NATIONAL POTATO COUNCIL (NPC) PLEASED WITH THE SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION (SEC) FINAL CLIMATE DISCLOSURE RULING

SEC’s original proposal called for carbon reporting for production of commodities all the way to family farms; final disclosure ruling finalized that requires only large corporations to disclose their carbon footprint. The final ruling was approved by the SEC in a 3-2 vote and limits requirement disclosures to those a company produces internally and those related to energy consumption (Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions). Scope 3 as originally written, which included agriculture supply chains, would have mandated food companies to track greenhouse gas emissions used to produce commodities all the way down to the family farm.

The NPC Board of Directors adopted the following policy in 2022 about the proposal:

“The National Potato Council believes the proposed Securities and Exchange Commission’s Climate Rule is a significant government regulatory overreach. NPC should take all necessary actions to exclude agriculture from any final rule and thereby minimize the impact on family farms and related activities.”

After adopting this policy, the NPC joined with nine other organizations in 2022 to file comments opposing the proposed rule indicating that Scope 3 was to expensive and cumbersome for farmers and could put mid-size to small farms out of business. The NPC also supported the Protect the Farmers from the SEC Act that was introduced by Representative Frank Lucas of Oklahoma and Senator John Boozman of Arkansas.

Following the approval of the final climate disclosure, the NPC Vice President of Environmental Affairs Ben Sklarczyk expressed NPC’s pleasure that the SEC maintained their scope to publicly traded companies and didn’t extend the requirements to the farm level.

To see the article in it’s entirety go here.