At the hearing, Klobuchar highlighted importance of helping identify the most effective conservation techniques that would have the greatest benefit for our climate and farmers’ bottom lines
Watch video of Klobuchar remarks at hearing here
WASHINGTON – Today at the Senate Agriculture Committee, U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) highlighted the urgent need to help farmers identify conservation techniques that would have the greatest benefit for the climate and farmers’ bottom lines.
“The Growing Climate Solutions Act would help farmers gain access to new revenue streams through private sector environmental markets, while also establishing a process that I think is really important to certify that greenhouse gas emission reductions can both be quantified and verified,” Klobuchar said at the hearing.
As a senior member of the Senate Agriculture Committee Klobuchar successfully pushed for key climate provisions in the 2018 Farm Bill, including provisions to increase acres in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) by 3 million acres, invest in renewable energy programs including the Rural Energy for America Program (REAP), protect native prairies by fixing a loophole in the “Sodsaver” program, and improve the use of conservation data so that farmers are able to make better choices about conservation practices that benefit their yields and the environment - based on her Agriculture Data Act with Senator Thune.
Transcript of Klobuchar’s remarks at the hearing below and video available HERE.
KLOBUCHAR: Thank you very much Mr. Chairman and Ranking Member thank you for having this hearing today, it’s very important.
The Growing Climate Solutions Act would help farmers gain access to new revenue streams through private sector environmental markets, while also establishing a process that I think is really important to certify that greenhouse gas emission reductions can both be quantified and verified.
Senator Thune and I actually worked on a provision in the last Farm Bill based on our Agriculture Data Act to improve the use of advanced data analysis to help farmers identify the most effective conservation techniques that would have the greatest benefit both for our climate and for our farmers’ bottom line.
Mr. Weller, welcome remotely from my home state. We’re very proud of Land O’ Lakes in our state and wanted to ask you about this. The bill would help reduce emissions by providing farmers with technical assistance on participating in carbon markets. At the same time, the legislation has the potential to improve sustainability throughout the agriculture supply chain by bringing greater value to renewable fuels. Can you talk about how providing access to carbon markets for farmers could help drive emissions reductions across the biomass supply chain, including the positive effects on biofuels and biobased products?
MR. JASON WELLER, TRUTERRA, LAND O’ LAKES: So the system of practices that ultimately this legislation anticipates to help farmers generate credits, in this case greenhouse gas credits, will also be then the same system and suite of practices that biobased products and biobased energy, fuel products, ultimately need. For example on the West coast, there’s a whole coalition of states led in no small part by California, Oregon and Washington that are looking at low-carbon fuel standards, this is a way for ethanol products and other biobased energy products to create credits to go into those marketplaces. But in order to generate the credits, the farmers and ultimately that energy supply chain needs to have the data and the outcomes to demonstrate the bio ultimately creating that credit potential to marketplaces. Beyond creating the credit and, it is then helping the farmers through incentives support from greenhouse gas credits help them adopt this suite of technology of practices, new machinery, that will ultimately reate results they’re looking for.
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