What is “Climate-Smart” Agriculture?

In this edition of the Policy newsletter, we break down the USDA’s “Climate-Smart Agriculture” program, and explain how NOFA/Mass is involved.

The Climate-Smart Commodities Program came in response to President Biden’s January 2021 “Executive Order On Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” one of his first official acts in office. The executive order directed the USDA to, among other things, seek public input on how to encourage farmers to opt-in to climate smart practices that lead to “additional, measurable, and verifiable carbon reductions and sequestration.”

After collecting comments from the public, the USDA announced it would be investing over $3.1 billion in Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, through dozens of grants to organizations seeking to conduct 1-5 year pilot projects. The projects are meant to 1) provide technical and financial assistance to farmers who adopt climate-smart practices, 2) develop new and effective ways of measuring the greenhouse gas impact of those practices, and 3) develop new markets and consumer awareness of the commodities grown using climate-smart practices.

But what does “climate-smart” really mean for farmers?

The USDA includes a list of several conservation practices that they’ve identified as so-called climate smart practices, which will reduce greenhouse gas emissions of agricultural production or even sequester carbon in the soil when they’re adopted by farmers not currently using those practices. The specific list includes, among others, practices that NOFA has long advocated for from a soil health perspective, such as:

• Cover crops

• Low-till or no-till

• Nutrient management

• Manure management

• Buffers, wetland and grassland management, and tree planting on working lands

• Agroforestry and afforestation on working lands

• Climate-smart pasture practices, such as prescribed grazing or legume interseeding

• Soil amendments, like biochar

The list of organizations that received Climate-Smart is wide-ranging, including grassroots groups like Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, NOFA/Mass’s lead partner in the work, as well as enormous multinational firms specializing in conventional, industrial-scale commodities like Archer-Daniels-Midland. The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition published an interesting overview of the types of groups funded by the Climate-Smart Commodities program.

Reducing the carbon impact of massive industrial farming would of course be transformational for the US farming system, so it’s exciting to consider the potential impact of the grants awarded at that scale.

As for NOFA/Mass, we’re focusing on supporting farmers in Massachusetts in accessing the financial and technical support that they deserve for using these climate-smart practices.

NOFA/Mass has created a team of technical assistance providers (TAPs). TAPs connect with farmers in our region, helping them to identify and plan for qualified conservation practices that they can implement in their operations. TAPs also help farmers document and measure these practices, and submit the paperwork required for payment.

We’re focusing our efforts to support underserved farmers – a diverse group designated by the USDA that includes beginning farmers, socially disadvantaged farmers, veteran farmers, limited resource farmers, women farmers, and producers growing specialty crops.

We also are highlighting that many of these climate-smart practices, which may be “new” to industrial agriculture, are actually long-standing practices originated by indigenous groups.

NOFA/Mass is proud to partner with the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust (PPLT) on the Climate Smart program, bringing educational opportunities to underserved farmers around the region.
If you are interested in joining the Climate Smart program, please fill out an application with Pasa Sustainable Agriculture today!