Download this document
As a society, we face few issues as complicated and contentious as climate change. We are already feeling the effects of a warming planet, suffering through an increase in the frequency and intensity of floods, heat waves, droughts and other weather extremes. But despite calls from scientists, activists and citizens around the globe for action on climate change mitigation, national and international efforts to mandate greenhouse gas (GHG)–emissions reductions have repeatedly stalled. World leaders failed to reach a binding agreement on climate mitigation in Copenhagen in December 2009, and the U.S. Senate failed to bring a climate bill to a vote in 2010.
While comprehensive climate legislation is a necessity that we must continue to push for, these and other failures to pass sweeping climate agreements or to legislate GHG reductions suggest a need for actions in other arenas, both legislative as well as on the ground. Similar to U.N. Secretary General Ban-Ki Moon, who recommended in August 2010 that nations take small steps in different fields to work toward a wider consensus instead of awaiting a full-fledged international accord, there are opportunities outside the arena of climate legislation for progress on global warming mitigation.1 We feel one of the best and most pressing opportunities is in agriculture.2
Agriculture offers a two-fold benefit for the climate: as a place to reduce direct emissions and as a carbon sink. Many farmers have already adopted more climate-friendly agriculture practices, stimulated in part by programs in the 2008 Farm Bill. And with agriculture’s vulnerability to climate change increasingly felt, there are additional reasons to emphasize climate considerations in farm policy. So while getting a climate bill passed will require a gargantuan effort and not a little luck, many of the tools we need to bring about immediate GHG reductions in agriculture already exist in the Farm Bill and, with minimal changes, could help move us towards our overall climate goals
