• Daily Illinois
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • DMCA
  • Sitemap
  • Write For Us
Saturday, February 4, 2023
Daily illinois - USA | News, Sports & Updates Web Magazine
  • Covid-19
  • News
    • All
    • Business
    • Education
    • Politics
    • Sports
    • World
    Incorporate effective visual aids.

    Tips for Making a Custom Presentation 02/01

    A Guide to Quick Loans

    Speedy Solutions: A Guide to Quick Loans

    Benefits of SEN in education

    Benefits of SEN in education — why children need it

    Environmentally Friendly Cryptocurrencies

    The Best Sustanable & Environmentally Friendly Cryptocurrencies 2022

    Build Brand awareness via Organic Social Media

    Build Brand awareness via Organic Social Media

    Digital Marketing Internship Program

    Things To Know Before Joining Digital Marketing Internship Program

    How to save your kids from high school nudity

    How To Save Your Kids From High School Nudity

    Social recruiting for B2B companies

    Social Recruiting for B2B Companies

    Data Protection in the Employment Contract

    Data Protection in the Employment Contract

    motivate colleagues

    How Can You Motivate Colleagues?

  • Science & Tech
    • All
    • Ai - Artificial Intelligence
    • Apps
    • Mobile
    Find Someone Information Using Phone Number

    Ways to Find Someone Information Using Phone Number

    What is the Structure of a Mobile App

    What is the Structure of a Mobile App?

    Limit the Damage in an Emergency

    Logging strategy: Limit the Damage in an Emergency

    Dev Ops Future And Free Platform To Learn

    Dev Ops Future And Free Platform To Learn

    Does discord notify you when you leave a group chat?

    Does discord notify you when you leave a group chat?

    Redirects and Benefits of it

    What Are Redirects And Benefits Of It

    Data Protection Officer Tasks

    Data Protection Officer Tasks

    How to Get a Tinder Refund in Less Than Two Minutes

    How to Get a Tinder Refund in Less Than Two Minutes

    How To Send Pictures on Tinder

    How To Send Pictures on Tinder

    How To Change Age on Tinder

    How To Change Age on Tinder

  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Gaming
    • Movie
    • Music
    See a show on Broadway

    Ideas For Your Bucket List In 2023

    CBD DISPOSABLE VAPE PEN 1000MG

    CBD DISPOSABLE VAPE PEN 1000MG

    What Are The Benefits Of Using HWID Spoofer For Valorant

    What Are The Benefits Of Using HWID Spoofer For Valorant?

    Game studios are shelving play-to-earn games

    Game studios are shelving play-to-earn games

    Battle Infinity

    4,400% return! This coin could still increase its price a hundredfold

    Christine Settingsgaard sits in her yard on Wednesday, Sept 14, 2022, in Barrington. Settingsgaard was lured into sophisticated financial scam this summer via a man she met on Hinge, and “lost everything.”

    The case of the vanishing deposit – Chicago Tribune

    NFL Week 4 takeaways – Lessons, big questions for every game

    Live: Miley Cyrus, Def Leppard join Taylor Hawkins tribute

    Live: Miley Cyrus, Def Leppard join Taylor Hawkins tribute

    'Catherine Called Birdy' review: Lena Dunham's instant teen classic

    ‘Catherine Called Birdy’ review: Lena Dunham’s instant teen classic

    Home Depot Skeleton Alternatives

    Home Depot Skeleton Alternatives

    • F95zone
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Travel
    Can I wear a white shirt with grey dress pants?

    Can You Wear a White Shirt with Grey Pants?

    New Trendy Bodysuit Outfit Ideas 2023

    New Trendy Bodysuit Outfit Ideas 2023

    How Do You Style A Simple Top

    How Do You Style Your Simple Tops?

