Conservation programs in which farmers have to participate before receiving direct-payment subsidies will likely be eliminated along with those subsidies, Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said during a speech in Iowa on Monday. It's a reminder that the new farm bill is not just about changing and creating subsidies; several programs will be impacted by it. Dan Piller of The Des Moines Register reported that Vilsack said he would not be the person to link conservation compliance to crop insurance, which is likely to be eliminated to make up for the loss of direct payments, but he did say required conservation measures might be included in the Department of Agriculture's Average Crop Revenue Assurance or Supplemental Revenue Assistance Payments programs.
In farm conservation programs, farmers are paid to maintain basic environmental protections like buffer strips next to streams, keeping agri-chemicals from leaching into groundwater and preventing erosion. Many environmental advocates fear House and Senate agriculture committee proposals to cut between $23 and $33 billion from farm programs will eliminate programs like the Conservation Stewardship Program, which is currently the most widespread conservation program in the country. These programs are not the only ones facing elimination, writes Tom Philpott for Grist magazine. He says the proposals would also keep USDA from carrying out a mandate to "rein in the meat industry" and eliminate the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative that highlights programs allocating money for rebuilding local and regional food systems and supporting new farmers.
A proposal from American Farm Bureau suggests 36 programs in the 2008 Farm Bill that should not be continued because they were not assigned a baseline budget beyond 2012. Daryll Ray and Harwood Schaffer of The Prairie Star in Great Falls, Mont., report that those programs are included in farm bill titles like energy, conservation, nutrition, horticulture, organic agriculture, rural development, trade, forestry and livestock. Tom Laskawy of Grist Magazine writes that the fast-paced push for a new bill, in conjunction with a possible deficit-reduction deal, is leaving little time for "input from the good food movement," which he says is comprised of small farmers re-authorization is supposed to help.
In the wake of news about conservation programs being cut, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition writes in Western Farm Press that a new marker bill, called The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act, was introduced earlier this month by a bipartisan group of representatives. This bill "includes provisions that cut across six titles of the Farm Bill, including proposals that address conservation program set asides and incentives, access to credit, rural development, research and extension, and access to crop insurance and risk management." One proposal would continue many existing conservation programs, including the Conservation Stewardship Program that helps new farmers.
In farm conservation programs, farmers are paid to maintain basic environmental protections like buffer strips next to streams, keeping agri-chemicals from leaching into groundwater and preventing erosion. Many environmental advocates fear House and Senate agriculture committee proposals to cut between $23 and $33 billion from farm programs will eliminate programs like the Conservation Stewardship Program, which is currently the most widespread conservation program in the country. These programs are not the only ones facing elimination, writes Tom Philpott for Grist magazine. He says the proposals would also keep USDA from carrying out a mandate to "rein in the meat industry" and eliminate the "Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food" initiative that highlights programs allocating money for rebuilding local and regional food systems and supporting new farmers.
A proposal from American Farm Bureau suggests 36 programs in the 2008 Farm Bill that should not be continued because they were not assigned a baseline budget beyond 2012. Daryll Ray and Harwood Schaffer of The Prairie Star in Great Falls, Mont., report that those programs are included in farm bill titles like energy, conservation, nutrition, horticulture, organic agriculture, rural development, trade, forestry and livestock. Tom Laskawy of Grist Magazine writes that the fast-paced push for a new bill, in conjunction with a possible deficit-reduction deal, is leaving little time for "input from the good food movement," which he says is comprised of small farmers re-authorization is supposed to help.
In the wake of news about conservation programs being cut, the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition writes in Western Farm Press that a new marker bill, called The Beginning Farmer and Rancher Opportunity Act, was introduced earlier this month by a bipartisan group of representatives. This bill "includes provisions that cut across six titles of the Farm Bill, including proposals that address conservation program set asides and incentives, access to credit, rural development, research and extension, and access to crop insurance and risk management." One proposal would continue many existing conservation programs, including the Conservation Stewardship Program that helps new farmers.
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