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USDA official says they’re 100% in on climate issues

The USDA’s Deputy Under Secretary for research tells lawmakers the agency IS committed to climate change issues affecting farmers and ranchers. At a recent House Ag subcommittee hearing Scott Hutchins was asked about a Politico report saying the agency does not pay climate change enough attention, “I’ve been clear in other testimonies in the Senate that the body of work is pretty clear, that the climate IS changing over time.”

The report said only point-three-percent of the USDA’s budget went to climate change.

Hutchins says that likely refers to the agency’s climate hubs and so much work is going on, in addition to and in support of those hubs, like sustainable ag intensification, “That includes a lot of things in it. But most prominent within that would be soil health, for example, and the ability to sequester carbon and those kinds of activities. We have over 35-hundred projects across our four agencies in R&D working just within the sustainable intensification.”

Another USDA focus, Hutchins testified, involves adapting to climate change, “We have over 580 projects across these four agencies that work in that space so we are 100% in on making sure that U.S. agriculture is resilient and able to adapt to climate opportunities that present themselves.”

There are 10 climate research hubs across the country.