Campaign Focus on Climate Crisis Future

In my most recent post, I asserted that the media is not covering the Democratic candidates' campaigns as prominently supporting the Green Deal and efforts to address the cause and effects of the climate emergency. But that doesn't always mean the candidates themselves aren't talking about this.

According to the Guardian--a publication that has declared the mission of covering the climate emergency (they were first to adopt the nomenclature I've been promoting for years, of referring to the "climate crisis" and "global heating")--former VP Joe Biden is making the opportunities for farmers to lead efforts to address the climate emergency the central theme of his ongoing campaign swing in Iowa:

Climate crisis is front of Biden’s mind. It’s on the minds of constitutionally conservative people who continue to press every campaign about a different course from the past half-century.

“This is a battle for the soul of the nation and the future of the planet,” Biden said. “The future of the country lies in rejuvenating these places. You’re 20% of the population with half the answers. I will focus heavily on rural America.

“And I keep my promises.”

  Biden talks about solar energy, wind farms, but above all, something called regenerative agriculture:

...which plants grass or rye in rotation with corn and soybeans, and sees cattle grazing on the landscape again. It builds soil health, promotes resilience against extreme weather (now the norm, when you can’t plant or harvest for the gulley-washers), controls weeds and pests, and improves yields while reducing or eliminating chemical use. These practices suck carbon out of the atmosphere and plant it in the soil, and prevent nitrogen from adding to greenhouse gases.

“You’re going to be the new carbon sink for the world, like the Amazon,” is Biden's message to Iowa.  He is touring together with former governor Tom Vilsak.  They were primed to talk in 18 farm counties, through freezing rains and prairie blizzards, about how a refashioned agriculture can help save the planet and restore fading, often forgotten, towns that voted for Donald Trump out of sheer pent-up frustration.

But according to the Guardian, this emphasis goes beyond Biden:

Biden proposes tripling the size of the Conservation Stewardship Program, which pays farmers for planting cover crops like rye or buffer strips of grass on working lands. The program was authored by former senator Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, like Vilsack, a hero among Tall Corn state Democrats... 

Warren has the boldest plans of all, proposing $15bn for the CSP and breaking up the huge agriculture chemical companies like Bayer and Dow. Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, was among the first to support using agriculture as the tip of the spear in the climate crisis battle. Climate is at the center of Bernie Sanders’ campaign as well."