PROVIDENCE – Three multistate projects that will benefit Rhode Island farmers, tree growers and consumers will share $135 million in federal funding, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., announced Thursday.
The funding is part of U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Partnership for Climate-Smart Commodities program, which is investing $2.8 billion in climate-smart agriculture policies and projects nationwide that will help build and expand opportunities for consumers to purchase food grown or produced in a climate-friendly way. The program’s investments seek to expand climate-smart solutions, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide direct benefits to agricultural producers, including small and underserved producers.
“Rhode Island’s family farmers have been at the forefront of climate-smart agricultural practices,” Reed said. This latest federal investment takes a market-driven approach to helping local farmers accelerate and expand the benefits of sustainable, climate-smart stewardship of land and agricultural resources.”
The projects receiving funds are:
- Nature Conservancy, $60 million to transform 30,000 acres nationwide into agroforestry systems over the next five years in 37 states, including Rhode Island.
- Dairy Farmers of America, $45 million, to decrease individual, on-farm greenhouse gasses for dairy farmers in Rhode Island and 12 other states.
- New England Forestry Foundation’s New England Climate-Smart Forest Partnership Project, $30 million, to implement forest management practices with large commercial producers and smaller woodlot owners to store more carbon in forests, quantify the resulting carbon gains, and build markets for climate-smart forest products to store carbon in wood products and substitute wood products for fossil fuel-based materials across Rhode Island and five other states.
The three projects were among 70 nationwide that were selected under the first pool of the Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities.
