I'm climate-smart, not like everyone says!
Team Biden has $20 billion to turn a political catchphrase into low-emissions farming
My new Canary column is about “climate-smart agriculture,” which was something President Biden and other politicians just talked about until the Inflation Reduction Act included $20 billion to try to make it a reality. Now USDA needs to figure out WTF it means, other than just giving farmers even more government money.
Which is definitely one thing it means.
Agriculture is responsible for a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, and I laid out a bunch of ways the feds could help farmers and ranchers reduce theirs. But it’s clear the Biden folks are particularly excited about “regenerative agriculture” designed to store more carbon in soils, which is all the rage in the corporate world, food world, ag world, environmental world and the political world. One regenerative advocate who recently got a rather prominent new job has called it “absolutely critical.”
The problem is, there’s not much evidence it’s actually good for the climate.
It’s ridiculously important to figure out what kind of agriculture is climate-smart, so it’s really going to matter how USDA spends this unprecedented pot of money. I hope you’ll check out the column:
https://www.canarymedia.com/articles/food-and-farms/what-exactly-is-climate-smart-agriculture
Also, are you listening to Climavores? Some of you apparently are, because we just got our contracts extended. Our latest episode is a mailbag where we talk about induction stoves, eating bugs, canned fish and that incredibly weird New York Times article that used me as an inarticulate poster child for annoying verbal tics like “you know” and “kind of” that somehow demonstrated my openness to other viewpoints.
Listen to the episode here, or any other episode here. Thanks!