If you don’t believe climate change is real, talk to a farmer

Farms are an important part of the Second District. Recently, I took some time to visit 13 local farms and listen directly to our farmers about what they need.

Here are my two biggest takeaways:

➡ Farming is hard work.

➡ Climate change is threatening our farmers and their way of life.

We all know farming is hard work. Farmers work from dawn to dusk, growing and raising the food we eat. The work is physically demanding and depends on uncontrollable factors like the weather. And as extreme weather events become more common due to climate change, our farms are feeling the impact.

Farms in New England have faced catastrophic droughts and flooding in recent years. Seasons are becoming more erratic, and winters are getting warmer, impacting the window for maple syrup production and making invasive species and pests more frequent. Increased irrigation and fuel costs are hurting farmers. And as climate change continues to worsen, who knows what the next year will look like?

If you don't think climate change is real, talk to a farmer.

Unless we do something, our small and medium-sized farms are going to disappear. And they'll be replaced by huge monopolies that don't care about our communities and only care about the bottom line.

That's why I was proud to support the Inflation Reduction Act: the largest piece of climate legislation in American history ever. Thanks to this bill, farmers in New England and across the country will know that we are doing all we can to lessen the impacts of climate change and avert a global catastrophe.

But we must do more. We must elect leaders who will aggressively fight the climate crisis, stop greenwashing and help those hardest hit by climate change-related events, especially our farmers. And we must work together to keep Republicans–and the big oil companies who bankroll them–out of power.

As a member of the Agriculture Committee, but more importantly, as someone who cares about our planet and about making it easier to get healthy, nutritious, locally-grown food, I'm committed to combating the climate crisis and easing the burden it places on our farming communities.

Jim