As part of an Administration-wide rollout, the Department of Agriculture released its climate adaption and resilience plan. The plan describes how USDA will prepare for current and future impacts of climate change. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack claims the plan “lays out the framework for USDA to carry out sustained climate adaptation that addresses current and emerging climate risks and challenges.”
The Adaptation Plan identifies key climate threats to agriculture and forestry and outlines five cross-cutting adaptation actions USDA can take, including increasing outreach and education to promote adoption and application of climate-smart strategies. USDA also seeks to broaden access to and availability of climate data at regional and local scales, and increase support for research and development of climate-smart practices and technologies.
Finally, the plan will leverage the USDA Climate Hubs as a framework to support USDA Mission Areas in delivering adaptation. The plan is one of 20 developed by the Biden Administration.
The National Association of Farm Broadcasting and the American Farm Bureau Federation contributed to this report.