    Great Ocean Road

    6 Things you can Experience along the Great Ocean Road

    So You Want to Be a Chef Here’s What You Need to Know

    So You Want to Be a Chef? Here’s What You Need to Know

    waterdrop reverse osmosis water filter

    Your Comprehensive Guide To The Tankless Reverse Osmosis System

    Best vegan gift ideas for every budget

    Best vegan gift ideas for every budget

    Things You Should Consider When Traveling

    Things You Should Consider When Traveling

    The complete guide for buying Water Purifiers

    The complete guide for buying Water Purifiers

    The Most Techy Smartwatches in 2022

    The Most Techy Smartwatches in 2022

33 °f
Chicago
35 ° Sat
35 ° Sun
35 ° Mon
37 ° Tue
No Result
View All Result
Daily illinois - USA | News, Sports & Updates Web Magazine
  • Covid-19
  • News
    • All
    • Business
    • Education
    • Politics
    • Sports
    • World
    Incorporate effective visual aids.

    Tips for Making a Custom Presentation 02/01

    A Guide to Quick Loans

    Speedy Solutions: A Guide to Quick Loans

    Benefits of SEN in education

    Benefits of SEN in education — why children need it

    Environmentally Friendly Cryptocurrencies

    The Best Sustanable & Environmentally Friendly Cryptocurrencies 2022

    Build Brand awareness via Organic Social Media

    Build Brand awareness via Organic Social Media

    Digital Marketing Internship Program

    Things To Know Before Joining Digital Marketing Internship Program

    How to save your kids from high school nudity

    How To Save Your Kids From High School Nudity

    Social recruiting for B2B companies

    Social Recruiting for B2B Companies

    Data Protection in the Employment Contract

    Data Protection in the Employment Contract

    motivate colleagues

    How Can You Motivate Colleagues?

  • Science & Tech
    • All
    • Ai - Artificial Intelligence
    • Apps
    • Mobile
    Find Someone Information Using Phone Number

    Ways to Find Someone Information Using Phone Number

    What is the Structure of a Mobile App

    What is the Structure of a Mobile App?

    Limit the Damage in an Emergency

    Logging strategy: Limit the Damage in an Emergency

    Dev Ops Future And Free Platform To Learn

    Dev Ops Future And Free Platform To Learn

    Does discord notify you when you leave a group chat?

    Does discord notify you when you leave a group chat?

    Redirects and Benefits of it

    What Are Redirects And Benefits Of It

    Data Protection Officer Tasks

    Data Protection Officer Tasks

    How to Get a Tinder Refund in Less Than Two Minutes

    How to Get a Tinder Refund in Less Than Two Minutes

    How To Send Pictures on Tinder

    How To Send Pictures on Tinder

    How To Change Age on Tinder

    How To Change Age on Tinder

  • Entertainment
    • All
    • Gaming
    • Movie
    • Music
    See a show on Broadway

    Ideas For Your Bucket List In 2023

    CBD DISPOSABLE VAPE PEN 1000MG

    CBD DISPOSABLE VAPE PEN 1000MG

    What Are The Benefits Of Using HWID Spoofer For Valorant

    What Are The Benefits Of Using HWID Spoofer For Valorant?

    Game studios are shelving play-to-earn games

    Game studios are shelving play-to-earn games

    Battle Infinity

    4,400% return! This coin could still increase its price a hundredfold

    Christine Settingsgaard sits in her yard on Wednesday, Sept 14, 2022, in Barrington. Settingsgaard was lured into sophisticated financial scam this summer via a man she met on Hinge, and “lost everything.”

    The case of the vanishing deposit – Chicago Tribune

    NFL Week 4 takeaways – Lessons, big questions for every game

    Live: Miley Cyrus, Def Leppard join Taylor Hawkins tribute

    Live: Miley Cyrus, Def Leppard join Taylor Hawkins tribute

    'Catherine Called Birdy' review: Lena Dunham's instant teen classic

    ‘Catherine Called Birdy’ review: Lena Dunham’s instant teen classic

    Home Depot Skeleton Alternatives

    Home Depot Skeleton Alternatives

    • F95zone
  • Lifestyle
    • All
    • Fashion
    • Food
    • Travel
    Can I wear a white shirt with grey dress pants?

    Can You Wear a White Shirt with Grey Pants?

    New Trendy Bodysuit Outfit Ideas 2023

    New Trendy Bodysuit Outfit Ideas 2023

    How Do You Style A Simple Top

    How Do You Style Your Simple Tops?

