Following the conclusion of COP28 in Dubai, House Committee on Agriculture Chairman Glenn “GT” Thompson issued the following statement:
“Amid global concerns about climate change, there’s a pressing need to recognize and commend the progress made by U.S. agricultural producers in addressing environmental challenges.
The U.S. agriculture industry makes up just 11% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and stands as the nation’s lowest-emitting economic sector, and along with the nation’s forest lands, wood products, and trees, offsets a significant 13% of the country’s annual carbon emissions. Not to mention, Americans spend a smaller share of their disposable income on food than any other country on the planet. Still, anti-agriculture groups, including those gathered at COP28, continue to push alarmist rhetoric that our food system is broken and must be dismantled.
The world’s elites, after arriving in Dubai in private planes, believe Americans should eat less meat, cows should burp less, and our way of life should cease to exist. However, over the last seven decades, the U.S. agriculture sector has achieved remarkable milestones in reducing per-unit livestock emissions, and it has done so through voluntary incentive-based, and locally led conservation efforts—not prescriptive, top-down policies or government mandates.
The solution to global climate change is not producing less of certain foods or upending the food system as we know it, its using science, technology, and innovation to continue producing more with less in the U.S., increasing American agriculture production, exporting it overseas and displacing the production of higher emitting, less environmentally friendly countries.
American agriculture stands as a beacon of innovation and sustainability. Therefore, it is vital to recognize, support, and enhance American agriculture as an integral part of the solution to climate challenges on a global scale.”
