Opinion: The Farm Bureau Needs to Change its Climate Politics

Georgina Gustin, Neela Banerjee, and John H. Cushman Jr. write an opinion piece arguing that the Farm Bureau is failing its farmers by lobbying for the Trump administration and GOP platform on environmental regulation related to climate change.

The Farm Bureau is among the most potent political forces in Washington, skillfully parlaying the American farmer into an enduring influence machine. Its agenda [pdf] encompasses taxes and trade, health insurance and school lunches. The group's lobbying also touches many environmental issues: water pollution, fracking, biofuels and biodiversity. Conservative to the core, it mirrors the Trump administration's ideology almost perfectly.

The Farm Bureau's support of the Trump administration's position on international acclimate agreements and federal environmental regulation is of particular significance, according to the article.

It calls itself the "voice" of American agriculture, but the Farm Bureau has left its own members ill-prepared to cope with intensifying droughts, rain, heat and storms that threaten their livelihoods. The group's agenda has blocked farmers' opportunity to benefit from the agricultural transformation the climate crisis demands.

After establishing that premise, the article becomes a platform for amplifying InsideClimate News's recent series of features on the farm lobby's impact on climate policy in the United States and around the world.