Vilsack Calls Out Hemp During Announcement of USDA’s $1 Billion Climate Investment

JEFFERSON CITY U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack (featured picture) paid a visit to Lincoln University on Monday and announced that the USDA will invest $1 billion in climate-smart commodities and provide funding for pilot projects.

Because of how severely local farmers are impacted by climate change, Vilsack stressed the significance of forming forces with them to address the challenge.

Tom Vilsack, the United States Secretary of Agriculture, paid a visit to Lincoln University on Monday.

Vilsack will speak about the climate issue and remedies that will help rural America, according to him.

“A changing climate… which we have all witnessed the consequences of: enormous storms, widespread droughts, and devastating wildfires, all linked to climate change.” 

And no one understands and sees it better than our farmers, ranchers, and producers,” Vilsack said.

The USDA’s new Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities will finance projects that create market opportunities for U.S. agricultural and forestry products that use climate-smart practices, a news release said. It also includes cost-effective and innovative ways to measure and verify greenhouse gas benefits.

According to the USDA, a climate-smart commodity is defined as an agricultural commodity that is produced using agricultural – farming, ranching or forestry – practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions or sequester carbon.

Funding will be provided for pilot projects to provide incentives to those who:

• Implement climate-smart production practices, activities, and systems on working lands.
• Measure/quantify, monitor and verify the carbon and greenhouse gas benefits associated with those practices.
• Develop markets and promote the resulting climate-smart commodities.

“We are encouraging partnerships and collaborations and focusing on climate-smart practices in those large landscape and watershed-scale projects,” Vilsack said.

Vilsack started his day on campus by meeting with Lincoln University President Dr. John B. Moseley and its 1890 scholarship students. The 1890 scholarship is from the USDA, and its goal is to increase the amount of minority students studying agriculture, food, and  natural resource sciences. Lincoln University is one of 19 universities in the program.