Growing Climate Change: The Farm Bill as Comprehensive Climate Change Policy

Will the new Farm Bill’s policies cause agriculture to contribute to or mitigate against climate change? As the largest investment in working lands, the pending Farm Bill may be our best bet to address agriculture’s contribution to climate change. Proposed changes would ironically reduce conservation programs, which mitigate climate change, and provide more insurance for farmers affected by climate change events, shoring up profits for commodity producers.

The Farm Bill is the United States’ primary food and agriculture legislation. The breadth of its policies make the Farm Bill the primary vehicle influencing whether agricultural lands will mitigate against or contribute to climate change.

Will the Farm Bill, already a year past its scheduled renewal, finally pass? If it does pass, will Congress protect critical conservation programs that both reduce contributions to climate change and protect American farmlands from future climate impacts? As it stands, the current Farm Bill proposals reduce mandatory funding for conservation programs by billions of dollars, while also providing increased resources for crop insurance. As a policy signal, one might think the U.S. government has turned a blind eye to agriculture’s role in climate change mitigation, and has shifted its resources toward protecting the profit margins of commodity producers in the face of extreme weather.

Agriculture and climate change are inexorably linked. Agriculture is a primary source of methane and nitrous oxide emissions, two prominent greenhouse gasses. Changes in climate will affect crop and livestock yields, resulting in increased costs for agricultural commodities and decreased farm incomes, influencing where and how we produce food. At the same time, agriculture can also remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by storing carbon in soil and vegetation.

The conservation title of the Farm Bill is the largest source of federal investment in private working lands conservation and is the primary method of addressing environmental harms on farms and ranches. In addition to promoting land conservation, programs under the title encourage farmers to implement conservation practices and set aside fragile lands, which can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase carbon sequestration.

However, as Congress tries again to agree on a Farm Bill, conservation funding is being cut and the 1985 Farm Bill requirement that links reducing soil erosion and wetlands protection to the ability to receive Farm Bill benefits is at risk. The Farm Bill is up for renewal every five years and was due for reauthorization in 2012. Congress failed to pass a new Farm Bill, and as a stopgap, extended some provisions of the 2008 law. As a result, many conservation programs had reduced funding or were unfunded this past year. Both the House and the Senate have passed new versions of the Farm Bill, with key differences in the amount of funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (“SNAP”) and conservation programs.