Farm Groups Support Bonnie Nomination for FPAC

Farm Groups Support Bonnie Nomination for FPAC
Robert Bonnie is President Biden’s nominee for USDA Undersecretary for Food Production and Conservation. photo by Robert Nichols.
April 20th, 2021 | NAFB News Center

Farm groups welcome President Joe Biden’s nomination of Robert Bonnie to oversee The Department of Agriculture’s Farm Production and Conservation mission area as undersecretary. FPAC is significant to agriculture and includes the Farm Service Agency, which manages commodity programs and the Conservation Reserve Program, the Risk Management Agency, which administers crop insurance, and the Natural Resources Conservation Service, which manages conservation programs other than CRP.

American Farm Bureau Federation President Zippy Duvall says, “We appreciate his outreach and engagement with Farm Bureau during his tenure with the Biden administration, and we are hopeful he will remain fully engaged with farmers and ranchers in his new role.” American Soybean Association President Kevin Scott says, “We have appreciated his public service in support of agriculture, and we respect Bonnie’s accessibility and responsiveness to us as farmers.”

Finally, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack says Bonnie is “one of the nation’s foremost authorities and leaders on working lands approaches to conservation and incentive-based climate and conservation practices.”

Carbon credit markets are showing potential as a possible revenue stream for farmers, thanks to carbon sequestration practices they can implement on their operations. Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack has come out in favor of the USDA operating as a potential “carbon bank” for U.S. producers that want to participate in carbon markets. Bonnie says some questions need to be answered before the agency gets to that point…

Carbon credit markets have been around for a long time. Bonnie says the challenge is making it financially worth it for producers to take the time and effort to implement sequestration practices that will cost money upfront…

There are challenges for farmers who want to take part in the current carbon market program. Bonnie says USDA will likely need to partner with private-sector organizations to help producers overcome those challenges.

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