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Breakthrough Institute Releases White Paper Highlighting Climate Impacts of Agricultural TradeBERKELEY, Calif., June 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- While the carbon footprint per unit of production in the United States is below the average of other top exporting countries for many of the world’s leading agricultural goods, a new report from The Breakthrough Institute, a global research center that identifies and promotes technological solutions to environmental and human development challenges, finds that trade has never been a major focus of U.S. policy debates about how to decarbonize agriculture or otherwise improve its environmental sustainability. The report, titled “How to Cut Emissions Through Agricultural Trade,” analyzes data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on five of the world’s top agricultural exports, maize (corn), wheat, beef, pork, and chicken. Among the report’s findings, the United States produces several key commodities with a lower carbon footprint than other major exporters, but many countries with higher carbon footprints also export more than countries with lower emissions. Additional findings from the report make a case for policymakers to consider policies that concentrate food and agriculture production in countries with the lowest emissions and rates of agriculturally-driven deforestation and other land-use change, which is a large contributor to agriculture’s carbon footprint:
The report includes several recommendations for policymakers including different trade policies to shift agricultural production and exports from high emissions to low emissions countries. One option is to incorporate agricultural products into a renewed WTO Environmental Goods Agreement that aims to reduce tariffs for environmentally beneficial products. The report also suggests the United States and other major exporters should examine how trade promotion programs can be used to expand international demand for exports that replace higher-carbon products. “Reducing the agricultural sector’s greenhouse gas emissions is a pressing challenge if we are to decarbonize the global economy,” said Dan Blaustein-Rejto, Director of Food & Agriculture at The Breakthrough Institute. “The interconnectedness of our food system demands global solutions that can account for international trade. Policymakers have a number of pathways to achieve global agricultural emissions reductions, and targeted action in this space can have a dramatic and sustainable impact.” To read the full report, please visit: https://thebreakthrough.org/issues/food-agriculture-environment/how-to-cut-emissions-through-agricultural-trade About The Breakthrough Institute Media Contact: |