by Matt Kneece, CFSA SC Policy Coordinator | Friday, Sept. 4, 2020 —
It’s no secret that farmers and ranchers exist in a world of thin margins and often-uncertain markets. COVID-19 has certainly not helped. But long before the phrase “novel coronavirus” became part of our everyday vocabulary, farms have been navigating increasing weather extremes. From recurrent 100-year floods, prolonged droughts, stifling heat waves, new invasive pests, and more, the chaotic ecological pressures facing farmers have become unprecedented.
To add to farmers’ frustration, there are many innovative and responsible climate change solutions in the world of agriculture just waiting to be implemented. Soil health can be improved to draw down atmospheric carbon levels. Crop rotation, improved grazing management, and reduced tillage can help farms become net carbon sinks. Climate change is a relatively recent phenomenon, but land abuse, as Wendell Berry puts it, is “ancient as well as contemporary.” Land that is sustainably farmed and responsibly tended has the potential to become not just a source of healthy food production, but a sink for excess carbon dioxide for generations to come.
To voice these concerns and hopes for the future, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition has just published a letter, signed by more than 2,100 farmers and ranchers. Presented to Congressional and USDA leaders, this letter outlines both the scope of the problem facing farmers and the roles they can play in addressing climate change.
Carolina Farm Stewardship Association is proud to have participated in the campaign to recruit farmers as signatories, and North Carolina features the second-largest representation of any state in the letter. Our member farms have consistently come to us with their concerns, and we’re grateful to be able to help amplify their voice through this letter.
“This letter outlines both the scope of the problem facing farmers and the roles they can play in addressing climate change.”
The argument surrounding climate change and the role that industrial activity plays in it continues to be a political hot potato, but to borrow a line from Jonathan Schell’s book on the nuclear question, we don’t have another planet on which to run the experiment. We should listen to our hardworking farmers and ranchers. They’re shouting from the fields that these climatic events are real and hurting their ability to make a living; these same farmers can also help, if only Congress lends a hand and does it soon.
Want more information?
- Here’s NSAC’s blog post about the letter.
- And here’s the farmer climate letter delivery: