Farm, climate programs could help environment and rural areas

 

Bill Knight column for 8-31, 9-1 or 2

It’s hard to ignore hurricanes, heat waves, droughts and windstorms nationwide, and in the Midwest, producers are especially affected by climate change, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS).

Data from government agencies such as the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency show that climate change is felt hardest in rural America, adds the Center for Rural Strategies (CRS) and another think tank, the Center for American Progress (CAP), reports that rural economies could benefit from overhauled federal programs helping conservation and climate change’s effects.

 “Crops and livestock would face substantially more heat stress, decreasing crop yields and livestock productivity,” USC research shows. “Warmer winters and a growing season up to six weeks longer would enable pests like the corn earworm to expand their range; crop production would be inhibited by changing rain patterns such as wetter springs (which delay planting and increase flood risk) and almost 15 percent less rain during the increasingly hot summers.”

The research in CAP’s 8-page report – titled “Building a 100 Percent Clean Future Can Drive an Additional $8 Billion a Year to Rural Communities” – cites areas that could help agriculture, local economies and the environment: protecting rural lands from development; keeping water clean and preventing runoff; reducing farm electricity costs with methane digesters; increasing soil health and sequestering carbon; investing in renewable energy and energy-efficiency programs; and expanding broadband access.

 “Lands are the world’s largest, most powerful carbon sink, and farmers can play a role in fighting climate change by adopting practices that improve soil health, capture and sequester carbon, and prevent soil erosion and runoff into waterways,” said CRS’ Jan Pytalski. “This investment could drive an additional $3.5 billion of annual revenues to farms and an estimated $1.4 billion in cost savings. For the average-sized family farm, which has 443 acres, that’s up to $21,707 a year in additional annual income.”

Such action could require rural residents to mobilize.

“One of the reasons why rural America doesn’t get the resources it needs is because it’s not really at any of the tables where those decisions about resources are made,” Brian Dabson, former director of the Institute of Public Policy at the University of Missouri. “Until we redistribute that power, we’ve got to put a Band-Aid over it and deal with it at the local level and take care of ourselves within that unfair context.”

In Washington, Illinois Congresswoman Cheri Bustos said, “Climate change may be the most complicated challenge our country has ever faced, but I intend to meet the challenge head on and give rural America a seat at the table.

“It’s crucial we make investments in our rural economies as soon as possible,” she continued. “Rural America offers an enormous amount of potential to address climate change and is home to a wealth of resources.

 “To build on that, I helped pass the Moving Forward Act out of the House last month, which is a transformative infrastructure package that would heavily invest in rural America.”

Last year, Bustos submitted principles to combat climate change and spur economic growth – the Rural Green Partnership – to Congress’ Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, proposals endorsed by the Illinois Corn Growers Association, the Environmental Defense Fund, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, and the Illinois Farm Bureau.

“Illinois Farm Bureau applauds Representative Bustos for the forward-thinking nature of her Rural Green Partnership,” said Illinois Farm Bureau President Richard Guebert, Jr. “IFB members believe that the best path toward addressing climate-related issues is one that seizes on the opportunity to promote rural economic growth, not one that imposes undo costs on farmers.”

Increasing government investment in existing federal programs and adding 100 million acres of program-eligible farmland, could have a huge economic impact on the farmers, says CAP.

The Moving Forward Act passed 233-188 July 1, when Illinois’ 13 Democratic Representatives supported it, and all 5 Republican Congressmen opposed it. The bill was forwarded to the Senate.

CAP researchers hope that such reforms will do more than help farmers and rural economies.

“Policymakers must put the needs of communities at the center of climate policy, and they need to undertake a concerted effort to understand the problems rural communities face and design climate policies that address those concerns,” CAP says. “Climate policy informed by rural voices can be a win-win by protecting and strengthening the rural way of life while harnessing the power of America’s lands and rural communities to address climate change.”