Beard, a Frankfort, Ind., farmer, asked Braun about carbon market opportunities.
“I’d like to talk to you about carbon markets and what they might mean for Hoosier farmers,” Beard said. “It could be a huge benefit to the Hoosier economy for farmers to develop an auxiliary revenue stream through carbon credit markets. Many of us who were early adopters of climate smart practices are likely to lose out on this market.”
Braun said the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which he authored, addresses climate change challenges with pro-agriculture solutions. He added that the bill has been adopted by the U.S. Senate by a 92-8 vote, and it is awaiting actionin the U.S. House of Representatives.
“Your stewardship on the farm and being rewarded for it is an excellent place to start,” Braun said. “I think farmers are probably on the front edge of dealing with how this is really working in their own small businesses, and farming isn’t such a small business anymore. It’s gotten to be very complicated with a lot of acres to boot; a lot riskier than it used to be.”
House Ag Committee members Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.) and Don Bacon (R-Neb.) have introduced a companion bill that eventually will be combined with the Growing Climate Solutions Act.
According to Braun’s bill, the new USDA program would offer reliable information about carbon markets and access to qualified technical assistance providers for farmers and landowners. This bill establishes a Greenhouse Gas Technical Assistance Provider and Third-Party Verifier Certification Program in the USDA to provide transparency, legitimacy and informal endorsement of third-party verifiers and technical service providers that help farmers and private landowners generate carbon credits through a variety of agriculture and forestryrelated practices. The USDA certification program will ensure these assistance providers have agriculture and forestry expertise, which is lacking in the current marketplace.
Koehne, a Greensburg, Ind., farmer, asked Sen. Braun about funding for transportation infrastructure – specifically to upgrade inland waterways and ports that ship corn and soybeans to customers around the world. “One of the most important components of farming is getting our products to market as quickly and cheaply as possible,” Koehne said.
“Congress has been working on bipartisan infrastructure legislation, but the bill gives few dollars to ports and inland waterways and funds alot of things that aren’t traditional infrastructure, at all. We’ve done the bare minimum on maintenance on our waterways in infrastructure.”
Braun said only 10 percent of the proposed $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill goes to roads, bridges, inland waterway systems, airline and railroad support, rural broadband or water and sewage treatments plants. He added that many of these require necessary upgrades and provide a tremendous boost to the U.S. economy. “That’s one of the tug-of-wars we have here,” Braun said. “I’m going to be for any type of hard infrastructure spending, especially with honest pay-fors.” Braun said he isn’t happy with the details of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. Braun voted against it when the Senate passed the bill 69-30 on Aug. 10. The proposal was approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 5 by a 228-206 vote.
