Farm bill must protect working lands conservation programs

Healthy soil and clean water are critical for our nation’s urban and rural communities, and the pending five-year farm bill presents a key opportunity to ensure we are investing in protecting those natural resources. The farm bill’s working lands conservation programs – the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) – provide farmers and ranchers with the tools they need to grow food while protecting and enhancing water, soil, and other critical natural resources. The work that farmers do to protect these natural resources benefits not just their own farm, but the entire community. As my fellow farm bill conferees and I continue negotiations in the weeks ahead, we must ensure that a final farm bill strengthens working lands conservation programs.

Ensuring the protection and enhancement of working lands conservation programs is critical for both rural and urban areas alike, with major implications for water quality, healthy communities, and a sustainable food supply. The benefits of these programs don’t just stay on the farm – the conservation efforts of farmers I represent in Southern Minnesota can positively impact someone living in the Twin Cities, or even someone clear across the state. When farmers create new wildlife habitat, it increases animal and insect populations that control pests and pollinate plants. When farmers plant cover crops, it sequesters carbon and helps mitigate climate change. When farmers nurture healthy soil, it decreases the risk of flooding and droughts. Ultimately, we all pay the price for environmental degradation, and we all benefit from good stewardship of the land.

{mosads}Unfortunately, the House version of the farm bill (H.R. 2), which passed without a single Democratic vote, eliminates nearly $5 billion in funding for working lands conservation and proposes to eliminate CSP, the nation’s largest and most comprehensive conservation program. While the bill moves a portion of the CSP funding to EQIP and purports to merge the two programs, it fails to retain any of the core components of CSP.

Laudably, the Senate has taken a very different approach in their version of the farm bill. The Senate bill safeguards the unique structure and functions of EQIP and CSP, while making substantial improvements to these programs to further benefit soil health and water quality. This suite of reforms in the Senate bill draws from the Strengthening Our Investment in Land (SOIL) Stewardship Act, which I introduced in the House and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.) introduced in the Senate.

The reforms from the SOIL Stewardship Act provide stronger incentives for cover crop adoption, resource-conserving crop rotations, advanced grazing management and comprehensive conservation planning. Additionally, these reforms address access to conservation assistance by simplifying ranking criteria, increasing set-asides for beginning and socially disadvantaged participants, and authorizing stronger coordination between EQIP to CSP.

As the author of the SOIL Stewardship Act in the House, I join the bill’s additional co-sponsors on the House Agriculture Committee in support of these provisions. I am thankful for Sen. Smith’s work to ensure the Senate retained both programs and incorporated so many of these improvements into their bill.

There is strong bipartisan and bicameral support for ensuring that the next farm bill protects working lands conservation programs and incorporates the critical reforms from the SOIL Stewardship Act. As we move forward with the conference process, I strongly support the Senate’s approach to working lands conservation and will continue to advocate for these provisions benefiting soil health, clean water, and the rural and urban communities my colleagues and I represent.

Walz represents the 1^st District of Minnesota and is a member of the Agriculture Committee.