Farm Fest 2009: The frontlines of the climate battle in Minnesota

By Jenna Garland, a 1Sky organizer working with Clean Water Action in Minnesota. -- Luis

After the American Clean Energy and Security Act (ACES) cleared the Energy and Commerce Committee, many people were surprised to see the loudest opposition to the strong climate legislation not coming from oil or coal companies, but from the northwest corner of Minnesota.

Congressman Collin Peterson, Democrat from Minnesota and Chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, led the charge to rewrite significant portions of the ACES to make it “workable for farmers”, to quote his statement from August 4th’s Farm Fest panel. After several negotiations with bill authors Henry Waxman and Ed Markey, and threatening to outright kill the bill, Chairman Peterson was successful in making changes to several aspects of the ACES legislation. Most notably, the agriculture sector is exempt from the economy-wide cap, and the US Department of Agriculture will have regulatory authority over the carbon offsets program, under which farmers hope to benefit substantially by sequestering carbon on their land.

Agriculture, as an industry and a community, has a lot to lose in a rapidly warming climate, and a great deal to gain by taking a leadership role in minimizing our country’s carbon emissions. Recently, the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) released an analysis of ACES by their chief economist, Joseph Glauber. This analysis states that the risks of climate change to the farming community are dramatic, and that the ACES legislation provides significant benefits to the farming community. Following the release of the analysis, Tom Vilsack, Secretary of Agriculture, testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee in support of the opportunities the legislation will provide.

Despite the USDA analysis and Secretary Vilsack’s testimony, you might be surprised to hear that the loudest voice in Minnesota opposing strong climate policy is the Farm Bureau. Long known for its agribusiness ties, the Farm Bureau strategy was to lobby for amendments giving trillions of dollars in subsidies to corporate farms, and then pressure farm state Democrats to vote against ACES. This created a significant problem for bill authors Waxman and Markey, who were caught in an even tougher battle to secure Democratic votes for the legislation.

This tension came to a head during two panels at Farm Fest 2009. The first panel featured Congressman Peterson and Congressman Tim Walz, Democrat from Minnesota’s 1st District, also on the Agriculture Committee. The second panel had 6 speakers, including representatives from the Minnesota Corn Grower’s Association, the Rural Electric Association, the National Farmers Union, and the Farm Bureau.

As expected, the Farm Bureau representative, Staci Bohlen, engaged in fear mongering, telling the audience of Minnesota farmers that ACES would hurt their farms and raise their prices. Mark Glaess, President of the Rural Electric Cooperative Association, tried to link cap and trade with Wall Street speculators that caused our recession.

Thankfully, Roger Johnson, President of the National Farmers Union (national arm of the Minnesota Farmers Union), stood in opposition to the anti-climate grandstanding of the Farm Bureau.

Both the Minnesota Farmers Union and the National Farmers Union have realized that our current energy policy, and especially our current climate policy, are hurting the nation’s farmers. Volatile gasoline prices, unpredictable weather patterns, increased threat of pests, and many more dangers associated with our policies threaten the stability of America’s family farms. And perhaps most importantly, rural communities will gain substantially from shifting to a clean energy, low-carbon economy. Roger Johnson was even looking ahead to Copenhagen, and beyond, saying that the United States is going to reassert leadership around climate change, and will take a prominent role in international climate negotiations.

The Minnesota Farmers Union came out in support of the final version of the House bill, H.R. 2454. Both Chairman Peterson and Representative Walz voted in support of the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009.

Here in Minnesota, I think we have one great climate advocate and one reluctant advocate in the House Agriculture Committee. This tells me that rural America can, and should, take the leadership role in reducing the nation’s carbon emissions and helping transition to a clean energy economy. Let’s hope my optimistic impressions of Farm Fest 2009 are correct!