Vilsack: Ag Community Wants To Help Address Climate Change

When it comes to the role the agriculture community has in climate change, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack said he has been pleasantly surprised.

"I was very pleased with the level of support and interest that the farm community has for ways in which they can be engaged in this effort to reduce emissions and to be engaged in this climate effort."

The Secretary was joined by EPA Administrator, Michael Regan, in talking with farmers and ethanol producers about how the farm sector can take part in emission reduction and climate smart efforts. 

"We had multiple questions about this in terms of how can we do this. Not, "we're against it," or opposed to it or we think it shouldn't happen." It was, "how can we do this? How can we be part of this?"

The Secretary added, producers recognize the potential of new economic opportunities related to climate smart agriculture practices and innovations with USDA having, "enormous capacity and enormous set of tools that can be used to provide the resources to work with the farm community to embrace this future."

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