Impacts of Cap and Trade on U.S. agriculture

By Jennifer M. Latzke

As the 2010 Commodity Classic gets underway in Anaheim, Calif., the National Association of Wheat Growers committees are meeting to hash out issues that will affect the wheat industry in the coming year, including trade policies, the 2012 farm bill, and climate change legislation.

Climate change legislation, or cap and trade, is of particular interest to the NAWG Environment and Renewable Resources Committee, and its Chairman Paul Penner. Here at Classic, the committee heard from analysts with Informa Economics. The study, "The Impacts of HR 2454 on U.S. Agriculture" should be made public in the next month or so. It was conducted by Informa Economics, was sponsored by American Farmland Trust, and covered the affects of the house cap and trade bill on corn, soybean and whet farmers across the United States.

"The committee heard from Informa Economics and the basic preliminary findings were that the implication of cap and trade depends primarily on the location of farms and what they raise," Penner said. A more refined executive summary of the study, as well as the full 300-page report, should be available from NAWG in a few weeks.

NAWG's policy stance, adopted last September, is that it is opposed to greenhouse gas legislation or regulation that has a negative impact on production agriculture, and that any policy that is passed must have a net economic benefit to farmers, agriculture and food production. You can see the full resolution here: http://www.wheatworld.org/issues/climatechange/ .

"The most important thing is agriculture has to have a seat at the table," said Kansas Wheat Communications Specialist Bill Spiegel. "If we don't get in the game, we stand to lose a lot more than if we stay on the sideline."