The Alliance is backed by over 60 organizations including Climate Critical, Family Farm Defenders, Friends of the Earth, Indigenous Environmental Network, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, National Family Farm Coalition, and 350 Seattle.

Top Alliance Farm Bill priorities include:

• No carbon markets: Opposition to any Farm Bill additions that would further the development of voluntary or compliance-based carbon markets, including programs, regulations, initiatives, funding, or otherwise. These markets have a decades-long history of failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while allowing polluters to keep polluting and harming low-wealth and Indigenous, Black and Brown communities.
• No carbon offsets: Prohibition of offsets of any kind, including but not limited to soil offsets, forest offsets, and methane offsets, which are incompatible with sustainable agriculture and may drive further consolidation of farms and agribusinesses.
• No dirty energy: Stop public funding for factory farm gas digesters, fossil fuel based fertilizers, and other dirty energy projects that are perpetuating bioenergy with carbon capture scams. These perpetuate air and water pollution, massive pipelines and harm to rural economies.
• Real investments in sustainable agriculture: Invest in and improve existing conservation programs to help transition farmers to more ecologically-based agricultural practices and systems that incorporate Traditional Indigenous Knowledge, support the health of rural and urban communities, and end massive consolidation in our food system.

The alliance will work to educate Congress about these priorities through Congressional briefings, meetings with offices and mobilization of communities in support of a Farm Bill without offsets and dirty energy.

“Flawed policies promoted under the guise of ‘climate smart agriculture’ threaten to entrench the polluting status quo, and worsen the climate crisis” said Food & Water Watch Policy Director Jim Walsh. “The wishful thinking behind carbon markets and offsets is fanciful at best. Real climate action in the Farm Bill means breaking up factory farms, decoupling conservation programs from the private sector to directly serve the public good, and putting a stop to the Big Ag monopolies trampling our climate for private gain.”

“Farmers and ranchers are already doing a lot of heavy lifting to cool the planet through existing agroecological practices and rotational grazing – and they should get direct support for this hard work through existing Farm Bill efforts such as the Conservation Reserve Program,” noted John E. Peck, executive director of Family Farm Defenders. “Forcing farmers to sign up with dubious corporate intermediaries to obtain carbon offset credits is just another false solution to the climate crisis that should be opposed in the 2023 Farm Bill debate.”

“Carbon offsets are a poison pill for the planet, farmers, and communities. Agricultural carbon markets will conceal polluters’ real environmental impact; will increase farmland speculation and consolidation; and will continue poisoning fenceline communities,” stressed Antonio Tovar, senior policy associate at the National Family Farm Coalition. “Carbon markets ignore the environmental benefits that a system based on agroecology, economic parity, and social equity creates.”

“Carbon trading and offset programs have targeted forest-dependent Indigenous Peoples for decades and now the carbon trading companies will begin to target farmers, ranchers, and communities from coastal and marine ecosystems,” said Tom BK Goldtooth of the Indigenous Environmental Network (IEN). “Research shows that carbon offsets are a scam that do nothing to reduce pollution or support Indigenous Tribal Nations and communities. Rather, they allow the fossil fuel industries and other private sector actors to use Tribal forest, natural resources and soils for carbon offsets so polluters can pollute more and make billions of dollars privatizing nature. Indigenous Tribes, farmers, ranchers and communities must be warned that the carbon cowboys are coming.” 

“Carbon offset markets are fatally flawed. The scientific consensus does not support them. They are riddled with fraud. The economics don’t work for anyone, least of all farmers and landowners. The urgency of the climate crisis demands that we put this failed experiment aside, and focus on what we know can benefit farmers and the planet. The next Farm Bill must shift public spending away from more polluting farming systems and toward more climate-resilient systems based on agroecology and regenerative agriculture,” said Ben Lilliston, Director of Climate Strategies at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. 

“This Farm Bill represents the greatest opportunity in a generation to position American agriculture as a solution to the climate crisis,” said Jason Davidson, Senior Food and Agriculture Campaigner at Friends of the Earth. “But we cannot do this through carbon markets and offsets underpinned by decades of failure, or through more handouts that further entrench Big Ag’s stranglehold on our food system. We need Congress to pursue strategies that support farmers in building a truly regenerative, resilient and equitable food system.”

Read the full Alliance policy platform here.

