U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) — Outreach pack

Personalisation — person + organisation + alignment

Named recipient

Terry Cosby
Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service
U.S. Department of Agriculture — NRCS

Recent work

Leading IRA implementation of $19.5B in climate-smart agriculture funding. In FY2023 NRCS obligated record $2.16B in financial assistance to producers. Active on Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities.

Signals the recipient responds to

Farmer-facing implementation bias
Record FY2023 conservation obligation
COMET-Farm alignment possible

Organisational context

Positions

NRCS is the USDA unit implementing climate-smart commodity partnerships and conservation-practice carbon programmes.

Active initiatives

CSC Partnerships; EQIP; CSP; cooperative-agreements with land-grant universities.

Pressures

Farmer demand for fraud-protection; institutional-buyer demand for substantiation.

Specific alignment

Why this recipient benefits: NRCS per-tonne disclosure requirement for CSC partnerships protects both farmers and buyers. COMET-Farm integration (Paustian, CSU) is the technical path. Pilot authority through cooperative agreements produces a farmer-facing tooling deliverable without new authority.

Why now: FY26 cooperative-agreement cycle.

The ask: NRCS briefing. Proof-pack farmer-facing tooling specification; CSC integration proposal; pilot-authority scoping.

Agency: U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Agency authority

Climate-smart commodities; Natural Resources Conservation Service conservation practices; Commodity Credit Corporation discretionary authority.

The ask

USDA per-tonne disclosure requirement for Climate-Smart Commodities partnerships. Farmer-facing proof-pack tooling piloted through NRCS cooperative agreements.

The case

USDA has fiduciary obligations to American farmers entering carbon markets. Per-tonne evidentiary disclosure protects farmers from fraudulent buyers and protects buyers from over-claimed credits. COMET-Farm integration (Keith Paustian) is the natural technical path.