NEW Fox News articles can now be heard on audio! A dairy farmer in his fourth generation worries that potential climate efforts will endanger independent farmers and their capacity to feed the food supply in the United States.
Several governments have implemented laws on the agriculture sector, such as caps on nitrogen emissions, which have angered local farmers. The Biden administration has also stated that it intends to pressure the sector to make reforms to address climate change.
Fourth-generation dairy farmer Stephanie Nash told Fox News that “Americans are feeding into this lie that climate change is due to agriculture and climate change is not going to get better until farmers and ranchers do better.”
EPA estimated that at 11% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. in 2020 were from the agricultural sector, versus 27% from transportation, 25% from energy, and 24% from industry.
In his opening remarks to Congress, President Biden broached the idea of rewarding farmers for planting to grow cover crops, crops, which are intended to cover the soil rather than be harvested in order to reduce carbon dioxide and enhance soil health. It encouraged the Department of Agriculture to use cash from farm aid to provide incentives for farms to reduce their carbon emissions.
Most recently, in March, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a new ESG proposal requiring businesses to disclose the environmental effect of their operations. If passed, this legislation will leave American farmers and ranchers vulnerable since large food production companies would consider purchasing small farms or importing animal goods to preserve their ESG rating .
Nash worries that efforts to enact green legislation around the world will further kill off the farming sector, which is already failing due to rising labor, fuel, seed, and fertilizer prices. According to her, organizations like the World Economic Forum are “scaring us” with their forecast that by 2050, the world’s population will require 70% more food than is currently consumed, and they call for a restructuring of food production to satisfy that demand.
A dairy farm in Tennessee run by the fourth generation is called Nash Farms (Fox News )
We won’t have enough food, she added, if you keep destroying our food supply and our American farmers.
The Inflation Reduction Act, which was unveiled last week, would allocate $369 billion for different countermeasures against climate change. The law asserts that, through investing in renewable energy generation and activities, it will cut carbon emissions by almost 40% by 2030.
In June, the Dutch government unveiled its aim to cut nitrogen emissions by 50%, which greatly angered the country’s farmers. The proposal calls for a 30% decrease in the population of Dutch cattle, whose dung emits nitrogen oxide and drives many farms out of business.
Farmers assemble next to a border sign between Germany and the Netherlands in their trucks to demonstrate against climate change measures (Photo by VINCENT JANNINK/ANP/AFP via Getty Images) Getty Images (VINCENT JANNINK/ANP/AFP)
Similar to this, the Canadian government proposed a 30% cut to nitrogen fertilizer emissions by 2030 as part of a strategy to reach net zero in the next three decades, drawing criticism from farmers. A strategy addressing New Zealand’s emissions from animal farts and burps was also submitted to tax farmers .
Nash, who claimed that her family relocated their century-old dairy farm from California to Tennessee in 2015 as a result of the Golden State’s restrictive agriculture policies limiting water usage, is concerned that the United States will adopt similar policies that will harm livestock farmers who are already struggling to survive in the face of rising production costs and preexisting regulatory restrictions.
She claimed that the drive to switch from animal products to plant-based meals by businesses and rich people like Bill Gates is motivated by disinformation and hidden agendas.
For a national day of protest, Dutch farmers line up their tractors to call for increased respect for their line of work. Mike Corder/AP Photo
They may claim that it is for the future and that they want to feed Americans, but in reality, she continued, they are feeding our bodies food that has been chemically cultivated. According to the Center for Consumer Freedom, imitation meats like Beyond Meat contain synthetic preservatives and Red #3 food dye, which was EPA estimated that at 11% 0 for use in cosmetics in 1990.
The 2025 Farm Bill, a piece of legislation that is usually approved every five years, is one to watch out for, according to Nash, since she thinks it will be used to give the EPA more access to and control over independent farmers.
She claimed that Washington, D.C. lacked “backbone” and that there weren’t enough family farmers and ranchers in government positions to defend Americans nationwide.
For Fox News, Teny Sahakian works as an associate producer and writer. Twitter users can follow Teny at @tenysahakian.
