Keep your eyes on the US Farm Bill

When US agriculture, and a presidential administration desperate to make a legacy collide, promising opportunities for ClimateTech arise.

Alright, that might be a little optimistic, but I have reasons for my optimism. 

This isn’t quite a new agriculture bill. In fact, it’s 90 years old this year.

In 1933, when the whole country was caught in the grip of the Great Depression, legislators came up with the Farm Bill, a big government plan to give struggling farmers a boost.

Fast forward to today, and this Farm Bill isn't just any law – it's the granddaddy of them all, the heavyweight champion of federal legislation, making sure farmers, ranchers, and dairy folks all across the nation can keep doing their thing.

Because of the original structure of the bill, it is reevaluated every 5 years to make the legislation more contemporary with the issues that surround the nation.

“It’s 1,000 pages and as much as $100 billion every year,” according to an Associate Professor of Agricultural Policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

It just so happens that this year, the bill reevaluation falls during a presidential administration that’s bent on making its mark on history by helping solve the worlds greatest issues.

As agriculture accounts for about 10% of US greenhouse gas emissions, this could be a perfect opportunity for Biden to use the bill to mark his legacy on Climate Change.

Given the administrations somewhat recent success to bolster climate technology in the form of in grants, loans, and tax credits via the Inflation Redcution Act, the re-upping of the Farm Bill could present an opportunity for AgTech startups that have a positive impact on the environment.

So if your a decision maker in a startup that can help farmers operate more sustainably - I would set up a Google alert, to get a good sense of how this bill can help you sell to customer base in the US that has a great need for technological upgrades.