The Biden administration's plan to use farmers as a strategy against climate change is now in peril with Sen. Joe Manchin's statements Sunday that he can't support the Build Back Better bill.
 
Since coming into office, the Biden administration has focused on reducing greenhouse gases across the economy, including plans for agriculture to have "zero emissions" by 2050. The conservation funding and provisions for biofuels in the bill were expected to jumpstart those efforts and provide a strategy that would also expand the number of farmers whose operations could qualify for the increasing number of companies selling private carbon credits to producers.
 
An anchor to all of that is a host of funding programs in the Build Back Better bill. The legislation includes a $27.1 billion increase for USDA conservation programs over ten years. Among the conservation details, a provision in the bill would pay farmers $25 an acre to grow cover crops. The White House stated, "at its peak," the climate-smart conservation provisions in the bill would reach as many as 130 million acres.
 
Click Here to read more.