Trump's Agriculture Department spends only 0.3% of its $144 billion budget aiding farmers combat climate change

• The Agriculture Department has set aside only 0.3% of its current $144 billion budget to prepare American farmers confronting the devastating consequences of climate change, Politico reported on Tuesday.
• The sliver of funding has made it difficult for farmers to further prepare after an onslaught of natural disasters struck the nation over the past year.
• Farmers have had little help from the department when it comes to adjusting their planting practices to endure severe flooding or drought along with identifying regional risks from climate change.
• The agency during the Trump administration has significantly downplayed the risks of climate change.
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The Agriculture Department has set aside only 0.3% of its current $144 billion budget to prepare American farmers confronting the devastating consequences of climate change, Politico reported on Tuesday.

The sliver of funding has made it difficult for farmers to adapt after an onslaught of natural disasters struck the nation over the past year. It included wildfires in the West, hurricanes in the Southeast, and flooding in the Midwest.

Farmers have had little help from the department when it comes to adjusting their planting practices to endure severe flooding or drought along with identifying regional risks from climate change.

Read more: The Trump administration has reportedly buried reports warning that climate change will harm crops and cause health problems

The report noted that 2018 was one of the worst years for agriculture in decades - and the flooding rendered an astonishing 20 million acres unplantable, which is around the size of South Carolina.

The Agriculture Department's main vehicle to aid farmers are climate hubs that it launched around the country during the Obama administration. Politico reported they were operating with a skeleton staff, and top officials at the department have rarely discussed the climate threat.

"To say USDA does little to help farmers and ranchers is completely untrue," a department spokesperson told the news outlet, pushing back against the report.

Read more: Scientists and economists are warning the world's governments that climate change will destroy capitalism as we know it

The agency during the Trump administration has significantly downplayed the risks of climate change. Earlier this summer, reports surfaced that it had buried a study indicating how rising temperatures, additional carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and unpredictable weather patterns would impact American farming.

President Donald Trump, along with Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, both have previously expressed skepticism and denied the threat of climate change. Back in 2014, Perdue wrote an article for the National Review saying that "snowstorms, hurricanes, and tornadoes have been around since the beginning of time, but now they want us to accept that all of it is the result of climate change."

In June, Perdue told CNN of climate change: "I think it's weather patterns, frankly. They change...It rained yesterday. It's a nice, pretty day today. The climate does change in short increments and in long increments."