Is There Enough Land to Meet Biden’s Aggressive Climate Goals?
President Biden is doubling down on his climate commitment, with a pledge to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. But as some U.S. farmers see commodity prices hit a seven-year high, agricultural groups say moving land out of production may be a tough sell.
Biden is unveiling his plan during the virtual climate summit this week. He, along with 40 other world leaders, are talking about how each country can work together to tackle climate change.
One of the initiatives that is reported to impact agriculture is Biden’s 30 x 30 plan. While details are still vague, the proposal is said to cut land and water use each by 30%. While the plan is focused on all U.S. land, some say this will impact the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) within USDA.
On Wednesday, USDA announced it’s trying to attract more acres into CRP, with a goal of enrolling up to 4 million new acres into the program. USDA says it will raise rental rate payments and expand the number of incentives environmental practices allow under the program.
However, as corn futures climb above $6, soybean price reaches $15 and livestock producers are also seeing improved prices, moving land out of production and into CRP will face hurdles.
"It didn’t take long for commodity traders to wonder if this is the first of several steps by Democrat-controlled USDA and the Biden administration to boost the idling of acres by a significant amount, despite tight carryovers of some key crops," says Jim Wiesemeyer, ProFarmer Washington correspondent. "The answer, according to contacts, is 'yes.' This and other likely coming moves -likely as part of the controversial 30 x 30 executive action proposal- are seen as an end-around the prohibition of announcing set-aside programs relative to basic farm programs. USDA has been signaling they were looking at ways to boost CRP enrollments, announcing in early February that it would keep the general CRP open for an extended period."
According to National Geographic, in order to reach the 30 x 30 target, it will require conserving an additional area twice the size of Texas, more than 440 million acres, within the next 10 years.
American Farmland Trust says one way to do that may be tapping into non-operator landowners. American Farmland Trust (AFT) says 40% of farmland and ranchland is rented or leased, and the majority is owned by what they call “non-operator landowners.” But they say more math is needed to understand the importance—and correlation—of those acres and conservation efforts.
“We must harness these landowners, the lands they lease and farmers who farm the land, to meet the high stakes goals for regenerative agriculture, climate change mitigation and the protection of 30% of our nation’s farmland by 2030,” says Gabrielle Roesch-McNally, AFT’s Women for the Land director and co-author of the non-operator landowners research report and white paper. “We must focus on education and outreach but also on building the relationship between farmer and landowner with conservation on the land as the ultimate outcome.”
American Farmland Trust says it’s clear non-operator landowners have interest in implementing conservation on their land, and not just in “getting their next rent check.”
