The Trump administration canceled a $3.1 billion grant program for climate-friendly crops, the Agriculture Department announced Monday.  In a press release, the department said that it was canceling Biden-era Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, which funded 141 projects that sought to ad vance climate-friendly farming practices. Projects funded under the program supported things like planting cover crops, which prevent soil erosion, and managing soil nutrients to minimize farming’s environmental impacts.  The Biden administration estimated that the program would reach more than 60,000 farms and cut more than 60 million metric tons of carbon dioxide — the equivalent of taking 12 million gas-powered cars off the road for a year. However, the Trump administration said that most of the projects “had sky-high administration fees which in many instances provided less than half of the federal funding directly to farmers.” It also said that “select projects” could continue if they can show that a “significant” amount of their funds will go to farmers. “The Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities initiative was largely built to advance the green new scam at the benefit of NGOs, not American farmers,” said Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins in a written statement.  “I have heard directly from our farmers that many of the USDA partnerships are overburdened by red tape, have ambiguous goals, and require complex reporting that push farmers onto the sidelines,” Rollins added.  The cancellation comes amid a broader effort from the Trump administration to axe funding for climate- and environment-related programs.  ...read more read less