The following article is Consumer Research The author is Executive Director Will Hild.
As Congress continues to negotiate a delayed farm bill, climate activists and asset managers with environmental, social and governance (ESG) agendas are calling for the bill to be reauthorized. Ideological weapons The unelected elites who have used ESG to undermine America’s financial and energy sectors to the American public are now Targeting farmers and ranchers.
It’s easy to see where ESG extremists want to take this.
In the Netherlands, the government Required Farmers will cut emissions by up to 70% and reduce livestock overall by a third. tell “There is no future for all farmers,” he warned. More than 3,000 people have been forced to sell their land or quit farming.
The President of Sri Lanka Forced As part of its ESG goals, it has encouraged farmers to transition to low-yielding organic fertilizers, and is working to combat the food crisis that has swept across the country. BankruptRiots broke out and the government lost power.
Now, activists and Democratic lawmakers in the Biden administration have signaled their intention to impose ESG on the US agriculture sector. Hijacking the 2024 Farm Bill Turn it into a climate change bill. Environmental groups Ceres Those who advocate subjugating farmers and ranchers Crop InsuranceThe company euphemistically calls these “incentives.”
Net-zero policies and ESG requirements will increase costs for farmers by at least 25% report According to a report from the Buckeye Institute, ESG would impose a carbon cost on every agricultural process. The report cites examples such as fertilizer costs increasing by 27% and grain drying increasing by 38%. Overall, 22% of American farm expenditures would go towards carbon reduction taxes. These increased food production costs would mean American families would pay an average of $1,300 more per year to put food on the table. Including ESG in the Farm Bill would: lead Food companies would be forced to cut off domestic suppliers and trade with foreign producers where U.S. rules don’t apply.
In other words, ESG threatens to destroy the American farm and end Midwestern family traditions. Encroach Destroying America’s rural tax base and Food SecurityConsumer surveys Letter to Congress He urged lawmakers to keep “farm” in the farm bill and eliminate ESG.
Congress should ensure that the final farm bill explicitly rejects fertilizer mandates that have wreaked havoc in other countries and electrification mandates that would impose huge capital investment costs on farmers. Bill language should specifically prohibit bureaucrats from extending CAFE standards to heavy trucks and farm equipment. Congress should learn from the woefully poor performance of the Administration’s EV program and avoid including plans to incentivize farmers to adopt expensive, unproven technologies.
The Farm Bill is also an opportunity for Congress to stop activists from using the legal system to force arbitrary net-zero ESG commitments on food producers. Simply put, Americans cannot allow the same ESG regime that currently corrodes corporate boardrooms to infiltrate family farms. Congress must ensure that ESG and net-zero climate initiatives are rejected.
