Meat+Poultry - March 2023 - 12

WASHINGTON
Leveraging alignments
Interest in efforts to address climate
change has grown domestically and
abroad. But crafting policies around
the phenomenon has generated
skepticism and sometimes conflict.
Approaching the problem of climate
change will require a paradigm shift
from the polarization between climate
advocacy and ag policy. How does
society eschew the polarization of
climate and ag policy of the past? How
do stakeholders create a model of
policies and practices that leverages
areas of alignment?
Robert Bonnie, undersecretary for
Farm Production and Conservation
at the US Department of Agriculture
(USDA), addressed these challenges
and possible remedies in " climatesmart "
commodities at the Animal
Ag Sustainability Summit held during
the 2023 International Production &
Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta, Ga.
During his presentation, " Partnerships
for Climate-Smart Commodities Grants:
Insights into the Benefits the Animal
Agriculture Industry Can Realize, "
Bonnie provided insights into the
USDA program which has earmarked
$3.1 billion for climate smart projects
to be developed in the next three to
four years.
" What we do over the coming years
with respect to agriculture, I think we
set the tone for how we go forward, "
Bonnie said. " If we get the approach
right, we figure out how to work with
agriculture and forestry and do so in
a credible way, I think the policy will
take care of itself. "
Funding recipients were announced
in September and December of 2022.
In the first pool of the Partnerships
for Climate-Smart Commodities
funding, Agriculture Secretary Tom
Vilsack announced USDA would
be investing up to $2.8 billion in 70
selected projects. Another 71 projects
will receive funding from the second
pool. The projects will provide
technical and financial assistance to
producers to implement climate-smart
production practices on a voluntary
basis on working lands; pilot innovative
and cost-effective methods for
quantification, monitoring, reporting
and verification of greenhouse
gas benefits; and develop markets
and promote the resulting climatesmart
commodities.
An estimated 60,000-plus farms
will be reached by the grant program,
encompassing more than 25 million
acres of working land engaged in
climate-smart production practices,
like cover crops, no-till and nutrient
management, as well as pasture and
forestry management, the agency said.
USDA said the projects will result
in more than 60 million tonnes of
carbon dioxide equivalent sequestered
over the timeframe of the projects
equivalent to removing more than 12
million gasoline-powered passenger
vehicles from the road for one year.
Proposals for the selected projects
include plans to match on average 50%
of the federal investment with nonfederal
funds, according to USDA.
AVAILABLE SOLUTIONS
Internationally, estimates of emissions
associated with agriculture are at 25%
to 30%. That's typically because the
international community lumps in
tropical deforestation, Bonnie said,
because much of that activity is done
for agricultural expansion. But the
US agriculture industry is much more
efficient at roughly 10% to 11% of US
emissions coming from agriculture.
Bonnie believes that with the right
approach there are opportunities
for stakeholders in agriculture and
agribusiness to benefit from further
reductions in GHG emissions.
" We're sort of conditioned to
think of environmental policies as
tradeoffs, a clash between the economy
and the environment, " Bonnie said.
" We're used to seeing these clashes
between the Endangered Species Act
and private landowners. But there's
a lot of alignment between the types
of practices that can be good for
agriculture and forestry and practices
which would benefit the environment. "
ERICA SHAFFER | eshaffer@sos land.com
" What we do over the coming years with
respect to agriculture, I think we set
the tone for how we go forward. "
- ROBERT BONNIE
12 MEAT+POULTRY | 03.23 | www.meatpoultry.com
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Meat+Poultry - March 2023

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