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Dairy group works to gain support for emissions data protection bill

A dairy organization is working to build support for legislation that would protect farmers from a proposed Securities and Exchange Commission rule. 

Laurie Fischer with the American Dairy Coalition tells Brownfield Representative Frank Lucas’ bill would prohibit the agency from requiring companies to gather greenhouse gas emission data from farms. “Right now, we are helping them find cosponsors from across the United States, and we’re really building a lot of support from both Republicans and Democrats on this.”

Fischer says there currently is not one standard for farmers to determine how much greenhouse gas farms emit, and farms do not get credit for the many years of carbon sequestration they already do with cover crops and other conservation practices.  She says tracking Scope III emissions for companies up the supply chain will be a burden on farmers. “Ultimately, it’s going to be another mandated cost that’s going to come out of the farmer’s milk check. It’s going to require additional labor to take care of this.”

Fischer says House Resolution 9063 has bipartisan support, and she’s hopeful there will be enough overwhelming support to prompt President Biden to eventually sign it.