The Trump administration’s pick to lead research efforts at the Department of Agriculture said Thursday he’ll look to crop and livestock genetics to stave off the damaging effects of climate change.
Scott Hutchins, an entomologist who also headed USDA research programs during the first Trump administration, didn’t refer specifically to the warming climate, a topic that’s off limits with the current Trump team. But he said the department will continue to invest in ways to build resilience to heat, drought and other obvious consequences for food production.
“We need to be able to utilize those tools,” Hutchins told the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee at his nomination hearing for undersecretary for research, education and economics.
Democrats on the committee homed in on the issue, pressing Hutchins to commit to research that helps farmers build climate resilience. Republicans, in turn, looked for other commitments, including to land-grant universities that work with the USDA, as well as to research facilities in their own states.
