This announcement by the Obama Administration was a stepping stone to this month’s announcement of the 2015 Budget Proposal which requests $18.7 billion for climate related initiatives and the EPA. Click here to read the Cornwall Alliance article on the 2015 Budget Proposal.So what will these Climate Hubs do?The Hubs will assess local issues such as droughts, pests, floods, and wildfires, as well as help create plans to deal with these risks.In other words, it will tell farmers how to deal with the normal risks of farming; it will tell them how to adapt to things to which they have been adapting since the first farmer planted the first crop.The Hubs will be located in existing facilities, across seven states as well as include sub-hubs in three more states.

• Northeast: Northern Research Station, Forest Service, Durham, N.H.
• Southeast: Southern Research Station, Forest Service, Raleigh N.C.

  

• Southeast Sub-Hub in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico
• Northern Plains: National Resources Center, Agricultural Research Service, Fort Collins, Colo.
• Southern Plains: Grazinglands Research Lab, Agricultural Research Service, El Reno, Okla.
• Pacific Northwest: Pacific Northwest Research Station, Forest Service, Corvallis, Ore.
• Southwest: Rangeland Management Unit/Jornada Experimental Range, Agricultural Research Service, Las Cruces, N.M.
• Southwest Sub-hub in Davis, Calif.
• Midwest: National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment, Agricultural Research Service, Ames, Iowa
• Midwest Sub-Hub in Houghton, Mich.

Because of the use of existing facilities and staff, the administration claims that the Climate Hubs will not require additional allocation of funds to the USDA. This means that the President did not have to go to Congress for approval of the Hubs, because he is not asking for funding. There will ultimately be a cost however, the facilities and staff re-allocated to this purpose will be taken away from their original purpose which means that the funding allocated for that original purpose is now funding the Climate Hubs without the approval of Congress.

Founder and National Spokesman for the Cornwall Alliance, Dr. E. Calvin Beisner, spoke on the Janet Mefferd Radio Show about this very issue. Click here to listen.