The administration has options to cut emissions even if a Republican-led Senate opposes climate-focused agriculture policies.

When the incoming Biden administration released its policy roadmap in November, it was clear that tackling climate change would be a top priority and agriculture will be a key part of a broad, cross-agency effort. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the administration said, “has not historically received the sustained political attention of other agencies that play a role in climate policy.” But it would become “a lynchpin of the next Administration’s climate strategy.”

The incoming administration’s clear focus on climate change was remarkable. That it would enlist the country’s farms and farmers—who are largely skeptical of climate change—in the battle was even more so. 

In mid-December, as he introduced his climate team, Biden restated a goal he first rolled out last year on the campaign trail. “We see farmers making American agriculture first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions and gaining new sources of income in the process,” he said.