    Great Ocean Road

    6 Things you can Experience along the Great Ocean Road

    So You Want to Be a Chef Here’s What You Need to Know

    So You Want to Be a Chef? Here’s What You Need to Know

    waterdrop reverse osmosis water filter

    Your Comprehensive Guide To The Tankless Reverse Osmosis System

    Best vegan gift ideas for every budget

    Best vegan gift ideas for every budget

    Things You Should Consider When Traveling

    Things You Should Consider When Traveling

    The complete guide for buying Water Purifiers

    The complete guide for buying Water Purifiers

    The Most Techy Smartwatches in 2022

    The Most Techy Smartwatches in 2022

33 °f
Chicago
35 ° Sat
35 ° Sun
35 ° Mon
37 ° Tue
No Result
View All Result
Daily illinois - USA | News, Sports & Updates Web Magazine
No Result
View All Result
Home News Business

Inside the Inflation Reduction Act: $20 billion to help fix our farms

by Staff Writer
December 5, 2022
in Business
Reading Time: 7 mins read
0
Inside the Inflation Reduction Act: $20 billion to help fix our farms
497
SHARES
1.4k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

 

The single greatest threat to the environment isn’t hunting or suburban sprawl or invasive species. It’s farming.

Related posts

A Guide to Quick Loans

Speedy Solutions: A Guide to Quick Loans

January 31, 2023
Environmentally Friendly Cryptocurrencies

The Best Sustanable & Environmentally Friendly Cryptocurrencies 2022

December 3, 2022

Farms cover roughly 40 percent of the country, and they’ve replaced countless ecosystems with vast fields of soybeans, corn, and cattle. Agriculture also accounts for about 11 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions.

The Inflation Reduction Act could help blunt some of those impacts.

Alongside more headline-grabbing investments in clean energy and health care, the bill — which President Biden is set to sign into law this week — includes nearly $20 billion to make farmland more environmentally friendly. The funds are designed, in part, to help farmers create more habitat for pollinators like bees, store more carbon in the soil, and make farms more resilient in the face of extreme weather.

Farmers working in a strawberry field near Ventura, California, during a drought in August.

Mario Tama/Getty Images

Funding for farms is just a fraction of the $437 billion bill — and it only goes toward existing government programs — but it’s still a huge deal, experts say. “$20 billion is still a big investment, the largest since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s,” Karen Perry Stillerman, a deputy director at the research group Union of Concerned Scientists, wrote in a recent blog post. “It’s $20 billion more than we had two weeks ago,” she wrote.

And this investment is especially important today. Climate change is threatening crops by making some droughts and flash floods more frequent and severe. Many of the programs funded through the IRA don’t just target carbon emissions but could also help make our food system more resilient. Ultimately, that would benefit us all.

What the bill means for farmers

The biggest chunk of money — roughly $8.5 billion — will go toward a program run by the US Department of Agriculture called the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. It pays for projects that restore the ecosystem or reduce emissions on farmland.

Farmers often use the money to buy and plant cover crops. These are plants, such as clover, radishes, or rye, that are rooted in fields that might otherwise be fallow to improve the health of the soil and prevent erosion. The idea is that the ground is always “covered” with something.

Cover crops also have a range of other superpowers, said Rob Myers, director of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at the University of Missouri. During a drought, for example, they can lock moisture in the soil; during a flood, meanwhile, they help water more easily penetrate the ground.

These plants also provide habitat for important critters above and below ground, such as spiders, beetles, and fungi — many of which provide services themselves, like pest control. Generally, more plants mean more animals.

On the left is a field with cereal rye, a cover crop, and on the right is a field with no cover crop. “The soil on the left with cover crop will be healthier and more resilient in the face of weather extremes such as droughts or excessive rainfall,” according to Rob Myers, director of the Center for Regenerative Agriculture at the University of Missouri.

Courtesy of Rob Myers

Although just a small fraction of farms currently use cover crops, Myers said, programs like EQIP are making the practice more common. Planting them can be costly, and they take about three years to start paying off (such as by reducing the amount of fertilizer a farmer needs to buy), he said. That’s why government investment is so important, he said.

