In two days of appearances in Colorado, Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack announced a new initiative to foster climate-smart practices in agriculture and forestry and talked about his agency’s efforts on equity.

During a speech at the Salazar Center for North American Conservation at Colorado State University Wednesday, Vilsack announced the Climate-Smart Agriculture and Forestry Partnership Initiative, part of a $3 billion package of investments.

Agriculture, forestry and rural America must play an important role  in meeting the greenhouse gas reduction goal, Vilsack said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) work on climate change will be focused on partnerships with agriculture, forestry, tribes, states, businesses, universities and nonprofits, Vilsack said. “Our work will be incentive-based, helping farmers create new income opportunities on a voluntary basis with markets for agriculture and forestry products. Our work on climate-smart ag will be farmer, rancher and forester-led; after all, climate smart ag has to work for our farmers, ranchers and forest owners or it won’t work for our climate.”

The $3 billion package, with funds from the USDA’s Commodity Credit Corporation, will put $500 million to support drought recovery and encourage the adoption of water-smart management practices; up to $500 million to prevent the spread of African swine fever, which has already reached Haiti; $500 million to provide relief from agricultural market disruption, such as increased transportation challenges; and $1.5 billion to help schools respond to food supply chain disruptions.

Thursday, at the 41st Annual Colorado Law Conference on Natural Resources at the University of Colorado, Vilsack said the initiative would focus on large scale projects but with opportunities for small producers to participate. Those partnerships, to be held in conjunction with universities or non-profits, would pay farmers to implement climate-smart practices. It’s difficult to get farmers to participate when there’s a cost to them, and until those practices generate income, there’s no upside for farmers, he explained.

“The market wants it,” Vilsack said Thursday. “Consumers want to know where their food is coming from and whether it’s contributing to a changing climate.” From this initiative, they hope to collect data on climate-smart commodities, he said.

“It’s no secret we’re more acutely aware of the challenges of climate,” and those in the West are most aware of it, due to years of drought, wildfires and record temperatures.

Vilsack said his department sees five principal threats from climate for agriculture and forestry. The first is climate’s impact on productivity, whether it’s from heat, disease or pests. He recently visited an Oregon blackberry farmer, who had a pretty good crop this year. Then came two days of 115 degree-temperatures, and he lost 60% of his crop, Vilsack said. “For him, climate is real.”

Water — or the lack thereof — is the second threat, and Vilsack referred to the Colorado Water Plan’s premise that the state needs one million acre-feet of water to deal with growing demands from agriculture and population by 2050. “You don’t want to be in the situation where you’re choosing between agriculture production and urban growth,” he said.

Climate change has a disproportionate impact on underserved and unserved communities, Vilsack said, which are least prepared to deal with the consequences. It’s incumbent on the government to identify those communities and provide assistance, he said.

The food system also lacks resiliency, Vilsack said. While that lack of resiliency may not be directly connected to climate change, one can make the argument that pandemics are a consequence of a changing climate, he explained. COVID-19 made people realize that the resilient food system we thought we had is “fragile,” Vilsack said. “We have focused on continued efficiency and productivity and sacrificed diversity and resiliency.”

The final threat is damage to public infrastructure, and by that, he means forests. He pointed to the recent wildfires in California, such as the Dixie, which burned 80 square miles and cost a half-billion dollars to extinguish. The nation will continue to have to deal with the consequences of these wildfires until “we get serious about forest management and putting resources behind adequate management and fuel reduction.”

Vilsack also addressed equity, and the failures of the USDA in dealing with equity issues. “It’s no secret that the USDA has a sordid history when it comes to equity,” Vilsack said. “For many years, we failed to provide access to all our programs in a fair and reasonable way,” and that’s led to significant gaps for indigenous people and people of color in agriculture.

Vilsack noted an executive order signed by President Joe Biden that ordered the USDA to do an internal review of all of its programs under an equity lens. They’ve already begun to work with the indigenous tribes on issues such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), which he said does not recognize the cultural significance of indigenous foods. That review could also include land swaps, exchanges or even returning forest service lands to the tribes.

The internal review is not enough, however; Vilsack said the USDA will create an equity commission of outside experts who will look at how the agency can be a more equitable and fair place to do business.

Among the other problems the agency wants to address: the low pay and lack of benefits for those who fight fires from the U.S. Forest Service. Vilsack said they are being paid about $13 an hour and many have to live in their cars when they’re out on the lines.

He described it this way: “Wanted: someone who will put their life on the line every day under incredibly dangerous circumstances. Benefits: $13 an hour, period. Living conditions? Hope your car has plenty of space.”

“You can’t do forest management or fight fires on the cheap,” Vilsack said. He noted that both the infrastructure and reconciliation bills awaiting votes in Congress also have real resources, including money, for firefighting personnel.