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  It's not just a Farm Bill...

  Ken Meter's post raises the right issues. Although the Farm Bill won't be passed until 2007 at the earliest, now is the time to weigh in with your Members of Congress. The Farm Bill may be the single most important piece of conservation legislation to be written by the next Congress. The next Farm Bill will be written under a tight budget and with great uncertainty about the next set of trade negotiations. Now is the time for urbanites to make common cause with conservation-minded farmers and forest owners (of which there are plenty), if they want to preserve open space, preserve ecosystem services, and protect wildlife for their children's future.

  America's farms and forests produce many more good things than just commodities, and each successive version of the Farm Bill has provided more ways to support landowners who produce clean water, fresh air, and abundant wildlife. Federal dollars should go to programs that allow farmers to produce these things. There are traditional set-aside programs (like the Conservation Reserve Program) which restore ecosystems, and there are cost-share programs for conservation practices (like the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program), but the most innovative new program is the Conservation Security Program, which ties monetary rewards on working farms to having a comprehensive stewardship plan. Yet congressional appropriators have shrunk this program far below its original extent. Farmer demand for all these programs far outstrips available funding.

  The next Farm Bill will need to provide much more support for forestry on private lands (an especially big deal for us in the Southeast), because so many big timber companies are selling off their land to developers and investment firms, and it's unlikely they'll remain forests for long. The current Farm Bill virtually ignores 2/3 of the rural landscape in my part of the country (and it's the same in the rest of the East). The next Farm Bill ought to be a Farm and Forest Bill, if it is to really help maintain a vibrant rural economy and protect the ecosystems we depend on.  On The U.S. needs a food bill more than a farm bill posted 3 years, 8 months ago 14 Responses