As US farmers prepare for spring planting, they must make decisions based on the challenges of increasingly extreme and unpredictable weather patterns. Reports from the Fourth U.S. National Climate Assessment (NCA4) show the earth’s average surface temperature has increased by approximately 1 degree Celsius from 1901 to 2016, making this period the warmest in the history of modern civilization (1). Scientists say this warming trajectory can only change with a drastic cut in domestic and global carbon emissions (2).
A multitude of factors—including food production—contribute to greenhouse gas emissions that negatively impact environmental and human health. Agricultural systems undoubtedly impact climate change, and on the other hand, climate change undoubtedly impacts agriculture.
A closer look at this complex relationship reveals far-reaching implications, including for the resilience of our food systems and the work of nutrition professionals.
Agriculture and Climate Change
Effects of Agriculture on Climate Change
In 2021, agriculture accounted for 10.6% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions (675.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent) (3).
Image adapted from Economic Research Service 2023, “Climate Change.”
Increased carbon dioxide, nitrous oxide, and methane emissions are unfavorable consequences of industrialized agriculture and movement away from noncommercial, subsistence farming practices intended to meet the basic needs of the producers and their families. This system prioritizes efficiency over resilience, heavily subsidizes the overproduction of monoculture crops, and disproportionately directs funds toward large-scale animal factories (also known as concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs).
Though monocropping and factory farming were originally promoted to increase the global food supply, they have increased pollution (4; 5). Though unintended, these practices have resulted in long-term detrimental environmental effects, such as (4; 5):
- Soil erosion, acidification, and degradation
- Air and water pollution from animal waste
- Reduced biodiversity
- Toxic residue from pesticides, herbicides, and other chemical applications
- Antibiotic resistance
Effects of Climate Change on Agriculture
Extreme weather patterns and changes in the seasonal distribution of precipitation can devastate agriculture, threatening the quality, safety, and security of our national and global food supply. The NCA4 (2018) states the following:
“Shifting precipitation patterns, when associated with high temperatures, will intensify wildfires that reduce forage on rangelands, accelerate the depletion of water supplies for irrigation, and expand the distribution and incidence of pests and diseases for crops and livestock.”
Changing climatic conditions may also reduce the nutritional quality of crops we grow and consume every day. Thus, solutions like genetic modification to enhance nutrient content, yield, and stress tolerance have been positioned to improve resilience in changing environments. It is not the only possible solution, however, and has drawbacks like the potential for increased weed and insect resistance.
Climate-smart farming practices like crop rotation and intercropping are also critical for agricultural resilience and help attenuate potential negative impacts on the environment and the impact of climate change on agricultural productivity. Encouraging and rewarding farmers to implement sustainable farming practices like cover cropping, contour farming, and conservation tillage can help to prioritize climate change mitigation.
Support for sustainable agriculture comes in many forms, including through our tax dollars. Thus, U.S. food and farming policy plays an important role in determining what foods farmers grow and how they grow them—and ultimately, the foods that we purchase and consume.
Policy Solutions: Past and Future
Farm Bill
Our nation’s food and agricultural policy is largely reflected by the farm bill– our nation’s largest and most comprehensive package of programs related to food access, farm supports, forestry, and conservation programs. Most of the conservation programs in the farm bill are guaranteed funding; however, these funds are often the first cut due to revised budgets and changes in farm bill funding priorities, despite their importance to our nation’s food security and agricultural resilience.
This massive, complex piece of legislation is currently due for reauthorization, which happens roughly every five years. The 2024 farm bill reauthorization can strengthen and expand conservation practices on US farmland by mandating conservation compliance for taxpayer-funded crops or receipt of revenue insurance and increasing farmland acreage enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (4).
Inflation Reduction Act
Beyond the farm bill, various other pieces of legislation also direct what food is grown—including how its production affects the environment—in the US.
Signed into law by President Biden in 2022, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) included significant investments in reducing healthcare and prescription drug costs for consumers as well as in energy security and climate change mitigation (among other components). This unprecedented and aggressive action toward climate change was the “largest ever investment in clean energy and climate action,” with nearly $20 billion in supplemental funding directed toward agricultural conservation and the specific goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions (6; 7; 8).
Although the IRA provides significant investment in climate action, it has several limitations. Funds from the IRA are provided apart from farm bill program funding and could lead some members of Congress to call for reducing the funding provided through the conservation title of the next farm bill itself (8; 9). The bill also fails to give details on how best to reduce agricultural greenhouse gas emissions and does not assist farmers in making their farms more resilient to the impact of climate change.
Additionally, IRA funding targets a limited number of conservation programs without funding for activities like research and improved processing and marketing systems. Thus, further policy change is needed to ensure funding for other essential climate change-related conservation practices and initiatives.
Agriculture Resilience Act
Positive changes to the farm bill can also be incrementally made by introducing marker bills. While such marker bills do not generally become law as standalone bills, they may be incorporated into an omnibus bill (like the farm bill) and help to promote policy ideas and gather support for those ideas. One example is the Agriculture Resilience Act (ARA) of 2023 (H.R. 1840/S. 1016), which was reintroduced to Congress in March 2023 (10).
