Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the climate-smart initiative will spur the development of sustainable farm products and markets for them.
The U.S. farm sector would be the first in the world to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 with the assistance of projects such as the USDA’s climate-smart agriculture initiatives, said the Democratic Party platform released on Monday. Delegates to the party’s national convention in Chicago were scheduled to vote on the platform on Tuesday.
The 92-page platform also called for a pathway to citizenship for undocumented farmworkers and applauded the Biden administration’s update of SNAP benefits and the creation of the Summer EBT program to help low-income families buy food during the summer. It said former president Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, “failed to deliver results for the American people” when he started the Sino-U.S. trade war in 2018. U.S. food and ag exports to China, the No. 1 customer, slumped during the dispute.
“Under President Biden’s landmark climate law, the Agriculture Department is paying farmers to adopt climate-smart practices, which sequester carbon from the atmosphere, improve soil health and biodiversity, and restore water cycles, all while opening new revenue streams from ecosystems services markets,” said the platform, referring to the $3.1 billion climate-smart initiative. “Already, over 80,000 farms covering 75 million acres have adopted these practices.”
The administration was “investing in new sources of income for America’s farmers and working to make our farm sector the world’s first to reach net-zero emissions by 2050,” said the platform. It was one of the first times a target date has been attached to the first-in-the-world goal for agriculture. During Biden’s first days in office in 2021, the White House aimed for a “clean energy revolution” that would put the country on course for a net-zero economy by 2050
Agriculture accounts for 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says the climate-smart initiative will spur the development of sustainable farm products and markets for them. Congressional Republicans are trying in the new farm bill to cut off Vilsack’s access to the USDA fund that paid for the initiative and to remove a requirement that a windfall $13 billion for USDA conservation programs be spent on climate mitigation.
“Congress must pass legislation to provide a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers, farmworkers, careworkers, and other long-term undocumented individuals who contribute to this country by paying taxes and contributing to their local economies,” said the platform.
By contrast, the 16-page Republican platform calls for strict enforcement of immigration laws and, without detail, says it would “begin the largest deportation program in American history.” To protect farmers from unfair trade, the GOP would set “baseline” tariffs on imports. Trump has said the universal tariff might be as high as 20% and that tariffs on Chinese products could be 60%.
The Democratic platform was available here.
