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Balanced Reporting. Trusted Insights.
Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Congressional Democrats have agreed on conservation and debt relief provisions that would immediately ramp up climate-focused conservation spending, including direct payments for cover crops, while also paying off loans for at-risk USDA borrowers.
USDA is putting $75 million into 15 projects around the country that are led by private organizations or state governments and can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide other environmental benefits.
Time is growing short to address global climate change, whose impacts are being seen in more extreme weather events such as drought and heavier precipitation, and changes to agricultural practices could take decades to have an impact on carbon emissions, a new report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says.
The National Corn Growers Association has decided to terminate its Soil Health Partnership, a program that teamed up with farmers to collect data on soil conservation practices such as cover crops and reduced tillage.
Farm and environmental groups that often disagree on ag policy are urging the Agriculture Department to prioritize climate change in conservation programs and to consider changes to crop insurance that would promote the use of cover crops and other carbon-conserving practices.
A new report suggests Illinois producers could be faced with mitigation efforts to lessen the impact of climate change, but the authors suggest the findings are also applicable across the Midwest.
A new report from the AGree coalition recommends alternatives for the Agriculture Department to consider in setting up a carbon bank that could be used to develop private credit markets and to assist producers who may be left out of them.
