‘The politics of food and climate change’: Bringing agriculture into the climate conversation

Evich spoke at the Ath on (Andrew Yuan • The Student Life)

“Agriculture is … [one of] the first frontlines of climate change, so farmers are going to be the first to deal with more extreme weather,” Helena Bottemiller Evich CM ’09 said at Claremont McKenna College’s (CMC) Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. “They have to deal with flooding and the like. [They’re] very vulnerable to the effect of climate change.”

On Sept. 16, Evich gave a talk at the Ath entitled “The Politics of Food and Climate Change: A Reporter’s Notebook.” Evich, the editor-in-chief of “Food Fix,” a publication about U.S. food policy, previously covered food policy at Politico. Her work there includes an investigative piece on the infant formula crisis that drove major reforms in the FDA.

In the talk, Evich outlined the ways in which food and agriculture fit into the climate landscape and emphasized the urgent need to expand U.S. food policy to include sustainability. 

The lecture was part of the Sustainable Food Initiative at CMC, sponsored by the Roberts Environmental Center (REC). Environmental Science professor Branwen Williams, head of the REC, said she chose Evich as the speaker due to her unique expertise in the intersection of food and politics. 

“She brings an informed perspective on why adapting climate-friendly policies is difficult, but also ideas on where progress to reduce carbon emissions associated with food and agriculture is possible,” Williams said. 

During her talk, Evich emphasized the significant role of food and agriculture – which comprise around a third of global emissions – on the environment. She argued that this heavily contrasts with the extent to which it is valued in climate policy. 

“Food and [agriculture are] the biggest way humans interact with the environment. 70 percent of freshwater is used for agriculture. 78 percent of water pollution is tied to agriculture,” Evich said. “94 percent of global animal biomass is livestock. And yet, in the U.S. in particular, we do not tend to ever talk about food and ag as a major part of the climate response [and] climate policy.”

Evich argues that one reason for the lack of progress on food policy is strong opposition from farmers and the meat industry lobby. She pointed to a 2016 push to integrate environmental sustainability in the federal nutrition guidelines that was ultimately removed after facing heavy backlash from the livestock industry for suggesting a reduction in meat consumption.

“Why is it so hard? … It is so politically risky to go after farmers or to try to change how farmers are,” she said. 

Despite this opposition, Evich believes that agricultural lobbying groups have been moving towards adopting more sustainable practices. In the process of reporting on this shift, she discovered that only one percent of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) budget is given to climate mitigation adaptation.

“These agriculture groups started to realize that in this transition towards a more climate friendly agriculture, the pressure that will eventually be on agriculture is unavoidable, and they wanted to be a part of what is coming. Farmers were asking, ‘Where is the government response?’” Evich said. “At the USDA, we have evidence that officials were afraid to use the word ‘climate change.’ That complicates your response [because you] can’t really talk in a forthcoming way about it.”

“It is so politically risky to go after farmers or to try to change how farmers are.”

One recent movement in the agriculture industry is regenerative agriculture, which focuses on climate friendly practices. These practices include cover crops, or plants grown to improve soil health instead of for harvest. Common cover crops are barley and clover. In 2022, a USDA survey found that only 4.7 percent of agricultural land currently utilizes cover crops due to the increased cost of planting crops without harvesting for sale.

Attendee Carolina Auerbach CM ’25 said she was surprised by the lack of adoption for regenerative agricultural practices. 

“I think it’s really important to be adding food and [agriculture] into the nationwide and global conversation. To see the percentage of farmers [engaging] with cover crops, I didn’t realize the number was that low,” she said.  

Attendee Arianna Kapin SC ’27 said she thought the lecture was a fantastic introduction to the Athenaeum. 

“I thought it was wonderful and insightful … She was very well spoken and knowledgeable about [these] issues,” Kapin said. 

In the Question and Answer section following Evich’s presentation, attendee Annie Voss PZ ’26 stated that her family came from a long line of farmers and asked what the most effective way of communicating science to farmers would be. 

“Science communication doesn’t matter as much as we think it does for someone who lives farming,” Evich responded. “They’re taking on all that risk, and most of them have been doing it for a very long time. What I see more is that their individual experience of extreme weather can change minds about the climate changing. Farms do pay attention to a lot of science. It just has to align with making a living.”

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