Feds Teaching Farmers to Participate in ‘Carbon Markets’ that Don’t Exist Yet

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/federal-government-teaching-farmers-part

Federal Government Teaching Farmers to Participate in ‘Carbon Markets’ that Don’t Exist Yet
Friday, January 21, 2011
By Matt Cover

(CNSNews.com) – The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is teaching farmers how to participate in “carbon markets” despite the fact that such markets do not exist and Congress – in rejecting cap and trade legislation last year – has refused to create them.

Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Kathleen Merrigan made the admission at the WorldWatch Institute’s 2011 State of World Symposium Wednesday, saying that one of the ways USDA was dealing with climate change was to teach American farmers how to participate in “carbon markets,” the technical term for a cap and trade program.

SNIP

CNSNews.com asked Merrigan why USDA would be trying to show farmers how to benefit from a program that does not exist. Merrigan did not directly answer before being pulled away from the interview by a USDA spokesman.