Congress plans to scrap USDA Climate Hubs

Not all farmers will agree in a discussion about climate change, but it would be difficult to find a Midwest producer who did not value climate-related data addressing drought, precipitation, temperature and frost outlooks.

These are all pieces of data gathered and distributed by the Ames-based Midwest Climate Hub, which along with the other 10 regional climate hubs under the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is slated to be cut from the federal agriculture budget.

Eleven regional Climate Hubs were established as interagency departments by the USDA in 2014 with the goal of coordinating across agencies, and with U.S. producers, on climate resiliency strategies.

Laurie Nowatzke was formerly the associate director of the Midwest Climate Hub before she was terminated in February and then brought back in March briefly before she took the second deferred resignation program offered to federal employees.

Nowatzke said part of her role at the hub was to “bridge” on-the-ground responses and needs of producers to USDA research, and vice versa.

Each climate hub is a little different, depending on the needs of their region, but Nowatzke said weather patterns was a big focus for the Midwest. The hub put out ag-focused climate outlooks weekly during crop season.

Rod Pierce, a corn and soybean farmer in central Iowa, said the outlooks help him with both long- and short-term planning, including what conditions other Midwestern states are facing that he should take into account when marketing.

“Weather is so important in us making decisions, trying to look at the trend for the year, … do I want to grow corn or beans. … It just helps put some of that stuff in line,” Pierce said.

He said the hub reports give him a “big picture” of trends in the region, and he feels the information is trustworthy.

“We know the people that are doing it are not just blowing smoke,” Pierce said. “It’s good data, it’s researched data.”

Alli Wenman, the regional climate outreach project manager for the University of Wisconsin-Madison Extension, said a partnership with the Midwest Climate Hub was “key” to cut through the “noise” at the research level and give producers the tools and data that matter to their operations.

“The information is out there, but it’s maybe not framed for ag,” Wenman said. “There’s too much information, so they help us sort through what information is relevant for ag and put it into ag terms.”

The reports pull information from nearly a dozen agencies and compile it into a report full of climate, crop and soil moisture information and graphics.

A spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, who served on the subcommittee that passed the budget bill, said the hubs are a “duplicative” program and the same research can be conducted through competitive agriculture research programs that are already funded by the federal government and supported by the House’s newest bill.

“This bill cuts wasteful spending — including for so-called ‘Climate Hubs’ — and champions President Trump’s farmer-first agenda to strengthen longstanding research programs, support rural businesses and infrastructure and safeguard our food supply,” Hinson said.

The hubs also produced reports on the impacts of climate change and mitigation strategies on agriculture.

“So (the hub was) starting to move beyond just dealing with climate change or near-term weather events but also addressing agriculture’s impact on climate change as well,” Nowatzke said.

The Midwest Climate Hub produced reports like “Climate Change Impacts on Iowa Agriculture.” The reports calculated long-term changes in temperature, precipitation, growing season length and the impacts these have had, and are projected to have, on agriculture.

Nowatzke said these reports employed feedback from on-the-ground folks at Extension offices, crop physiologists and farmers to determine the strategies that would be helpful for a farm trying to deal with a changing climate.

The hub also reported and developed interactive tools for farmers on soil temperature and frost dates.

Nowatzke said that without the hubs, climate research at other agencies could persist, but she expects the USDA would struggle in “delivering the science that they do, to the people that they’re developing the science for.”

“Researchers serve a really important role in developing that work and publishing it, but also we need professionals who are trained and capable and have capacity to actually disseminate that in ways that people can use it,” Nowatzke said.

Wenman said this is what she hears from other Extension officers and producers who, while they might not use the term climate change, are seeking tools to help adapt to more extreme weather, drought patterns and other associated effects of a changing climate. Wenman said the hub information is “actionable” and the “stuff that really matters to people.”