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Frozen Climate And Conservation Funds Leave Farmers In Limbo

Science Friday · last updated
fresh green cabbage in the farm field
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Around the country, farmers are planning and planting this year’s crops. It can be uncertain work, made even more tenuous by some of the Trump administration’s changes to climate and conservation policies.

The administration has frozen billions of dollars in grants to farmers for sustainable agriculture, conservation, and “climate smart” projects. In some cases, farmers had already signed contracts with the government and begun work on these projects.

While some funding from the Inflation Reduction Act was recently released, many farmers across the country are still in limbo.

Host Flora Lichtman talks with Patrick Brown, a farmer in Warren County, North Carolina; and Dr. Kitty O’Neil, an agricultural climate resiliency specialist at Cornell University’s Cooperative Extension about the future of farming in a changing climate.


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