Farmers attending the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland say agriculture is finally being welcomed to the discussions. Iowa farmer Ray Gaesser represented Solutions from the Land as one of the nearly 40,000 official participants. He says after years of fighting to get into the meetings they are being given a seat at the table and helping USDA more positively position U.S. agriculture in the discussions.
He says USDA officials contacted the group prior to the meeting to meet with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. Gaesser says they are providing input on how agriculture can be part of the solution to climate change.
Gaesser says agriculture is utilizing natures energy sources in solar and wind as well as biofuels. He hopes this will be integrated into USDA’s climate change mitigation and a possible climate bank.
However, farmers at COP 26 faced more aggressive anti-meat rhetoric about how methane emissions from livestock globally have grown over time and production should be eliminated. However, Gaesser says much of animal agriculture messaging was just not accurate.
