Op-ed by Palo Blanco Farm and Ranch Co-Owner Marcella Juarez

YOUR OPINION

Climate change impacting South Texas farms

Most people work to put food on their own table. As farmers, however, we work to put real food on everyone’s table. Doing so requires more than a little help from Mother Nature. We need good land,fertile soil, and favorable weather, all of which are increasingly threatened by the climate crisis.

In South Texas especially, we’ve had to confront the harsh realities of climate change. Our family has lived on this land – farmed and raised cattle and livestock – for more than 160 years, and we don’t intend to break that tradition anytime soon. In recent years, in fact, we’ve grown and professionalized our family operation, even as we have experienced far greater challenges from the weather.

We’ve suffered historic heat waves in recent years. We’ve had to learn to manage our water usage because of extended, record-breaking droughts and increasingly erratic rainfall patterns. Despite these challenges, our family found a way to expand production and bring specialty farm-to-table products to the local market here in Laredo. We’re grateful that, through it all, our ranch has been able to thrive, and yet we know that other family farmers – not only in Texas but across the country – may not be quite as fortunate, unless they get more support.

Thankfully, the Inflation Reduction Act, or IRA, was meant to provide exactly the support that America’s family farmers need. The law invests nearly $20 billion dollars in land-conservation programs and advanced production technology, helping us save money on fuel and other inputs. Not only will these investments help farmers meet the many challenges that a changing climate poses to our way of life, they will also help keep Texas farmland and ranchland productive. Our state has already lost vast tracts of agricultural land to development. If the agricultural land we have left doesn’t remain productive, we are at risk of losing even more.

This is a risk that family farmers know too well. It’s one reason why these federal in-

vestments are incredibly popular with farmers. Land-conservation programs have, traditionally, been oversubscribed and woefully underfunded.

Nationally, there’s been just one slot available for every three farmers who want to participate. That’s been true in Texas as well; barely one-third of our farmers who applied for land-conservation grants in 2022 were able to secure one. There are some in Congress who understand the importance of these programs, the importance of ensuring that family farmers have the resources they need. There are others seeking to politicize support for agriculture. With the Farm Bill up for reauthorization this year, some misguided members of Congress have pledged to reallocate these investments.

We should all hope that these efforts to rip away federal support for America’s farmers don’t succeed. Agriculture is too important to politicize. Let’s hope that, in the end, cooler heads prevail and that Congress passes a clean reauthorization of the Farm Bill, one that leaves intact the many investments our family farmers need to feed America.

Marcella Juarez