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EPA no longer updates EPA's Global Warming Site, but is maintaining this archive for historical purposes. Please see EPA's Climate Change site for current information on climate change and global warming.
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Climate Change Action Plan | Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act |
Clean Water Action Plan | Unified Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations
U.S. Climate Change Action PlanThe U.S. Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP) relies primarily on innovative partnerships with the private sector, states, and localities to address the challenge of global warming while strengthening the economy. The CCAP is a comprehensive plan targeting major greenhouse gases in all sectors of the economy. The EPA contribution to the CCAP involves more than 50 voluntary programs that build upon existing programs, technologies, and voluntary efforts to deliver cost-effective results. Agriculture related programs, jointly administered by USDA and EPA, include the AgSTAR Program and the Ruminant Livestock Efficiency Program (RLEP).
The AgSTAR Program focuses on working with farmers on technologies that capture the methane released from manure management systems. The program encourages the use of methane recovery (biogas) technologies by confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs). Also, methane recovery achieves other environmental benefits including odor control. This voluntary program is jointly sponsored by EPA, USDA, and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).
The Ruminant Livestock Efficiency Program (RLEP) encourages management strategies that improve production efficiency and result in lower emissions of greenhouse gases per unit of milk or meat produced. The program focuses on assisting livestock producers to provide forage of higher quality through improved forage production and grazing management. Many of the practices recommended by the RLEP for improving forage production remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by storing carbon in the soil as organic matter.
Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform ActThe Federal Agricultural Improvement and Reform Act (FAIR) of 1996, also called the 1996 Farm Bill, greatly expanded natural resource conservation and environmental activities in the U.S. Department of Agriculture.  USDA recognizes that there is a significant potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agricultural sources and increase carbon sequestration on U.S. forests, range, and croplands. Conservation programs are being reviewed to appraise their effectiveness in helping farmers abate greenhouse gas emissions and sequester carbon. Economic and agricultural research programs in the Department examine the effects of climate change on agriculture and the capacity of our farms, forests, and rangelands to sequester carbon. Agencies at USDA are working with other Federal agencies that have climate change responsibilities, with Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and with congressional staff to consider enhancements to their programs.
The Global Change Program Office operates within the Office of the Chief Economist and functions as the Department-wide coordinator of agriculture, rural, and forestry-related global change programs and policy issues facing USDA. The Office ensures that USDA is a source of objective, analytical assessments of the effects of climate change and proposed mitigation strategies. Numerous USDA programs provide incentives to farmers for soil erosion control, fertility management, water management, and land conservation and restoration. Federal programs to convert marginal lands to grassland, forests, or wetlands include the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), Conservation Buffers, a USDA voluntary program, and Wetland Reserve Program (WRP). The CRP targets highly erodible land for temporary land retirement. Conservation Buffers along waterways provide for carbon accumulation and can be extremely effective in absorbing water, sediments, and chemicals transported from cropland.
Long-term viability of production agriculture is linked with the preservation, conservation and enhancement of soil and water and air resources. The following summarize the potential of several conservation and tillage options to mitigate GHGs (Lal, see selected references).
- Converting marginal agricultural land to grassland, forests, or wetland (High)
- Restoring lands (High)
- Restoring wetlands (High)
- Erosion control (Conservation Tillage, buffers, CRP) (High)
- Soil fertility management (Medium)
- Crop rotations and tillage methods (High)
- Biological nitrogen fixation (Low)
The Agricultural Research Service, Department of Agriculture, has a national program of research on global change. Title XXIV of the 1990 farm bill directed the Secretary of Agriculture to "study the effects of global climate change on agriculture, "including" the effect of simultaneous increases in temperature and carbon dioxide on crops of economic importance; the effects of more frequent or more severe weather events on such crops; the effects of potential changes in hydrologic regimes on current crop yields; and other possible impacts." Program components include Climate Change Effects on Agriculture, Agriculture's Role in Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Carbon Sequestration, Effects of Rising Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Levels on Plants and Ecosystem Processes, and UV-B Radiation effects on plants and animal health.
Clean Water Action PlanThe Clean Water Act, enacted over two decades ago, seeks to reduce non-point source pollution. Land use activities associated with agriculture (crop production, grazing, and livestock confinement) have been and remain a major source of non-point source pollution. Land use activities are also a source of greenhouse gas emissions. Section 319 and Section 208 of the Clean Water Act require states to:
- Identify waters that have been damaged or are threatened by runoff sources: and
- Develop watershed management plans to impede and control NPS pollution.
The Clean Water Action Plan announced by President Clinton and Vice President Gore on February 19, 1998, seeks to protect public health and restore our nation's precious waterways by setting strong goals and providing states, communities, farmers, and landowners the tools and resources to meet them. It charts a new course emphasizing collaborative strategies built around watersheds and the communities they sustain. The EPA received $100 million for non-point source pollution reduction in fiscal year 1999. These funds have been allocated to States for priority activities, primarily agriculture, at the watershed level.
Crop production and livestock production are recognized as significant sources of both nutrient pollution in streams, rivers, and lakes and greenhouse gas emissions. The Clean Water Action Plan contains a number of key actions to address agricultural sources of pollutants that will have important effects on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration. The Plan includes many key activities to assist farmers with conservation and pollution prevention including controlling polluted runoff, incentives for Private Land Stewardship, and restoring and protecting wetlands.
Unified Strategy for Animal Feeding OperationsThe USDA/EPA Unified National Strategy for Animal Feeding Operations (AFOs) focuses on improving the connections between AFOs and environmental and public health. It is based on a national performance expectation for all AFO owners and operators. The Strategy identifies a series of actions to minimize public health impacts and improve water quality while complementing the long-term sustainability of livestock production. The USDA/EPA goal is for AFO owners and operators to take actions to minimize water pollution from confinement facilities and land application of manure. To accomplish this goal, the Strategy establishes a national performance expectation that all AFOs should develop and apply technically sound and economically feasible Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plans (CNMPs).
Widespread implementation of CNMPs should have a positive impact on greenhouse gas emissions and carbon sequestration. CNMPs will address improvements in feed management, manure handling and storage, land application of manure, nutrient management, record keeping, and waste utilization options to use or export surpluses of animal waste. While nutrients are often the major pollutants of concern, plans should address risks from other pollutants, such as pathogens, to minimize water quality and public health impacts from AFOs and include a schedule for implementing management practices identified in the plan.
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