Washington Monthly - Greenwashing Big Ag
Food systems program manager Claire Kelloway published an article focusing on the implementation of bipartisan legislation regarding greenhouse gas emissions.
Late last year, Democratic and Republican lawmakers performed a kind of Washington magic trick. In this famously acrimonious time, a bipartisan group not only succeeded in passing a bill designed to take on greenhouse gas emissions in the agricultural industry, which is responsible for as much as a third of all global climate pollution, but did so while appearing to please almost everyone. The law, the Growing Climate Solutions Act, passed as part of the big year-end government funding package. It was cosponsored by more than half the Senate and heralded by top Democratic and Republican leaders, including Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and minority ranking member of the Senate Agriculture Committee John Boozman. It was also endorsed by more than 175 nonprofits, corporations, agricultural trade associations, and climate activist groups. “The inclusion of the Growing Climate Solutions Act in the omnibus is a tremendous bipartisan victory that will help combat climate change while rewarding farmers for their climate-smart practices,” Jennifer Tyler of the Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a grassroots advocacy group, said in a statement.
The legislation was built around a simple idea. The federal government would help facilitate private, voluntary, farmbased “carbon markets,” wherein corporations, like Microsoft or Amazon, can purchase from farmers special credits, known as carbon offsets. In exchange, the farmers agree to keep carbon in the soil by, say, planting cover crops or improving cattle grazing methods. Big agricultural companies can also pay farmers within their own supply chains to store carbon in the soil, thus similarly claiming a special credit, known in that case as a carbon inset. Either way, big polluting corporations can purchase enough credits to claim that they are “carbon neutral” or a “green” company in commercials, on packaging, or in presentations to investors and board members. Meanwhile, farmers get to pocket a nice paycheck for doing the right thing. Democrats applauded the law for helping to deliver on Joe Biden’s campaign promise to make agriculture “the first net-zero industry in America,” while Republicans cheered it for helping farmers, corporations, and the environment while avoiding new regulations or government spending. A win, win, win.
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