Climate-Smart Gets a Facelift

The Climate-Smart Commodities program is getting repackaged. Earlier this week, the USDA announced the $3.1B partnership with approximately 135 conservation programs would continue under a new name. 

“Biden-era climate slush fund”: This is the nickname the Trump administration gave the Climate-Smart programs. But they said projects can continue if “a significant amount of the federal funds awarded will go to farmers.” 

The deetz: At least 65% of federal funds must go to producers. Grant recipients must have at least one producer enrolled as of December 31, 2024. And grant recipients must have made a payment to at least one producer as of December 31, 2024.

Like everything else that predates the administration, the Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities had a “thorough line by line review.” Upon review, the USDA says it found that most projects had crazy high administration fees, and less than half of federal funding was provided directly to farmers. 

A new name? The USDA plans to rename the Partnership “Advancing Markets for Producers” (AMP). 

Soundbite: “I have heard directly from our farmers that many of the USDA partnerships are overburdened by red tape, have ambiguous goals, and require complex reporting that push farmers onto the sidelines. We are correcting these mistakes and redirecting our efforts to set our farmers up for an unprecedented era of prosperity.” — Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins

But in all reality, not much will change, according to Robert Bonnie, who worked for the USDA under Biden. He said the majority of funds already went to producers and the majority of projects should meet the new requirements.

The USDA will honor all eligible expenses incurred prior to April 13, 2025 with existing funding.