The American people recently witnessed a victory for security.
The Joe Biden Administration and the United States Congress passed a $369 billion budget reconciliation bill to address the problem of the greenhouse effect, or climate change. What’s amazing about the bill, aside from the security implications, is how much it helps the US’ rural communities and farms. Michigan Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow, also chairwoman of the Senate Agricultural Committee, stated nearly $40 billion will be allotted to farms and ranches. She said most of the money flows to three areas – climate smart agriculture, rural power and clean energy, and wildfire protections and climate smart forestry.
By itself, climate smart agriculture will claim half the windfall to bankroll many oversubscribed, underfunded farm and ranch programs, such as the Environmental Quality Improvement Program and the Conservation Security Program.
EQIP alone is slated to receive $8.45 billion, a massive infusion that, among other things, will expand cover crop use and pay for acres of new perennial grass, says Ben Lilliston, director of rural strategies and climate change at the Institute for Agriculture & Trade Policy. For its part, CSP, another hugely oversubscribed/deeply underfunded program, will receive $3.25 billion, explains Lilliston, to help farmers develop “whole farm conservation” plans to implement environmentally directed “working farms.”
This new bill earned support among those who advocate for sustainable agriculture. Writer Alan Guebert pointed this out in his story “Forty Billion Green Reasons to Go Green.” A spokesperson for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, an effective “green” ag group on the Hill, noted that if the final bill passes, “Congress is poised to make a once-in-a-generation investment in effective working lands conservation programs ” such as CSP, EQIP, and others ” that will put farmers at the center of our national response to the climate change crisis.”
The bill also supports carbon sequestration and manure digesters; Guebert points out that this portion of the plan bears the footprint of West Virginia Democratic Senator Joe Manchin. The bill incentives corporate farms to sequester carbon in the ground so it doesn’t trap greenhouse gasses. Manure digesters are very expensive and only the largest farms can afford them. Still, progressive ag groups such as IATP and the Sustainable Ag Coalition have endorsed the Manchin bill as a “farmer-focused and research-driven path” to addressing climate change. Many see it as a road map to key reforms in upcoming Farm Bill talks.
The bill is a win for American security. If we ever see anything like what’s predicted on climate change, then American servicemen and women will be deployed overseas to vulnerable areas. The greenhouse effect could lead to war. However, we made an investment in curing instead of preventing. Of course, this bill didn’t create the military hardware pushed for by the US Department of Defense. However, it represents a change in consciousness. Can our country continue its positive evolution toward a different definition of security?
–Jason Sibert
