How can climate policy make farmland better for the environment?

Just the gist

Short on time? Here’s what you need to know for this update:

🌱 Pushing for agroforestry in farming policy — 33 organizations, including our policy project Carbon180, have urged the Chief of Natural Resources Conservation Service to fill a long-vacant position critical to agroforestry.

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A few months ago, we added a couple climate policy projects to the Wren Climate Portfolio.

Wren's goal is to make a tangible difference in reversing the climate crisis, and better climate policy is undeniably part of the solution. While supporting climate policy groups does not directly offset carbon emissions, the dollar-for-dollar impact can be just as impactful.

You can learn more specifically about how Carbon180 plans to do that here.

Pushing for agroforestry in farming policy

Agroforestry—agriculture incorporating the cultivation and conservation of trees—is rooted in traditional ecological knowledge and has significant positive effects on the environment, the economy, and society. By adhering to the USDA's four principles of soil health, it has enormous potential to reduce climate change and increase resistance to it.

One of the top priorities for Carbon180 at the moment is influencing the best possible outcome for the upcoming Farm Bill 2023.  It isn’t often that the U.S. gets the chance to make political changes to agricultural climate solutions—only about once every five years. This bill has an opportunity to transform our woods and agricultural lands into active living carbon sinks and influence the tract of future climate policies in other countries. We want to give it a solid start.

Wren and our partners want to showcase agroforestry as a scalable climate solution that farmers and ranchers can use right away before the 2023 Farm Bill, but for that to happen, USDA needs to set up a proper team.

33 organizations, including our policy project Carbon180, have urged the Chief of Natural Resources Conservation Service (a USDA initiative) to fill a long-vacant position critical to agroforestry.

“We know that U.S. agriculture has the potential to capture massive amounts of carbon from the atmosphere and store it in soil and plant biomass,” the letter reads. “Within agriculture, agroforestry stands out as a largely untapped but key climate solution.”

You can read the full letter below.

Soon, Carbon180 will release its Forestry and Agriculture summary memos, outlining their official Farm Bill recommendations. These recommendations will include funding to support large-scale conservation and replanting initiatives, forest management actions from seed to stand, and an emphasis of public research and investment in agriculture.

That's all for this update! As always, thank you for your support.
— the Wren team 🧡