The Department of Agriculture (USDA) plans to spend billions of dollars in taxpayer dollars to promote green farming technologies, but it is unclear if it will work as intended, Politico reported Monday.
The USDA is beginning to send about $3 billion to American farmers to test various technologies in hopes of reducing the agricultural industry’s carbon footprint. according to to Politico. Politico said the spending will promote some green technologies, such as carbon sequestration, that have yet to prove large-scale environmental value.
According to Politico, USDA official Robert Bonney, who is credited with devising the initiative, recognizes that the USDA’s approach is experimental. Environmental groups opposed to the spending plan argued that some data proving the effectiveness of the subsidized technology would not be made available to the public, in some cases requiring the government to disclose classified information and trade secrets. I am concerned about
“Our job here is basically to do this in a way that builds support,” Bonney said, according to Politico. “And then we prove it works and prove it to be durable.” (Related: ‘Slow Motion Robbery’: Midwestern Farmer Accuses CCP of Stealing Valuable U.S. Seed)
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“We’ll have some work to do. They’re pilots, according to Politico,” Bonney said of the program.
According to Politico, USDA-funded carbon sequestration technology is based on planting “cover plants” during the off-harvest season to absorb ambient carbon dioxide.However, in 2022 study According to the Center for Food Security and the Environment at Stanford University, it turns out that this quarantine strategy could actually cause more emissions around the world. This is because cover plants reduce crop productivity and encourage farmers in other regions to increase production to fill the gap.
According to Politico, carbon sequestration is one of the most taxpayer-funded technologies in USDA efforts. According to Politico, the USDA expects the sequestration project to sequester up to 60 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, the equivalent of removing 12 million cars from the roads of the United States. It is said that
Kathy Day, climate policy director for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, said: “For some projects, it’s really hard to see how this could do more than just create a new income stream for someone. It is not clear to the Politico. Day’s concerns echo those of environmentalists who fear the spending will end up subsidizing agricultural giants and doing little to address emissions, Politico reported. It is said that
The USDA did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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