Failed politics
We wish Democrats and Republicans in Washington, D.C. could get along. Or even just listen to one another. Maybe we, as a country, could get somewhere.
We recite this call for bipartisanship as U.S. Senate Democrats are crowing about their landmark passage on Sunday of the Inflation Reduction Act, a grab bag of Democratic priorities that passed after an all nighter by the skinniest of margins, 51-50 (with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the deciding vote).
The $739 billion legislation does all kinds of things–allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices and expanding Affordable Care Act eligibility—but we focus here on the bill’s global warming provisions, which, perhaps, is how the legislation may have its biggest impact here.
The bill provides $20 billion to support “climatesmart” agricultural practices, such as paying farmers $25 an acre to establish cover crops up to 1,000 acres. The bill would give landlords a $5 per acre credit to have their ag renters plant cover crops, as well.
The program better funds all of the old alphabet soup programs over at the Natural Resources Conservation Service: EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program); RCPP (Regional Conservation Partnership Program); CSP (Conservation Stewardship Program); and ACEP (Agricultural Conservation Easement Program).
We support the Democrats and their high priority commitment to try and head off a global warming catastrophe by promoting no till and cover crops, farm techniques that keep carbon in the ground.
Yet, we don’t see how many farmers in our area will move away from conventional tillage of major cash grain crops, such as corn and soybeans, for $25 an acre. The payment won’t likely even pay for cover crop seed, not to mention new planting machinery.
The Democrats need Republicans to remind them about market realities and the inherent limitations of government incentive programs. They need to educate the Democrats on the poor performance of past NRCS programs to move the needle on climate change, as well as surface water pollution.
Of course, the Republicans don’t even acknowledge that global warming is a problem and refuse to engage in any kind of productive conversation. They won’t admit California is on fire, that you can’t grow wheat in drought stricken western Kansas and that the creeks and gullies ran chocolate brown across storm-battered central Wisconsin this week after receiving eight inches of rain in early August.
The Democrats might think they can control agriculture- caused climate change by tossing billions at farmers in voluntary programs, but it won’t work. Even the federal government doesn’t have the bucks to get farmers to do what needs to be done across this country’s thousands and thousands of acres of farmland.
A better approach is strict carbon regulation on agriculture and a cap and trade system that allows laggard producers to farm, but at a stiff penalty where they pay innovators for carbon credits. This approach uses regulation and market techniques together. In time, you can refashion U.S. agriculture in a way that helps save the planet while feeding the world.
The problem is politics. In the current environment, you can’t find the votes for global warming regulations, even the best regulations. All the Democrats can do is throw money at voluntary programs. So, that’s what they do. And we get what we get. But it isn’t enough.
Out in space, NASA satellites capture computer images of carbon dioxide concentrations around the globe. In the spring, as farmers across North America plow up the landscape, plumes of carbon dioxide fill the atmosphere. In summer, as crops get green and take in carbon dioxide, those plumes disappear. In the fall, however, as farmers once again till up the land, more carbon dioxide is released into the atmosphere.
We can see the problem. We know what we need to do to fix it. But, as citizens of this overheated planet, we lack the political skills to get the job done.
Editorial by Peter Weinschenk, The Record-Review
