The Climate Crisis and Agriculture

Abstract

This Article, excerpted from Farming for Our Future: The Science, Law, and Policy of Climate-Neutral Agriculture (ELI Press 2021), outlines the threats climate change poses to agriculture and provides an overview of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions at the global, U.S., and state levels. It further details the sector’s sources of emissions, explains how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s standard analysis significantly understates agriculture’s climate change impact, and identifies uncertainties inherent in measuring the impacts of wide-scale biological systems. In contrast to government estimates, we argue that agriculture in the United States is responsible for one-quarter to one-third of national greenhouse gas emissions. We conclude by assessing agriculture’s capacity to contribute to massive decreases in emissions, sometimes called “deep decarbonization.”

Keywords: Climate Change, Sustainable Agriculture, Agricultural Law, Agricultural Policy, Farm Policy, Food Systems, Food Law & Policy