Hunger and climate change were front and center at Congressional hearings this week, as farmers and food bank officials took on key challenges facing U.S. agriculture amid the historic pandemic.

 When the chips were down during the height of the pandemic, American Farm Bureau President Zippy Duval told the House Ag Committee, the nation’s farmers lifted the hungry up…

But as demand skyrocketed, AFBF and Feeding America sought help from USDA, which stood up the Farmers to Families Food Box Program that delivered more than 140-million food boxes last year.

And the need is growing in rural areas…

Duval credited lawmakers for extending enhanced SNAP benefits in the latest virus relief bill, while food bank officials urged more federal help for SNAP,TEFAP, WIC and other anti-hunger efforts.

Across the Hill at Senate Ag, it was all about climate change.  Arizona Farm Bureau chief Stefanie Smallhouse for Farm Bureau…

And John Reifsteck, Chair of Growmark Cooperative, in Bloomington, Illinois and a local grain farmer whose fields have shown in extensive studies, huge carbon capture through soil conservation…

But Reifsteck says producers need to see the hard data and how they can reduce carbon. Farm Bureau’s Smallhouse says U.S. growers through voluntary conservation have already offset more than their ten percent of U.S. emissions, while farming globally accounts for 24 percent of carbon pollution.