President-elect Donald Trump’s next Agriculture secretary will inherit a $3.1 billion grant program to use farming to fight climate change — and with it a struggle to align the effort with the incoming president’s resistance to climate science.
Farm policy groups, lobbyists and grant recipients said they’re not sure what to expect from the Agriculture Department’s Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities when Trump takes office, except that it’s likely to face scrutiny by an administration that takes a dim view to the science and politics of climate change.
Some of the nation’s biggest agribusinesses are participating in the grant program, as are universities and dozens of small farmer groups.
“We absolutely want to see it continued,” said Hannah Smith-Brubaker, executive director of Pasa Sustainable Agriculture in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, which is a year and a half into a five-year, $55 million grant supporting a wide range of crops and livestock production and related marketing in 15 states and the District of Columbia.
