U.S. farmers want President Biden to see them as partners in fighting climate change.
Food producers said Tuesday at The Wall Street Journal Global Food Forum that they want the new administration to give farmers incentives to cultivate crops in ways that capture carbon dioxide in the soil.
“We have a huge opportunity there,” said Megan Dwyer, a corn farmer from northwestern Illinois who belongs to the Illinois Corn Growers Association.
Mr. Biden’s nominee to lead the U.S. Agriculture Department, Tom Vilsack, has said he wants to work with farmers on policies to support the administration’s broader efforts against climate change. He said during his Senate confirmation hearing last week that government-funded incentives could get farmers to adopt climate-friendly practices without additional regulation.
Some farmers have said they worried that Mr. Biden would tighten environmental regulations in ways that would restrict their operations, undoing the Trump administration’s easing of rules governing water quality, meatpacking-plant operations and greenhouse-gas emissions.