Contact: Phoebe Galt, Food & Water Watch, 207-400-1275, pgalt@fwwatch.org

Shaye Skiff, Friends of the Earth, 202-222–0723, kskiff@foe.org 

Tamra Gilbertson, 865-443-1337, tamra@ienearth.org

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The report breaks down the pitfalls of private programs that pay farmers to generate carbon offsets for corporate buyers. Polluters can buy credits from projects that overestimate their carbon sequestration or fail to store carbon long-term, running the risk of increasing emissions while worsening pollution hot-spots in low-wealth and Black and Brown communities.  

Read the Executive Summary
Read the Full Report
Read the Press Release 

Introduction
Agriculture, Climate Change, and Soil Carbon
What Are “Carbon Markets” And Do They Work?
How Voluntary Carbon Payment Programs Entrench Big Ag
Conclusion and Recommendations 

 There is no scientific consensus on how long carbon remains in the soil. It can be released by changing land management practices or severe weather events. Selling and buying soil-based offsets is little more than speculation.  

Current sequestration verification programs allow major corporations like Bayer and Corteva to collect and monetize farm data by driving farmers to their digital platforms. These platforms further incentivize and promote their seed and pesticide products like RoundUp, entrenching corporate power and chemical-intensive monocultures.  

These programs are often not designed for smaller and ecologically regenerative farms. Generally, the largest farms have the most to gain from carbon payments, threatening to further consolidation in farm land. In order to participate, farmers must contractually commit to years or even decades of more expensive practices to produce credits for Big Ag with minimal guarantees of return on investment.  

Congress and USDA should invest in real solutions by increasing funding and improving existing conservation programs rather than relying on harmful offset schemes.  

Related Resources  

Bayer-Monsanto Merger: Big Data, Big Agriculture, Big Problems
Carbon Markets and Offsets: Unjust, Ineffective Distractions from Real Solutions
222 Organizations Reject “Growing Climate Solutions Act”
Soil Health and Pesticides Study
Congress Encourages Corporate Sponsorship of USDA Conservation Programs
Following $10 Billion Roundup Settlement, Bayer Uses Climate Program as Front to Lock in Control of Farmer Data and Sell More Roundup  

The post Agricultural Carbon Markets, Payments, and Data: Big Ag’s Latest Power Grab appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

The report, Agricultural Carbon Markets, Payments and Data: Big Ag’s Latest Power Grab by Open Markets Institute and Friends of the Earth, breaks down the scientific, economic, social and environmental pitfalls of private programs that pay farmers to generate carbon offset credits for corporate buyers. Polluters can buy credits from projects that overestimate carbon sequestration or fail to store carbon in the long term, running the risk of increasing carbon emissions while worsening pollution hotspots in low-wealth, Black and Brown communities.

Reliably and consistently measuring or modeling soil carbon is very challenging. Coupled with varied or inconsistent standards for verification, selling and buying carbon offsets is little more than speculation. The report found that some of the world’s largest agribusinesses, including Bayer (OTCMKTS: BAYRY), Cargill, Nutrien (NYSE: NTR) and Corteva (NYSE:CTVA), are launching carbon payment programs that depend on the companies’ proprietary technologies or require farmers to use their digital agriculture platforms. These programs allow corporate giants to define climate-smart agriculture, capture valuable farmer data, and promote the use of their products in destructive chemical-intensive monocultures, further entrenching their market power.

Despite a decades-long track record of failing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, support for carbon markets has gained momentum among U.S. policymakers. The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023 included two key carbon market provisions, the Growing Climate Solutions Act and the SUSTAINS Act, which will support and lend government legitimacy to corporate carbon market programs. The USDA’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities pilot programs, announced last fall, offered grants of tens of millions of dollars to some of the largest agribusiness corporations to evaluate the efficacy of various carbon sequestration and carbon payment schemes.

“Carbon markets have become a top strategy for agriculture and climate, despite a history of fraud, failure to reduce emissions and corporate greenwashing,” said Jason Davidson, Senior Food and Agriculture Campaigner with Friends of the Earth. “Such corporate schemes will strengthen the power of the largest agribusinesses, hand over private farm data, and fail to address the climate crisis. Instead of another handout to Big Ag, the Biden Administration and Congress must support farmers in pursuing proven climate solutions like ecologically regenerative agriculture.”

“We can’t trust the very corporations that got us into this climate crisis to get us out of it on their terms and timeline,” said Claire Kelloway, Food Program Manager for the Open Markets Institute. “Corporations are designed to serve their investors, not the public, and that’s exactly what these carbon offsetting schemes will do by locking farmers into their networks, protecting product sales, and stalling meaningful regulation.”

