One of the country’s biggest farm groups urged President-elect Donald Trump to maintain agriculture programs aimed at tackling climate change, an issue likely to take a sharp turn away from the Biden administration’s approach.
“Climate change poses a serious threat to agriculture, impacting crop yields, water resources, and farmer and rancher livelihoods,” the National Farmers Union said in a Wednesday letter to Trump and his transition team.
The organization, which leans more Democratic than its bigger counterpart, the American Farm Bureau Federation, raised climate impacts among a list of priorities it asked of the incoming administration. The NFU represents more than 220,000 farmers in 33 states.
In the letter signed by NFU President Rob Larew, the organization specifically mentioned conservation practices covered through the Biden administration’s signature climate law — the Inflation Reduction Act — as well as the Agriculture Department’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. Both face a more critical look next year, in light of Trump’s skepticism about the science behind human-influenced climate change.
