Finally, Farm Issues Are Part Of Campaign Talking Points – CleanTechnica

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Northern US farmers are coming into the harvest season, and agricultural fairs are fun destinations to celebrate the late summer season. Join in! Become amazed at the largest pumpkin. Marvel at the varieties of local apples. Taste samples of maple syrup or home-churned butter. Judge for yourself which sheep have the best lines and fleece. Eat some clam cakes, roasted corn on the cob, peach cobbler, or poutine. But, while you’re having a good ole time, you may hear the growers and ranchers and harvesters behind the ropes, mulling over farm issues and the tenuous viability of their livelihoods.

In 2024, farm issues have arisen in discussions at the federal level as the election for US President nears. Democratic candidate for President and current US Vice President Kamala Harris chose a running mate, Governor Tim Walz, from a major farming state. Harris’ decision comes at a time in which farm policies need updating, yet change comes slowly — or perhaps too abruptly.

You see, Project 2025’s strong arm on farm issues could force change that could be detrimental to agricultural stability.

What’s So Important about the Farm Bill?

The stakes of the upcoming election are high for the $1.5 trillion US agricultural sector.

In 2023, President Joe Biden signed into law HR 6363, the Further Continuing Appropriations and Other Extensions Act, 2024, which extended the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018, more commonly known as the 2018 Farm Bill. The Farm Bill is a massive law that sets US agriculture and food policy every five years, and this extension only allows authorized programs to continue through September 30, 2024. The Farm Bill is a huge legislative act that stabilizes the US food system and affects every US state.

Over 70% of the land in the lower 48 states is privately owned, making it eligible for Farm Bill programs that help spur healthier soils, cleaner water, carbon sequestration, and wildlife habitat conservation. The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) explains that the Farm Bill’s safety net and price support programs provide peace of mind for producers who are working to manage ups and downs in markets. Farm loans, disaster aid, and conservation assistance are also part of its broad reach.

In the US, agriculture accounts for about 11% of all greenhouse gas emissions. The USDA has introduced reforms and alternatives to the crop insurance program to accommodate climate risks over the past decade, including adding coverage for new crops and a $5-per-acre incentive to plant cover crops during the off-season.

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How Climate Solutions are Central to the Farm Bill Wars

The Farm Bill specifically provides $6 billion annually for conservation — climate-smart agricultural practices and agricultural conservation easements are examples. Indeed, the Farm Bill remains one of the country’s most successful and important conservation initiatives. The Farm Bill has the option to continue to fund the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), which provide financial assistance to producers who implement sustainable agriculture practices on their land.

Incentivizing regenerative agriculture practices and increasing technical support can help farmers and ranchers better meet the challenges of the climate crisis, argues the Nature Conservancy. Regenerative farming is an approach that has the potential to sequester enough carbon to halve agricultural emissions by 2030; it offers a holistic approach that restores ecosystems, improves soil health, and enhances biodiversity.

Some farmers complain, however, that bureaucracy makes it hard for them to grow food in a manner that is restorative for the environment. They say federal and state programs can be suffocating in their standards, and applying for assistance programs and grants can be a difficult and lengthy process for farmers who are already managing the day-to-day tasks of the farm.

Scaling climate solutions, including clean energy, is an important goal of the Farm Bill. It can guarantee rural America a say in renewable energy deployment by funding and facilitating farmer, rancher, and landowner participation in the clean energy economy, such as the Rural Energy for America Program.

The Farm Bill has — at least up to recently — been considered bipartisan, as it contains elements that both Republicans and Democrats favor. Red states with rural farm counties get subsidies for farm production, and blue states with urban population centers receive food aid under programs like Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). So members of Congress cross aisles, offer concessions, and shake hands for the better good — and they all come away with something about which to brag to their farm-focused constituents.

According to the Hill, Project 2025 hasn’t forgotten to address farm issues. In fact, the agriculture section of Project 2025 would seek to significantly reduce government subsidies for crop insurance — for which taxpayers currently pick up about two-thirds of the cost.

It would divide red state and blue state issues into two parts — allowing for “significant cuts and policy changes.” Project 2025 proposes ending the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) and Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs, which pay farmers of selected commodities when the prices of those commodities fall below a predetermined level.

It would also end the sugar program, which manages US sugar production to keep prices high. (As a Floridian, I’m actually in favor of this single Project 2025 idea, as the heavily-subsidized sugar industry is polluting entire water supplies without accountability. But I have doubts that this policy change would come to pass, as a whole lotta Republican campaign finance emerges from Big Sugar.)

Project 2025 would shift SNAP from the USDA to Health and Human Services, opening the door for a requirement that recipients work or apply for jobs for more than 20 hours a week. Biden–Harris administration reforms about correlating SNAP disbursements with real-world costs of healthy food would be threatened. So, too, would school lunch calculations, and, according to the Project 2025 text, their plan would “reject efforts to create universal free school meals.”

The already-slim chances of Farm Bill reauthorization in 2024 are “wilting in the summer heat, facing a legislative calendar almost out of days,” according to Jonathan Coppess in the Gardner Policy Series. Coppess asks:

“What explains the current state of Farm Bill politics other than cynicism? What actual farmer benefits from any of this, or from such unreasonable expectations? Who won by betting it all on an unreasonable, unpaid-for, and politically untenable demand for boosting benefits to the fewest farmers?”