“If you think about it, farmers should be on the cutting edge of climate change discussions: They are directly affected as weather patterns shift, and they have the opportunity be part of the solution by sequestering carbon. But American farm groups have mostly opposed climate policies.” This is the start of an interesting interview in Grist on a new e-book about how important agricultural producers are to dealing with changes in climate over time. The book is called The Elephant in the Cornfield: The Politics of Agriculture and Climate Change and it is written by longtime agricultural reporter Chris Clayton.
In the interview Clayton talks about the history of climate change discussions in Congress and the media and how farmers were involved in that discussion. Clayton believes that farmers are already benefiting from regulations on climate change like subsidies for solar power and biofuels. He thinks that in the future there will be additional opportunities in credits for sequestering carbon.
Clayton also points out that a lot of farmers are already taking carbon-friendly measures on their farms without any incentives at all, because it helps their bottom line. This includes things like no-till farming and growing cover crops. At the same time, farmers are concerned about the impacts of future regulation on how they run their operations.
