Civic Register
| 5.15.18
Next Farm Bill May Ditch Major Conservation Program
Join us and tell your reps how you feel!
The Story
- The latest version of the Farm Bill, currently up for reauthorization, would effectively eliminate the popular Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP).
Potential Impacts
- The current bill would partially fold the CSP—the U.S.’ largest working lands conservation program—into another conservation program that critics say serves a more limited function. The CSP creates incentives for landowners to make more impactful investments across their farms and ranches, a benefit some fear would be lost under the new structure.
- A new report shows that the kind of practices promoted by the CSP need to be expanded dramatically to stop widespread soil erosion and water pollution in Midwestern farm country.
- The new Farm Bill would add acreage to the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers to take environmentally sensitive land out of agricultural production. However, in order to fund the expansion, the proposed bill would cut payment rates, potentially reducing participation incentives.
- According to the Center for American Progress, the Farm Bill includes a provision that would “allow logging companies to clear large swaths of national forests without having to engage in an assessment of the project’s potential negative impacts to the area’s watershed or wildlife.”
- The bill would also increase funding for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, which buys farmers’ development rights so as to preserve agricultural land.
- On the whole, while some key conservation programs would receive additional funding, the current draft would severely reduce financial support for conservation programs overall.
What do you think?
Should the Farm Bill allocate more funding to conservation programs? Are conservation funding cuts necessary? Hit Take Action, then share your thoughts below.
--Sara E. Murphy
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