The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is putting Southern food production at risk by suppressing studies showing how climate disruption threatens farmers here.

Under policies which kicked off immediately after the Trump Administration took over in 2017, USDA discourages its employees from even using the words “climate change” in their reports. Studies which could actually help southern farmers mitigate climate impacts have been withheld from active circulation.

Of the 45 studies on climate change impacts underwritten by USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) since 2017, only two have been publicized. Those two included findings favorable to the meat industry.

The suppressed studies did not even address the root causes of climate change, instead focusing on specific threats resulting from it. The intent of these reviews is to assist the agriculture industry in mitigating damages. 

Instead, an administration obsessed with denying even that climate change is taking place has sought to bury studies which feature inconvenient facts proving the Trump climate denials wrong. Southern farmers are among those who will suffer first as a result.

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