Our nations farms can play a substantial role in curbing global warming by storing carbon in their soil and trees, reducing heat-trapping emissions from pesticides, fertilizers, waste, and equipment, and by adopting practices such as cover cropping and crop rotation. These viable, modern farming techniques are already in practice today and have been shown to produce the quantity of food we need while safeguarding our health, reducing global warming pollution, and protecting the foundations of our food supplylike healthy soil and fresh water.
The Union of Concerned Scientists is working to ensure that future farm policies encourage these practices. The federal food and farm bill passed by Congress every five years represents the best vehicle to make climate-friendly practices the norm rather than the exception in American agriculture.