10/17/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 10/17/2024 12:16
Contact: USDA Press
Email:[email protected]
HERSHEY, PA, October 17, 2024 - The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today celebrated the ongoing success of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, a historic and innovative funding opportunity that expands markets for commodities produced using climate-smart production methods. This effort is helping farmers, ranchers, and private forest landowners implement climate-smart production practices on working lands to build soil health, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, sequester carbon, enhance productivity and build revenue.
Today, as organizations participating in Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities projects gathered in Hershey, PA, at the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Learning Network meeting, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack highlighted the initiative's success to date in building market opportunities for climate-smart commodities and connecting producers with the tools they need to combat the challenges of climate change while reaching new markets and generating new income.
"Through our Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, we are working to create an economy that supports rural communities, meets global demand for renewable and climate-smart goods, and achieves our climate goals," said Secretary Vilsack. "Today we are celebrating tangible results from the historic effort, and continuing to move the ball forward on climate-smart innovation and the creation of new markets and income opportunities, especially for small and mid-sized farming operations."
In conjunction with today's celebration, USDA released a progress report highlighting the successes of Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities. Since its creation in September 2022, USDA has invested $3.03 billion in 135 projects that have:
These results show strong early progress toward the cumulative goals for the 5-year projects.
Read the Progress Report (PDF, 1.2 MB).
Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities in Pennsylvania
In Pennsylvania, 29 projects are helping producers of 48 major commodities implement climate-smart practices and access new markets. With over $907 million in federal funding, the projects are leveraging the greenhouse gas benefits of climate-smart commodity products and provide direct, meaningful benefits to production agriculture in Pennsylvania, including small and underserved producers.
At the gathering in Hershey, Secretary Vilsack highlighted several of these projects:
Other projects that Secretary Vilsack highlighted today in Hershey include:
Background: Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities
USDA first announced details of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities opportunity in February 2022. The design of this opportunity was informed by over 400 comments received in a Request for Information published in September 2021. Through this new opportunity, USDA finances partnerships to support the production and marketing of climate-smart commodities via a set of pilot projects lasting one to five years.
USDA received over 1,000 proposals from more than 500 groups, totaling over $20 billion in requests for funding. In September 2022, Secretary Vilsack announced USDA would be investing up to $2.8 billion in 70 selected projects under the first pool of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities funding opportunity. In December 2022, he announced $325 million would be invested in an additional 71 projects under the second funding pool, which was focused on small and underserved producers.
USDA touches the lives of all Americans each day in so many positive ways. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, USDA is transforming America's food system with a greater focus on more resilient local and regional food production, fairer markets for all producers, ensuring access to safe, healthy and nutritious food in all communities, building new markets and streams of income for farmers and producers using climate smart food and forestry practices, making historic investments in infrastructure and clean energy capabilities in rural America, and committing to equity across the Department by removing systemic barriers and building a workforce more representative of America. To learn more, visit www.usda.gov.
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