“By discarding the endangerment finding, EPA is surrendering its authority, deserting vulnerable communities and dismantling decades of progress,” said Michelle Roos, executive director of EPN. “The public health consequences will be immediate, widespread, and devastating.”

Those consequences include food production. There is broad scientific consensus that elevated emissions are already disrupting farmers’ ability to grow nutritious food in the U.S. and worldwide. The last report from the world’s top climate scientists found emissions are contributing to warming that is reducing yields, destroying crops, disrupting fisheries, and making it harder for livestock to survive. If emissions are not reduced, they found, those impacts will get worse.

The rollback could also jeopardize the EPA’s ability to regulate and reduce emissions from the food system, such as methane emissions from food waste in landfills and carbon dioxide emissions from food processing plants.

Further, the change is being implemented at a time when the EPA is cutting significant funding for projects that helped farmers and other food producers adapt to the changing climate and build resilience for what’s to come. (Link to this post.)