Key takeaways of the report:

• Agricultural carbon markets are jumping ahead of the science to commodify something that cannot be reliably measured. There is no scientific consensus on how long carbon remains in the soil or under what conditions. Carbon sequestered in the soil can be released by changing land management practices or through severe weather events, which fails to sequester carbon on a meaningful timescale to address climate change. Without basic market fundamentals of information exchange and consistent commodities, selling and buying offsets is little more than speculation.

• Carbon-sequestration verification programs allow agribusinesses to collect and monetize detailed agronomic data and drive new users to their digital agriculture platforms. This further incentivizes and promotes their products, such as Bayer’s Roundup and genetically engineered seeds, entrenching corporate market power and destructive chemical-intensive industrial monocultures. Yet, use of agrichemicals kills soil organisms that support carbon sequestration.

• By controlling the same private, unregulated carbon-offset markets in which corporations trade on their own accounts and set their own prices, they are subject to massive conflicts of interest.

• Carbon payment programs, especially those run by seed and chemical companies, are not designed for smaller and ecologically regenerative farms. Generally, the largest farms stand to profit the most from carbon payments, further marginalizing family-scale farms and driving consolidation. Farmers contractually commit to years, even decades, of more expensive practices that produce credits for Big Ag with minimal payment guarantees.

• Congress and the USDA should not waste time and resources promoting this questionable and harmful approach. Policymakers already have far more effective and proven tools to promote climate-friendly farming methods that do not exacerbate the liabilities and harms of private carbon-trading schemes.

Contact: Shaye Skiff, kskiff@foe.org, 202-222-0723

The post Report: Big Ag Plans to Use Carbon Markets, Farmer Data to Tighten Stranglehold on Food System appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

Carbon offset programs, as promoted in the GCSA, are ineffective at reducing climate emissions and pollute frontline communities, taking federal funding away from truly sustainable agricultural practices necessary to address climate change. The SUSTAINS Act would allow private interests to influence the direction of USDA’s conservation programs, leveraging the programs for corporate greenwashing.

Jason Davidson, Senior Food and Agriculture Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, said this:

American agriculture could be part of the climate solution, but Congress’ year-end omnibus shuns real climate action and jeopardizes frontline communities. The bill supports corporate carbon trading scams and undermines USDA’s critical conservation programs. These provisions will exacerbate corporate control in agriculture, blatantly ignoring President Biden’s directive to address corporate concentration.

This unconscionable handout to Big Ag will hurt farmers and frontline communities and fail to mitigate climate change. It tells USDA to rubber stamp corporate pollution trading programs while handing corporations the reins to some of USDA’s most important tools. By blessing this deal, Democratic leadership has shamefully prioritized corporate agribusiness at the expense of farmers, frontline communities and our climate.

The Growing Climate Solutions Act has been opposed by more than 220  food, farming, climate and environmental organizations.

Contact: Shaye Skiff, kskiff@foe.org, 202-222-0723

The post Friends of the Earth Condemns Dirty Ag Riders in Omnibus Spending Bill appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

Specifically, the groups urge the USDA to help family farms of all sizes combat climate change and provide equitable access to nutritious, sustainable and climate-friendly foods. Additionally, the letter calls for climate mitigation and adaptation research to be publicly owned and focus on ecologically regenerative growing practices.

“Budget reconciliation offers an urgent opportunity to fund real climate solutions for American agriculture,” said Jason Davidson, Senior Food and Agriculture Campaigner with Friends of the Earth. “These resources must be tightly tailored for farmers USDA has historically left behind. Public research funding must accelerate the shift to science-based ecologically regenerative agriculture, instead of pouring taxpayer dollars into unproven patented technologies that further entrench the power of agribusiness monopolies.”

“Family farmers around the world are among the first to notice and suffer climate chaos. Yet, corporate agribusiness is now pushing many false solutions to climate change — drought-tolerant GMOs, pesticide-based no-till, agrofuel monocultures, manure digesters — that will only make matters worse,” said John Peck, Executive Director of Family Farm Defenders. “If we are to survive as a species and a planet, we need to demand more than ‘net-zero.’  A just transition to agroecology and food sovereignty is one of those bold steps we must take now.

