MINNEAPOLIS/WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Donald Trump’s decision to remove the U.S. from the Paris Climate Agreement once again is a blow to farmers and rural communities already battling with increasingly extreme weather linked to climate change, said the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP). 

“Perhaps no sector is more vulnerable to climate change than farming,” said IATP’s Director of Climate and Rural Strategies Ben Lilliston. “The costs of climate change are rising with each drought, heatwave, hurricane and extreme storm. Trump’s decision to reject global efforts to address climate change hurts farmers and farmworkers in the U.S. and around the world."  

The Trump Administration’s decision to reject the scientific consensus on climate change comes on the heels of devastating wildfires in California, three major hurricanes hitting southeast states, extreme winds damaging Midwest farm states, and a continuing western drought shrinking the nation’s cattle herd.  

The most recent National Climate Assessment concluded that “Climate change has increased risk to agricultural production, for example, by disrupting growing zones, growing days, and seasonality…and is projected to reduce the availability and affordability of nutritious food, with impacts being unevenly distributed across society.” 

“Unlike the Trump Administration, farmers are trying to incorporate climate resilience into their planning,” Lilliston said. “Our federal conservation programs are flooded with farmer applications, and food companies are planning for supply chain disruptions. The Trump Administration’s decision is badly out of step with what farmers and our food system needs.” 

The decision to opt out of the Paris climate agreement and to end all international climate finance further isolates the U.S. internationally. Countries around the world are taking climate action to lower emissions and strengthen resilience in food and farm systems. The U.S. won’t be at the table at COP30, which will be hosted by agriculture powerhouse Brazil and will include all major U.S. agriculture trading partners.   

The Trump Administration’s decision to pull out of the Paris Agreement is not surprising. Trump has called climate change a hoax. His campaign received over $75 million in political contributions from the fossil fuel industry and several of his cabinet appointees worked directly for the oil and gas industry.