Farm Proposal Ignores Conservation Demand

Environmental Defense today urged leaders of the House Agriculture Committee to substantially boost funding for voluntary conservation programs for farmers, and said a Farm Bill proposal released today fails to reward most farmers and ranchers when they preserve open space, improve water quality, or restore habitat for rare species.

Rep. Larry Combest (R-TX), chair of the House Agriculture Committee, today released a Farm Bill proposal that boosts U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation spending to approximately $3.5 billion annually. Farmers, ranchers and foresters, however, may seek as much as $8 billion in annual payments to help the environment over the next five years.

“Because of a lack of adequate funds, most farmers are rejected when they seek federal help to meet environmental challenges,” said Environmental Defense attorney Scott Faber. “If the Farm Bill proposed today is passed, farmers will still be turned away. Green payments should be a no-brainer. The money provides income to all farmers, and provides public goods to the taxpayer: clean water, open space, and wildlife habitat.”

Environmental Defense urged Rep. Combest to support legislation championed by Reps. Ron Kind (D-WI), Wayne Gilchrest (R-MD), Sherwood Boehlert (R-NY) and 59 other bipartisan members of Congress. The Working Lands Stewardship Act of 2001, H.R. 2375, substantially increases annual spending for USDA programs that help protect the environment by acquiring development rights for farmland threatened by sprawl, providing incentives to reduce polluted runoff, and rewarding landowners who restore wetlands, grasslands, and forests.

H.R. 2375 provides: $500 million annually for open space protection; $2 billion annually for incentives to reduce polluted runoff, protect food and drinking water from pesticides and pathogens, and use water more efficiently; $750 million annually for farm, ranch and forestry practices that help wildlife; and provides sufficient funds to restore more than 12 million acres of wetlands, grasslands, and shrublands over the next six years. The bill also boosts funding to plant trees along urban rivers, establish new farmer’s markets, and to help farmers switch to organic farming.