3 other important programs the bill funds

The IRA will also funnel more than $3 billion into another USDA initiative known as the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). Similar to EQIP, CSP pays farmers to make their lands more sustainable, but it typically provides funding over a longer period and for a larger suite of conservation-related projects, said Cathy Day, climate policy coordinator at a nonprofit called the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition.

What does that actually look like? Through CSP, a farmer could transform an industrial farm, with rows and rows of the same crop, into something that resembles a more natural landscape, Day said. Such a farm might have a handful of different crops, including fruiting trees and plants that enrich the soil, and require fewer fertilizers and pesticides. That’s a best-case scenario, anyway.

There’s money in the act for two additional programs, both of which are worth knowing: the Regional Conservation Partnership Program and the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.

The regional partnership program — which will receive $4.95 billion — is similar to those above but relies on partners, such as environmental nonprofits, to help make farmland more sustainable. Another $1.4 billion will go towards the easement program. It ensures that farmland won’t be replaced by roads, cities, or other developments.

Is this really good for the climate?

These programs are, by design, meant to help fight climate change as part of Biden’s broader climate agenda. And some of them almost certainly will. Cover crops, for example, can pull carbon dioxide out of the air and store it in the soil, as long as farmers don’t dig up the roots, Day said.

Yet it’s tough to say whether, on the whole, $20 billion in funding will make a dent in farm-related emissions. As Vox’s Kenny Torrella argues, the bill will do little to change meat and dairy production, the largest contributor of carbon emissions in the agriculture sector.

Historically, about half the money from EQIP has gone toward livestock farms including confined animal feeding operations, Day said. Funding from IRA might help those farmers cut emissions to a degree, but it will also help prop up a polluting industry, she said. “It’s inherently supporting systems that are highly environmentally unfriendly,” Day said.

Other provisions of the bill also direct money toward biofuels, which some experts have criticized for fueling environmental destruction and doing little to lower emissions. Remarkably, about a third of the corn in the US (most of which is grown in vast, largely lifeless monocultures) goes toward making ethanol.

Ultimately, slashing emissions from farmland will require more fundamental changes to our food system and a major investment in plant-based meats and other lower-carbon alternatives. But in the meantime, this bill presents an opportunity to restore some farmland — to bring back certain natural features of the landscape that make it more resilient.

“The average person might think that what farmers are doing is unrelated to them,” Myers said. “But it is important because we all need a stable supply of food.”

Source by www.vox.com

Related

Share199Tweet124Share50
Previous Post

32 Things I Guarantee You Won’t Regret Having On Hand Next Time You Travel

Next Post

Reed Timmer captures rare glimpse of how a powerful flash flood starts

Next Post
Reed Timmer captures rare glimpse of how a powerful flash flood starts

Reed Timmer captures rare glimpse of how a powerful flash flood starts

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Latest News - Daily illinois

Can I wear a white shirt with grey dress pants?

Can You Wear a White Shirt with Grey Pants?

February 3, 2023
Find Someone Information Using Phone Number

Ways to Find Someone Information Using Phone Number

February 3, 2023
Incorporate effective visual aids.

Tips for Making a Custom Presentation 02/01

February 2, 2023
New Trendy Bodysuit Outfit Ideas 2023

New Trendy Bodysuit Outfit Ideas 2023

January 31, 2023
A Guide to Quick Loans

Speedy Solutions: A Guide to Quick Loans

January 31, 2023
What is the Structure of a Mobile App

What is the Structure of a Mobile App?

January 24, 2023
Benefits of SEN in education

Benefits of SEN in education — why children need it

January 19, 2023
How Do You Style A Simple Top

How Do You Style Your Simple Tops?

December 28, 2022
Daily illinois - USA | News, Sports & Updates Web Magazine

Copyright © 2020 Dailyillinois.com.

Navigate Site

  • Daily Illinois
  • About
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms
  • DMCA
  • Sitemap
  • Write For Us

Follow Us

No Result
View All Result
  • About Us Page
  • Contact
  • Daily illinois
  • DMCA Policy
  • Privacy Policy
  • Submit, Guest Post, Write For Us and Become a Contributor
  • Terms of Use

Copyright © 2020 Dailyillinois.com.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.