Energy & Environment

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24 July 2009
Agriculture Secretary: Climate Change Will Affect Rural America

July 21 commentary

This piece by Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack originally ran in the July 21 edition of the Des Moines Register. It is in the public domain and has no republication restrictions.

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Addressing climate change could revitalize rural America

By Tom Vilsack

It’s nothing new for America’s farmers and ranchers to worry about the weather. Will there be enough rain for the crops and grazing lands? Will it stop at planting and harvest time, and before our creeks and rivers jump their banks?

What is new is that farmers and ranchers should be very concerned about the long-term changes in our climate. The science is clear: Changes in the climate will affect growing seasons, bring on more intense storms and potentially make it more difficult for farmers and ranchers to make ends meet.

While we can’t do much about the short-term weather forecast, we can - and we must - act now to reduce atmospheric greenhouse gases, like carbon dioxide, which cause climate change.

This issue is too important for agriculture and forestry to sit on the sidelines. The opportunities it offers farmers and ranchers through a carbon market and a new energy economy are too promising to delay. Because, when we address climate change, we will not only fend off a looming climate crisis, but we will revitalize rural America.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed and the Senate is considering legislation to create a viable carbon-offsets market - one that rewards farmers, ranchers and forest landowners for stewardship activities. An offsets market represents a significant economic opportunity for farm communities. Addressing climate change also has the potential to play a very important role in helping our country wean itself from foreign oil. Landowners can play an important role in providing low-carbon renewable energy.

The potential of our working lands to generate greenhouse-gas reductions is significant. Already today, our lands take carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. In fact, forest and agricultural lands in the United States already offset about 15 percent of our domestic greenhouse gases by capturing carbon from the air and storing it in soils, vegetation and trees. Many scientists believe that, with the right incentives, farmers, ranchers and forest landowners could do even more by using conservation tillage, planting trees, using cover crops or undertaking a variety of other stewardship practices. And, climate legislation that includes a robust carbon-offsets market would pay landowners to do these things.

To be sure, under climate-change legislation the farm sector will experience both costs and benefits. Energy price increases can impact row-crop production and other agricultural activities. Because of higher personal transportation expenditures, rural households are more likely than urban households to feel the pinch of increased gas prices.

But I believe that there are significant opportunities for rural landowners in a cap-and-trade program that recognizes the contribution that farms, ranches and forests can make in addressing climate change. Rural landowners can benefit from incentives in climate and energy legislation that reward production of renewable energy, such as wind and bioenergy. A number of renewable-energy technologies, such as anaerobic digesters, geothermal and wind power, can reduce farmers’ reliance on fossil fuels. In cooperation with the U.S. Department of Energy, USDA will contribute to promoting these technologies, and our outreach and extension networks will help make them available to farmers, ranchers and land managers.

These technologies and promotion of a clean-energy economy will also stimulate the creation of new jobs that can’t be outsourced. As farmers, ranchers and land managers look to install an anaerobic digester or build a wind farm, someone will be needed to build the machines and install the systems. And, because many of these technologies will be utilized in rural areas, many of these jobs will be created in rural America.

To produce meaningful emissions reductions and to ensure a lasting offsets program will likely require the participation of thousands of landowners. USDA, in concert with other federal agencies, can work to ensure America’s farmers and ranchers get the credit they deserve for the environmental benefits they are providing.

I believe agriculture and forestry can play a vital role in addressing climate change and that, if done properly, there are significant opportunities for landowners to profit from doing right by the environment. For rural America, doing right will also mean doing well.

[Tom Vilsack is the secretary of agriculture.]

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