Seeded by USDA, climate-smart products speed to market, says Vilsack [Video]

Nearly four dozen climate-smart commodities, from beets and bourbon to corn and yogurt, are on the market two years after the USDA launched the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities project, said Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Thursday. The $3.1 billion public-private initiative, with 135 demonstration projects, is meant to encourage farmers to adopt climate-mitigating practices on working lands while creating a market for the products.

“In fact, speaking of climate-smart commodities, today we have more than 40 of the commodities within this program that are already being sold in the marketplace to a variety of buyers — buyers that include universities, food hubs, processors, retailers, and directly to consumers,” said Vilsack at a Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Project Expo in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

“When government and stakeholders like those who are assembled here come together on an issue, we can remove the risk from the marketplace and we can make climate-smart practices …