How the Farm Bureau’s Climate Agenda Is Failing Its Farmers

That agenda has left farmers ill-prepared to cope with effects of climate change—droughts, heat and storms—while neglecting a key climate solution.The damages to agriculture from climate change are already happening and getting worse; and the latest science suggests they will be much more costly than previously thought. One study found that uncontrolled warming could cut the United States corn crop nearly in half.A landmark United Nations report issued in October included agriculture in its urgent call for "rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.''And in a striking message to the world's farmers, they said there is no cheaper and more effective approach than through climate-friendly farming practices that can increase farm profits while stashing billions of tons of carbon in the soil every year.With an all-out campaign to restore soil health, studies have found, U.S. land could absorb half of American agriculture's carbon footprint. Modest annual improvements to arable soils, if adopted worldwide, could halt the increase in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from all human activities.