The Department of Agriculture’s $3.1 billion program to promote farming that reduces greenhouse gases may have the opposite effect in some circumstances, according to environmental groups calling for greater transparency in the effort.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy petitioned the USDA to set new regulations around the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, which is funding 141 pilot projects around the country to test farming methods that reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
While the organizations support the intention of the Biden administration program, they said the USDA’s recent moves to ease data reporting requirements for participants could compromise the goal of showing true reductions.
“We think it’s important to collect net GHG emissions data for each operation, along with data on its long-term environmental impact on, for example, wildlife habitat, water quality, soil quality and air quality,” said Benjamin Rankin, environmental health legal fellow at the CBD.