The Democratic Party’s 2024 platform, adopted this week during its national convention, pledges to cut agricultural greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050 and eliminate stepped-up basis for inherited property. To meet its greenhouse gas pledge, the party plans to help farmers, ranchers and forest owners use better farming practices that produce more food with fewer emissions. The plan also includes promises regarding the need to invest in clean energy like solar panels and wind turbines. 

“Democrats will partner with farmers to make the American agriculture sector the first in the world to achieve net-zero emissions, opening up new sources of income for farmers in the process,” the platform states. “We will substantially improve water security and ecological health through conservation, protection, and maintenance of our water infrastructure, including water systems for home, commercial, industrial, and agricultural use.”

While the platform does not specify exactly what laws would be changed or implemented to achieve these goals, this is not unusual as party platforms are often aspirational, offering high-level ideas rather than legislative text. The party does promise to grow governmental programs to encourage “high-productivity, lower-emission, and generative agricultural practices.” 

Stepped-up basis has been strongly defended by agriculture groups for decades. Under current law, the provision allows children and grandchildren to lower their inheritance taxes by updating the cost basis of property to its present-day value. The Democratic platform calls this provision a “loophole,” saying that the wealthiest Americans use it to avoid paying taxes on their assets. The provision will likely be a major fault line in Congressional negotiations over an expected 2025 tax reform package.

Thune predicts Congress headed for another farm bill extension

At a Congressional forum Wednesday, a senior leader of the Senate Agriculture Committee acknowledged Congress will likely pass a one-year farm bill extension rather than completing a five-year bill in 2024. Speaking at Dakotafest in Mitchell, South Dakota, Senator John Thune (R-S.D.) said, “We’re probably going to kick the can down the road for another year. That doesn’t serve agriculture well in this country.”

Thune, fellow Senator Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), and Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) agreed that rural America needs Congress to pass a full farm bill soon. The 2018 version of the legislation expired last year but was extended by one year to this Sept. 30.

Johnson, a senior member of the House Agriculture Committee, voiced a slightly more optimistic tone, saying the bill is “not in a good spot but that doesn’t mean we can’t get it done this year.” The House committee passed its version of the bill in May. “It has a lot of very big wins for our part of the country,” said Johnson. 

Rounds expressed his desire to see protections for American farmers, such as country of origin labeling for beef products, once the bill is drafted. He also emphasized the need to boost the existing safety net for major crop production.

“The agreement is to move forward with more money in the safety net, it’s about $20 billion being questioned whether or not as Republicans want more of that money going into the safety net or what some of the Democrats want and the chairman of the committee wants, which is to put more money into the green new deal aspects of the conservation side of the bill,” said Rounds.

Brief Canadian railroad shutdown ends as government orders arbitration

Hours after the two largest railroads in Canada shut down operations Thursday, the federal government stepped in to restore service. Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City locked out almost 10,000 members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference at 12:01 Thursday morning after management and union negotiators failed to reach an agreement on a new contract. Less than 17 hours later, the federal government exercised a provision of law ordering arbitration

About one-third of CN and CPKC’s freight crosses the Canada-U.S. border, making a shutdown likely to cause significant disruptions for both countries. Earlier this week, the Canadian Pork Council and Canadian Meat Council asked the Canadian government to force arbitration.

“The Canadian pork industry relies on the seamless operation of our transportation networks to feed our animals and deliver high-quality products to global markets,” said CPC chair René Roy. “The feed our pigs rely on to survive is shipped by rail, and without a reliable and steady supply, their welfare is at risk. The stakes are simply too high to allow these disruptions to go unaddressed."

Federal Labor Minister Steven MacKinnon had said he would not intervene, but the reality of the shutdown caused the government to reassess its position. Thursday afternoon, he said, “We gave negotiations every possible opportunity to succeed, but we have an impasse here.” MacKinnon said he expects it to take “a few days” to fully restart service.