NMPF Lauds Bipartisan Movement Forward on Agriculture Climate Legislation
July 2, 2020
The National Milk Producers Federation, the largest organization representing U.S. dairy farmers, applauded bipartisan momentum on legislation that will enhance the many conservation and environmental efforts dairy farmers are taking as they care for air, land, and water resources.
The Growing Climate Solutions Act, introduced in the Senate on June 4 and the House on June 26, highlighted increasing congressional attention to climate-change solutions in which dairy farmers would play a prominent role.
Jason Weller, vice-president of Truterra, LLC, the sustainability arm of Land O’Lakes, testified in a Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on June 24 in support of the bill. NMPF also submitted written testimony on behalf of Environmental Issues Committee Chair Mike McCloskey and President & CEO Jim Mulhern.
“To continue and enhance our efforts to combat climate change, the dairy industry is launching the Net Zero Initiative to reduce the industry’s climate impact to ‘net zero’ by as early as 2050,” McCloskey and Mulhern wrote in their testimony. “Carbon markets will play an important role in helping us to achieve our goal, making the Growing Climate Solutions Act a valuable addition to the legislative landscape in this regard.”
The Growing Climate Solutions Act’s Senate sponsors are Sens. Mike Braun (R-IN) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), while the House version was introduced by Reps. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA) and Don Bacon (R-NE). NMPF is pleased with the bill’s bipartisan support in both chambers, a crucial step toward reducing agricultural carbon emissions that aligns well with dairy’s goal to achieve carbon neutrality or better by 2050 through the industry’s Net Zero Initiative.
“We are grateful that so many members of Congress in both parties have recognized the important contributions dairy farmers make to conservation and sustainability,” said Mulhern. “We look forward to working to advance this and other proposals as Congress takes up environmental legislation.”
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