biden administration will work with farmers, ranchers and forest owners “to create new sources of revenue tied to their good climate practices,” said agriculture secretary-nominee Tom Vilsack on Tuesday. With USDA’s broad authority to aid farmers, he said he could launch carbon […]
Voluntary mitigation is agriculture’s preference on climate change The incoming chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee said she will pursue “voluntary, producer-led” solutions, such as carbon markets, for agriculture’s contribution to fighting climate change, with the USDA providing expert advice to producers. Sen. Debbie Stabenow also said the USDA could need additional funding to pay […]
Ag role in climate mitigation: Net-zero emissions Before signing an executive order on fighting climate change, President Biden said on Wednesday that mitigation efforts would include net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by the agricultural sector, now responsible for 10 percent of U.S. emissions. “We see farmers making American agriculture first in the world to achieve […]