NCGA Supports Cap and Trade

National Corn Growers Association Past President and Climate Change Task Force member Fred Yoder said agriculture can play a positive role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Yoder pointed out that - greenhouse gas reductions from livestock and agricultural conservation practices are the easiest and most readily available means of reducing greenhouse gas on a large scale. He told the House Committee on Small business, - the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that agricultural and forestry lands can sequester at least 20 percent of all annual greenhouse gas emissions in the United States.

Yoder outlined several of NCGA’s key policy priorities under a cap-and-trade system and stressed that agriculture should not be subject to an emissions cap. He said, - any efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from America’s two million farms and ranches would be costly and burdensome. Agriculture accounts for about seven percent of all greenhouse gas emissions. Yoder said, - it would seem unreasonable to concentrate on regulations for such a small and diffuse industry.