Nearly a dozen agriculture commissioners from red states wrote to top Trump administration officials and Republican lawmakers on Tuesday calling for the elimination of federal funding to organizations that promote “net-zero” climate policies.
The letter, which was obtained exclusively by The Hill, argues that net-zero policies adopted by certain organizations “will have devastating effects on American consumers, farmers, and ranchers, and further endanger food security for the poor in America.”
The agriculture commissioners singled out the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO), the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and the United Nations Environment Programme as organizations that promote those policies.
“Each organization is acting, in the words of President Trump’s executive order regarding U.S. funding of the UN and other international organizations, “contrary to the interests of the United States,” and should not receive taxpayer funds,” the commissioners wrote.
Signatories include the agriculture commissioners from Texas, Iowa, West Virginia, Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Carolina.
Net-zero policies aim to reduce carbon emissions to slow rising temperatures. The United Nations has pointed to replacing gas and oil-based power systems with renewable energy as key steps to achieving net-zero emissions.
Tuesday’s letter from agriculture commissioners cites the IMO’s efforts to impose emissions charges on shipping and the FAO’s call for reduced beef consumption as problematic for the agricultural industry.
“America’s farmers and ranchers don’t just feed our nation; they feed the world,” said Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, which has backed the letter, in a statement to The Hill. “These programs that require compliance with a radical climate agenda undermine American farmers and ranchers, threaten to drive up costs for consumers, and weaken food security for working families.”
“Consumers’ Research supports the state agriculture leaders who are calling for these woke organizations to be defunded,” Hild added. “It’s time for these groups to align with President Trump’s commitment of restoring common sense to environmental policy or stop receiving any federal funding.”
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