Vilsack is confident agriculture will be first to net-zero emissions
Climate change is a worldwide challenge, but it also offers the opportunity to boost farm income for those who adopt climate-smart practices, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack at a food and agriculture conference on Wednesday. “I can guarantee you farmers will embrace this,” he said. “I am truly confident. I think agriculture gets to net-zero before most of the major industries.”
A pause in world hunger, but elimination is unlikely
After steep increases due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, the global hunger total of as many as 783 million people is relatively stable and the goal of ending hunger by the end of the decade will be increasingly difficult to reach, said the annual United Nations report on world hunger.
Food inflation rate is lowest in 20 months
Led by lower meat, poultry, fish, and egg prices, the food inflation rate fell to 5.7 percent in June, the lowest annualized figure since October 2021, said the Labor Department on Wednesday.
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Will Biden’s climate-smart ag program live up to the $3-billion hype?
This spring, the Biden administration began allocating $3.1 billion to hundreds of agriculture organizations, corporations, universities, and nonprofits for climate-smart projects. The USDA estimates that the 141 funded projects will, collectively over the project’s five-year lifetime, eliminate or sequester the equivalent of 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. But some researchers fear that the agency lacks a workable plan for measuring and verifying the impacts of the practices federal dollars will be paying for. Others say science has yet to prove that climate-smart practices truly reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
TODAY’S QUICK HITS
Food insecurity rises: Seventeen percent of participants in a survey of U.S. consumers said they were food insecure, an increase of 3 points in two months, which “could be concerning given the sum of external pressures” such as inflation and reduced SNAP benefits. (Purdue)
Coalition pushes for farm bill: Fifteen ag organizations plus a smattering of anti-hunger, environmental, wildlife, and academic groups united to urge passage of a farm bill this year that protects food and farm security. (Farm Bill for America’s Families)
One-third of subsidies: In the past 10 years, crop insurance companies and agents have received almost $33.3 billion from the Federal Crop Insurance Program, said a report advocating money-saving reforms in the taxpayer-subsidized program. (Environmental Working Group)
Brazil to edge U.S. again: Brazil, which will export more corn than the United States in the current marketing year, will also top the U.S. in the 2023/24 marketing year, though the gap will be much smaller, said the monthly WASDE report. (USDA)
