Source: The American Prospect
by Luke Goldstein
“At the COP27 climate summit this past year in Egypt, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack addressed his role in President Biden’s plan to cut U.S. greenhouse emissions in half by 2030. While urging for international cooperation, Vilsack lauded the department’s ‘unprecedented’ green investments to reduce agriculture’s substantial carbon footprint. He singled out a signature new program initiated under his tenure: the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. Launched in 2022, the program was set up to provide grants and other funding for sustainable farming practices that keep carbon in the soil, prevent deforestation, and other measures. The price tag, just over $3 billion, was unusually high for a ‘pilot program,’ surpassing the annual budgets of other long-standing conservation programs that, at least theoretically, were supposed to support many of the same farming practices.” (09/01/23)
https://prospect.org/environment/2023-09-01-big-ag-opens-another-vein-of-public-funding/