Late last month, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack, introduced a new USDA climate-smart agriculture and forestry and marking and financing partnership initiative.

"Will help finance the production of climate-smart commodities through a series of large-scale pilots and demonstration projects funded from the USDA. To finance the steps necessary to properly measure and validate the environmental response and result from these practices."

The initiative is part of the USDA's Climate-Adaptation and Resilience Plan. Among 20 such plans recently released on a federal cabinet and agency-wide level. Those plans explain how each entity will integrate climate-adaptation in its mission area programs.

Other aspects of the USDA plan include improving access to climate data at local and regional level. And leveraging existing USDA climate hubs as a support for presenting adaptation science, technology, and tools through the department's mission areas.

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