This 10-title bill offers a farmer-driven approach to climate change based on scientific solutions and aims to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in agriculture by the end of 2040. Examples of tactics to reach this goal include (10):
- Research on agroforestry, perennial production systems, and other areas
- Improve soil health through expanding adoption of cover cropping, composting, and other practices
- Reduce the rate of converting agricultural land to development and of grassland to cropping
- Enhance pasturing of livestock through advanced grazing management and other practices
- Reduce on-farm energy use and implement renewable energy systems
- Reduce food waste by creating better food labeling and donation practices and composting systems
According to NSAC (9), the ARA can help to fill the gaps in IRA funding with its emphasis on farm and food system resilience and by providing increased opportunity for farmers to secure financial support for conservation practices they decided to adopt.
Why Agriculture Resilience Matters
Agriculture is part of a complex and multifaceted food system that is inextricably linked to nutrition security and human health. For this reason, agricultural resilience is essential in today’s climate crisis, where our food supply's quantity, quality, and stability are at risk.
Innovation, adaptation, and adoption of climate-smart farming practices can help protect vital natural resources and crop production, thereby reducing the negative repercussions of climate change. Fundamentally, agricultural resilience requires a transition from conventional commodity monocropping toward tactics like rotational farming and crop diversification that help shift from an overabundance of ultra-processed foods to nutrient-dense, whole foods that may lead to more favorable long-term health outcomes. Additionally, agricultural resilience promotes increased economic stability and reliance on domestic food sources, improving Americans’ nutrition security.
Everyday Ways to Promote Positive Change
Education and advocacy are everyday ways that nutrition professionals can promote positive change in our food system. We know that air, soil, and water quality directly impact our food supply. Amid farm bill negotiations and funding considerations for conservation and climate programs, food and nutrition professionals are poised to make a difference as trusted and expert sources of information about diet and how food can either support human health or perpetuate diet-related chronic illness.
Now is the perfect time to encourage policymakers to invest in climate and conservation policy efforts that reward conservation stewardship efforts and farmers who follow basic environmental standards and climate-smart farming practices. Multiple organizations, like RAFI-USA and NSAC, make it easy with ready-made action alerts at just a single click of a button that ask Congressional representatives to support these efforts.
Nutrition professionals, like our patients, clients, and colleagues, are consumers who need to eat. Purchasing food products from small family farms and markets helps to keep them in business and supports the local economy. Buying from local farmers also promotes seasonal eating, which helps to decrease the carbon footprints of our diets by reducing transportation (including imports from other countries) and storage and possibly lowering human and environmental exposure to agrochemicals.
Finally, the diverse expertise of nutritional professionals allows for broad reach. We can spread the word as researchers, food and public health educators, food service managers, health coaches, clinicians, policymakers, thought leaders, and other positions. Pass along information from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), NSAC, Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI), and other organizations to inform interested audiences. You may even be able to engage with these food and farm policy and program resources to support and inform your own work.
We have enormous potential to positively impact what the communities whom we serve eat, how our farmland is used for production, and how we collectively steward our environment.
References
- U.S Global Change Research Program. 2017. “Climate Science Special Report: Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume 1.” Accessed January 9, 2024. https://science2017.globalchange.gov/.
- ScienceNews. 2022. “Our Climate Change Crisis.” March 10, 2022. https://www.sciencenews.org/century/climate-change-carbon-dioxide-greenhouse-gas-emissions-global-warming.
- Economic Research Service. 2023. “Climate Change.” Updated November 6, 2023. https://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/natural-resources-environment/climate-change/.
- Imhoff, Daniel and Christina Badaracco. 2019. The Farm Bill: A Citizen’s Guide. Washington DC: Island Press.
- Robbins, Ocean. 2022. “Monocropping: A Disastrous Agricultural System.” March 18, 2022. Food Revolution Network. https://foodrevolution.org/blog/monocropping-monoculture/.
- U.S. Department of State. n.d. “The Climate Crisis: Working Together for Future Generations.” Accessed January 10, 2024. https://www.state.gov/policy-issues/climate-crisis/.
- National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. 2023a. “Farmer Conservation Stories: Why Inflation Reduction Act Funding Must Remain Focused on Climate Change.” December 15, 2023. https://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/farmer-conservation-stories-why-inflation-reduction-act-funding-must-remain-focused-on-climate-change/.
- Congressional Research Service. 2023. “Agricultural Conservation and the Next Farm Bill.” March 20, 2023. https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47478.
- National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. 2023b. “The Agriculture Resilience Act in 2023.” March 29, 2023. https://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/the-agriculture-resilience-act-in-2023/.
- Congress.gov. 2023. “H.R. 1840 – 118th Congress (2023-2024): Agriculture Resilience Act of 2023.” March 28, 2023. https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/house-bill/.
- National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. n.d. “What is the Farm Bill.” Accessed January 10, 2024. https://sustainableagriculture.net/our-work/campaigns/fbcampaign/what-is-the-farm-bill/.
- U.S. Global Change Research Program. 2018. “Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II: Impacts, Risks, and Adaptation in the United States.” Accessed January 9, 2024. https://nca2018.globalchange.gov/.
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