Corn Commentary

Copenhagen Climate Talks an Educational Opportunity

Agriculture in the U.S. represents 7% of the GHG (Greenhouse Gas) problem but 20% of the potential solution, according to US Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsak.  National Corn Growers Association (NCGA) President Darrin Ihnen, on hand to hear Sec. Vilsak speak at Agriculture and Rural Development Day at the Copenhagen at the Climate Change Conference, said the Secretary emphasized the linkage between climate change and food security as the most important challenge facing agriculture.  According to Vilsack, our efforts should focus on three areas — research, adaptation and mitigation.  

Vilsak, the keynote speaker at Ag Day at the University of Copehagen, also was heard to remark:

- Farmers should evaluate new business models based on carbon mitigation.

- Governments should drive environmental markets

- Sustainable farming is not just applicable to small operations. Large farms can be sustainable.

- The new research arm at USDA, the National Institute for Food and Agriculture (NIFA), will focus significant resources on climate change adaptation.

- USDA Extension Service will need greater resources to help farmers adapt

- We need to move away from carbon based fertilizers

- Food aid for the developing world should mean more than just providing food but also sharing technologies and modern practices to help growers become more productive

- Post-harvest storage facilities will become increasingly important to limit waste in our production systems

More than 74 percent of the agriculture-based GHG emissions come from developing countries, says Ohio Corn Growers Executive Director Dwayne Siekman in his blog from Copehagen.

“It is obvious that U.S. farmers have been and will continue to do their job, but the rest of the world believes the U.S. should pay to bring everyone to their level, and that developing countries want the U.S. to shoulder much of the load in GHG mitigation,” he said.

Also of note, Tim Searchinger, A former environmental organization staffer with questionable academic credentials also spoke at the conference. Searchinger, who has often maligned corn farmers and corn ethanol, had a chance to present his latest paper in a mini-session. This time he had to make his case with two corn leaders, NCGA President Ihnen and Ohio corn farmer Fred Yoder, in the room. Both spoke out against Mr. Searchinger’s  data and conclusions in his session, and their comments were roundly echoed by the scientists in the room.

His presentation was titled “Fixing a Critical Climate Change Accounting Error” and was similar to the information published earlier this fall in Science Magazine along with co-authors from the Environmental Defense Fund. Searchinger’s basic premise is that the Kyoto Protocol along with EU and US policies inappropriately count the consumption of bioenergy as carbon neutral.  He claimed that by exempting both the “land use” emissions and “smoke stack” emissions from bioenergy productions, these policies would incentivize vast deforestation and that much of the world’s forests would be eliminated by 2065.  This time Searchinger’s comments were largely directed at woody biomass rather energy crops such as corn and soybeans, although nearly all bioenergy sources were implicated.