We had a great holiday week AgChat last night. Thanks to everyone who participated and made my life easy as the guest moderator. Our topic was climate change and there was no lack of opinions on the subject as it relates to agriculture. I would characterize most of the comments to the following questions as being skeptical about the science behind the modeling and policies being proposed and many even questioning the necessity of any legislation dealing with the issue. Perhaps our U.S. Senate has realized that there are way too many questions that need to be answered before creating a massive tax scheme and new bureaucratic nightmare for us to deal with since they’ve put Crap & Trade on a back burner. Too bad the House didn’t do the same.

So, although many seem to agree that we don’t need C&T and that there is too much scientific disagreement on the issue I think most are okay with continued or new research on climate change. From new research we can learn more about weather patterns, find new genes to make plants and animals more adaptable to changing conditions and maybe even new practices that will make farming more profitable.

You can scroll back through the online conversation using Twitter Search. You can also participate with AgChat via Facebook too.

Here are the questions posed in this weeks’ (final AgChat of the year/decade!) session:

Q1: via @lenejohansen Are farmers concerned about climate change and how will Cap&Trade impact the farm economy?

Q2: via @RandolphWriter Is ag better off with C&T that has potential upside for some income, or w/ direct regulation from EPA?

Q3: via @cornguy What are the potential competitive consequences if the U.S. pursues an aggressive C&T agenda and other key players stay on the sideline? via@cornguy

Q4: via @danielschel How can climate change research benefit agriculture?

Q5: via @AFBFMace Are you more concerned about added regulatory costs or climate changes that might impact production?

Q6: via @AgriBlogger What did American ag learn from the COP15 United Nations Climate Change Conference?

Q7: via @mpaynknoper How do we translate the science in a way that helps people understand more than the politics of climate change?

Q8: What are executable ideas we can take away from tonight’s chat?