Wall Street Regulators Heard Farmers Loud and Clear

The strength of Farm Bureau shines through when we speak with a united voice on behalf of our farms, ranches and rural communities. That strength was on full display in our engagement with the Securities and Exchange Commission over the last two years as we called on them to revise their proposed climate disclosure rule to remove the Scope 3 reporting requirement. We made our voices heard from the grassroots up, and the SEC took notice and changed course.

Last week, the SEC announced their final climate disclosure rule, which completely removed the Scope 3 reporting requirement. Make no mistake. That would not have happened if Farm Bureau members had not stepped up and made their voices heard.

Scope 3 reporting would have required public companies to report the greenhouse gas emissions across their supply chain—all the way back to the farm. This would have placed a heavy burden on family farms, who don’t have teams of compliance officers just to handle SEC reporting requirements meant for Wall Street companies. With manufacturers forced to squeeze emissions data from their supply chain, many small farms would have been squeezed out of the market entirely.

The work is not quite done when it comes to Scope 3 reporting requirements, however. While the SEC was working on its rule, California rushed out with its own law requiring large companies doing business in the state to report on Scope 3 emissions. The American Farm Bureau, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and others, has challenged the California law in court, and we are urging California to follow the SEC’s lead and exclude farmers from regulations intended for big corporations by withdrawing the Scope 3 requirement.

While Farm Bureau strongly opposes Scope 3 reporting requirements, that doesn’t mean we don’t see the value in on-farm data collection. You have heard me talk often about how farmers and ranchers have a great sustainability story to tell. A big part of telling that story is having the data to show the amazing strides we have made across agriculture.