WASHINGTON, DC – After just one week in the Oval Office, President Joe Biden may have writers cramp after signing 33 executive orders – more than any other U.S. leader has signed in their first week of office. For agriculture, it was the executive order elevating climate policy to be an “essential element” of American foreign policy and national security that has drawn attention from the industry. According to the American Soybean Association (ASA), the order begins the process of determining the U.S. emission reduction target under the Paris Agreement (which Biden rejoined last week) and formally establishes the White House Office of Domestic Climate Policy. The order also directs USDA “to collect input from farmers, ranchers, and other stakeholders on how to use federal programs to encourage adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices that produce verifiable carbon reductions and sequestrations and create new sources of income and jobs for rural Americans”. The order also calls for, “the establishment of a Civilian Climate Corps Initiative to put a new generation of Americans to work conserving and restoring public lands and waters, increasing reforestation, increasing carbon sequestration in the agricultural sector, protecting biodiversity, improving access to recreation, and addressing the changing climate.” Insiders believe this section would function much like a Great Depression-era program instituted by President Franklin Roosevelt. The order also establishes a National Climate Task Force, setting a 30×30 target goal of conserving 30 percent of U.S. lands and oceans by 2030.
(SOURCE: All Ag News)