“The droughts and wildfires this year are deeply affecting farmers of all sizes and types, making clear that responding to the climate crisis can’t wait,” said Ben Lilliston, Director of Climate Strategies at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy. “We need Congress to meet the urgency of the climate challenge by making deep investments in a transition away from a polluting factory farm system, toward agroecological systems that are more resilient, emit less, and better benefit rural communities”

“The climate crisis is here — and millions of people are being impacted by heat waves, monsoons, wildfires, and other deadly disasters. Big Ag’s destructive actions have furthered the climate crisis by polluting the air we breathe and the water we drink — disproportionately impacting communities of color and rural farming communities,” said Lauren Maunus, Sunrise Movement Advocacy Director. “We must put an end to these practices and pass a bold reconciliation package, including a fully funded Civilian Climate Corps, that includes good food system jobs. The livelihood and sustainability of our communities depends on it.”

Communications contact: Kerry Skiff, kskiff@foe.org, 202-222-0723

The post 100 Farm, Food and Environmental Groups Call for Real Climate Solutions in Budget Reconciliation appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

This vote is announced the same day the Senate begins a budget reconciliation process, which could lead to real climate solutions for American agriculture that do not rely on faulty carbon markets.

Jason Davidson, Senior Food and Agriculture Campaigner with Friends of the Earth, issued the following statement in response:

We’re extremely disappointed to see a forced vote on this massive corporate handout package. The Growing Climate Solutions Act allows polluters from Big Ag to Big Oil to continue business as usual, while greenwashing their operations and harming low income communities and communities of color.

Carbon markets, like California’s Cap and Trade, are environmental justice disasters that benefit polluters and increase emissions. Congress should invest in programs that help farmers sequester carbon without legitimizing schemes that only benefit the largest agribusinesses.

Communications contact: Kerry Skiff, kskiff@foe.org

The post Friends of the Earth Condemns Senate Vote on Growing Climate Solutions Act appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

The 20-page document indicates that the agency’s final plan will rely on factory farm biogas, biofuels, and voluntary carbon markets as core strategies despite evidence that these measures are ineffective and disproportionately harm communities of color. The plan includes no mention of any regulatory efforts or plans to shift the types of food grown domestically. Also missing are plans for the agency’s own food procurement, as well as its oversight of nutrition programs, which both have major implications for climate change.  

Chloe Waterman, Senior Program Manager at Friends of the Earth U.S. said: 

USDA is setting itself up to fail on its climate and environmental justice goals. Voluntary implementation of climate-smart agricultural practices is a half-measure at a time we cannot afford anything short of a bold transformation of our food system.  

The USDA should take a science-driven approach in its full climate plan that shifts subsidies away from monoculture and factory farming, prioritizes the health and well-being of frontline communities, and invests in diversified, ecologically regenerative and organic agriculture.

Communications contact: Kaela Bamberger, 202-222-0703, kbamberger@foe.org

The post Friends of the Earth Statement on USDA’s Climate Plan 90-Day Progress Report appeared first on Friends of the Earth.

The bill will help power plants, refineries, and other polluters to purchase carbon credits from farmers and other agricultural entities. The legislation is being touted as an agriculture-based climate solution by incentivizing farmers to sequester carbon in the soil. However, the credit scheme will allow polluters to offset their emissions, instead of reducing and eliminating them. Last fall, 222 farmer, farmworker, environmental justice, climate, environmental, faith-based, animal welfare, and other groups today wrote to Members of Congress to urge them to oppose to the bill.

Karen Orenstein, climate and energy director with Friends of the Earth, issued the following statement in response:

The ‘Growing Climate Solutions Act’ represents the opposite of a solution to the climate crisis. It would allow the fossil fuel industry to pollute as usual, line the pockets of Big Ag, and perpetuate environmental injustice within the U.S. and abroad. Less than a decade remains to keep global temperature rise to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius. Greenhouse gas reductions must be absolute reductions without any possibility of offsets.

Jason Davidson, Senior Food and Agriculture Campaigner for Friends of the Earth, added:

We already have policies that will help farmers enhance soil health, protect biodiversity, and combat the climate crisis without perpetuating environmental injustice. Carbon markets have failed to reduce emissions and failed to provide opportunities for America’s family farmers.

Ecologically regenerative farming should be incentivized in addition to, and not instead of, carbon reductions in the energy sector. We should increase incentives for organic transition and heavily invest in existing successful USDA conservation programs while retooling them to help producers sequester carbon. Congress should support existing USDA technical assistance programs rather than outsource them to polluting agribusiness giants like Bayer.  Family farmers should be supported in these efforts with structural reforms that ensure fair markets and fair prices, rather than creating more false promises of new markets that will predominantly benefit Big Ag.

Communications contact: Kaela Bamberger, (202) 222-0703, kbamberger@foe.org 

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