Farming

The national mission for agriculture will:

Reduce CO2 emissions from farm transport, machines, and buildings to near zero in 10 years.

Reconfigure federal farm subsidies, including crop insurance programs, to encourage adoption of known sustainable farming practices. Increase the capital and assistance available to farmers to upgrade to more sustainable and efficient farming practices.

Reorient the USDA and related institutions around the mission of improving farmers livelihoods by rewarding them for switching to more sustainable and efficient practices, protecting land and water resources, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and storing carbon.

Spend on research and development of sustainable farming practices to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon. Invest heavily in researching and developing ways to reduce methane emissions from animals and nitrous oxide emissions from fertilizer.

Invest in meat substitutes ranging from plant-based products to lab grown meat. Invest in marketing campaigns to encourage adoption of meat substitutes.

Of all areas of the economy, agriculture will perhaps be the most difficult to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Methane emissions — far more powerful than CO2, though more temporary — come from animals and cannot be easily abated. Nitrous Oxide — just as long lasting as CO2 and many times more powerful — results from adding fertilizer to soil to increase farming yields and is the basis for the agricultural revolution that allowed the human population to explode to its present eight billion.

On the other hand, American farmers already work so closely with, and receive so much support from, the federal government that many opportunities and mechanisms exist to make progress.

The national mission for farming will provide huge quantities of investment capital, through the RFC, to farmers to upgrade to more sustainable farming methods — some of which offer higher yields per input. Simultaneously, USDA programs that currently provide incentives for excessive fertilization and other harmful practices must be changed to favor sustainable practices instead. Federal crop insurance programs must be changed to support farmers for following sustainable practices even when they lead to lower yields.