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Why Is The UN Letting Big Ag's Front Groups Influence Effort To Reduce Ag Emissions? [1]

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Date: 2022-10-11

At the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow last year, the US and United Arab Emirates launched a new initiative to fund research into solutions to agricultural emissions, called the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (Aim4C) . Among its some 200 partners are plenty of nations and even more agricultural-oriented non profits, and for-profit companies.

Unfortunately, as Rachel Sherrington revealed at DeSmog last week as part of their new series on the issue, one of those groups is the North American Meat Institute. And they have some questionable views on climate change, with a "fact" sheet claiming the "degree" to which people are causing climate change (by burning fossil fuels and eating meat) is "unknown," despite their supposed Paris agreement pledge.

And it's not just NAMI. Sherrington also points to the Animal Agriculture Alliance and US Farmers and Ranchers in Action , both Aim4C "knowledge partners" and both featuring members of the American Farm Bureau Federation on their board, and both running off of funding from the industrial agriculture sector.

For those blissfully unaware of what goes on in the weeds of farm politics, AFBF is a long-time opponent of climate action, essentially the agriculture industry's version of the American Petroleum Institute. Inside Climate News called it " Big Oil's unnoticed ally " back in 2018, and more recently, reported on how the AFBF has led " a Charge Against SEC Rules Aimed at Corporate Climate Transparency. "

The Farm lobby didn't let the fact that a rule applied to publicly traded companies and not farms (because "not a single farm in America is listed with the SEC") distract it from lobbying against climate action.

What sort of "knowledge" are these groups bringing to the "partnership" with Aim4C?

Likely not the kind that will be useful for farmers struggling to cope with climate change, pointed out Anne Maina of the Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya . She told Sherrington for another DeSmog story that “A focus on ag-tech is often hinged on profits for multinational corporations and not sustainable. Africa has workable alternatives right here at home, for resilient agriculture that works with nature.”

But “When the voice of African farmers and communities is not brought to the negotiating table, we end up with flawed initiatives like Aim4C."

Specifically, Sherrington writes, "Aim4C argues that technology can increase productivity, help farmers adapt to the climate crisis, and cut emissions" with "climate-smart" solutions which sounds well and good- that's the point. The problem is that "climate-smart" can be used "to promote contested practices including the use of pesticides and big data in farming have led to concerns that the concept could be used to “greenwash” polluting forms of agriculture."

And even if things like the "Greener Cattle Initiative" were successful, "it would only reduce methane emissions from the cattle. It doesn’t address the climate impacts of land use change, biodiversity loss, or deforestation associated with cattle production. And it doesn’t take into account the nutrient pollution from the pesticides you use to grow the rest of their feed, corn and soy.”

That's why Jennifer Jacquet, author of a book on industrial disinformation, likened "Green cattle" to "clean coal", saying that there's "no getting around" the fact that "beef is the coal of animal ag."

What works? Again, back to Maina: “We need to focus on agroecological solutions: Support resilient agriculture that works with nature, builds crop and diet diversity, and empowers marginalised farmers."

Instead, as Molly Anderson of IPES-Food said, "the kind of technology pursued by Aim4C is proprietary. It’s going into digitalization, it’s going into artificial intelligence. This technology is not available to low-income people. The technology being promoted are things that basically bolster the existing industrialised food system.”

In other words, if BigAg is allowed to steer Aim4C, what they may be aiming for is 4C of warming.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/10/11/2128267/-Why-Is-The-UN-Letting-Big-Ag-s-Front-Groups-Influence-Effort-To-Reduce-Ag-Emissions

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