26
Apr
Tell Your U.S. Representative and Senators to Support the Agricultural Resilience Act
(Beyond Pesticides, April 26, 2021)Â Representative Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M), and 17Â House cosponsors have reintroduced the Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA), which establishes a roadmap for achieving net-zero emissions from agriculture by 2040, while empowering farmers with the tools and resources needed to improve soil health, sequester carbon, reduce emissions, enhance their resilience, and tap into new market opportunities. Pingree first introduced the legislation in the 116th Congress, where it served as a model for recognizing agriculture as a part of the climate solution.
The ARA offers farmer-driven climate solutions to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. agriculture by 2040:
- Research
- Increases funding for USDA’s Regional Climate Hubs
- Invests in public breed and cultivar research
- Soil HealthÂ
- Authorizes USDA to offer performance-based crop insurance discounts for practices that can be demonstrated to reduce risk
- Creates new USDA grants to state and tribal governments to improve soil health
- Directs USDA to establish a Soil Health and Greenhouse Gas Advisory Committee
- Farmland Preservation and Farm ViabilityÂ
- Creates a new Local Agriculture Marketing Program (LAMP) subprogram to helpÂ
- Farmers develop and expand markets for farm products that improve soil health
- Increases funding for the Agriculture Conservation Easement Program
- Pasture-based LivestockÂ
- Creates a new grant program to support small-scale meat and poultry processing infrastructure
- Establishes a new Grasslands 30 Pilot Program through which grasslands at risk of conversion to cropping or development can receive annual payments
- On-farm Renewable EnergyÂ
- Increases funding for USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program
- Directs USDA to research dual-use energy systems that integrate renewable energy production with crop or animal production
- Food Loss and WasteÂ
- Standardizes food date labeling to reduce consumer confusion
- Creates a new USDA program to reduce food waste in schools
The ARA has received widespread support from businesses, climate change experts, farmers, and environmentalists for addressing climate threats to and from agriculture.
Letter requesting your Member of Congress to cosponsor
I am writing to ask you to cosponsor the Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA), which establishes a roadmap for achieving net-zero emissions from agriculture by 2040, while empowering farmers with the tools and resources needed to improve soil health, sequester carbon, reduce emissions, enhance their resilience, and tap into new market opportunities. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Sen, Martin Heinrich (D-N.M), and 16 House cosponsors reintroduced the ARA that was first introduced in the 116th Congress, where it served as a model for recognizing agriculture as a part of the climate solution. The ARA has received widespread support from businesses, climate change experts, farmers, and environmentalists for addressing climate threats to and from agriculture.
Although farming has always been a risky business, extreme weather events and trade wars today create challenges that threaten food production and jeopardize farmers’ livelihoods. We must work to keep farmers on the land and in business. Climate change impacts agriculture, jeopardizing agricultural productivity, altering the nutrient content of crops, increasing the price of food, and creating other challenges.
Agriculture also impacts climate change, contributing 9.6% of total US greenhouse gas emissions in 2019. We can reduce that number and sequester more carbon in the soil by providing farmers with more diverse, voluntary, incentive-based conservation options. Farmers are already environmental stewards and have a clear interest in adopting conservation practices and renewable energy systems, based on adoption rate increases in the last USDA Census of Agriculture.
The ARA offers farmer-driven climate solutions to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. agriculture by 2040, in these areas: research, soil health, farmland preservation and farm viability, pasture-based livestock, on-farm renewable energy, and food loss and waste.
Please cosponsor the Agricultural Resilience Act.
Thank you.
Thank you to those already cosponsoring
I am writing to thank you for cosponsoring the Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA), which establishes a roadmap for achieving net-zero emissions from agriculture by 2040, while empowering farmers with the tools and resources needed to improve soil health, sequester carbon, reduce emissions, enhance their resilience, and tap into new market opportunities. Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Sen, Martin Heinrich (D-N.M), and 16 House cosponsors reintroduced the ARA that was first introduced in the 116th Congress, where it served as a model for recognizing agriculture as a part of the climate solution.
Although farming has always been a risky business, extreme weather events and trade wars today create challenges that threaten food production and jeopardize farmers’ livelihoods. We must work to keep farmers on the land and in business. Climate change impacts agriculture, jeopardizing agricultural productivity, altering the nutrient content of crops, increasing the price of food, and creating other challenges.
Agriculture also impacts climate change, contributing 9.6% of total US greenhouse gas emissions in 2019. We can reduce that number and sequester more carbon in the soil by providing farmers with more diverse, voluntary, incentive-based conservation options. Farmers are already environmental stewards and have a clear interest in adopting conservation practices and renewable energy systems, based on adoption rate increases in the last USDA Census of Agriculture.
The ARA offers farmer-driven climate solutions to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in U.S. agriculture by 2040, in these areas: research, soil health, farmland preservation and farm viability, pasture-based livestock, on-farm renewable energy, and food loss and waste.
Thank you for your support of the Agricultural Resilience Act.
