Farm Bill conservation programs a chance to 'supercharge' private land conservation
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 — colloquially known as the Farm Bill — expires on September 30, and it’s now up to Congress to reauthorize what is the single largest spending commitment the federal government makes to the food and agriculture industry.
If you don’t work in agriculture or live and breathe Washington, D.C., politics, there’s likely a massive piece of recurring legislation on Capitol Hill flying well below your radar.
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 — colloquially known as the Farm Bill — expires on September 30, and it’s now up to Congress to reauthorize what is the single largest spending commitment the federal government makes on food and agriculture. The 2018 Farm Bill authorized $428 billion in spending to cover a range of priorities from nutrition assistance, crop subsidies and crop insurance, to rural broadband internet, food stamps and disaster aid.
On the conservation front, Farm Bill conservation programs are the largest single federal source of funding for private land conservation, creating significant opportunities for Alliance member land trusts to protect high-priority farm and ranch lands, grasslands, wetlands and forests.
In 2018, the Alliance played a significant role in advocating for Farm Bill provisions that, for example, streamlined the Agricultural Land Easement program to make it more effective and more efficient and, most importantly, increased funding for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program by $2 billion over 10 years. And this year, the Alliance has again worked with its member land trusts through its Farm Bill Working Group to develop a new set of recommendations for the 2023 Farm Bill.
Recently, the Alliance’s senior director of government relations, Lori Faeth, sat down with Kate Groetzinger and Aaron Weiss of The Landscape podcast to chat about upcoming Farm Bill negotiations in Congress and what they will mean for private land conservation moving forward.
“The demand for these programs so far exceeds the dollars available,” Lori Faeth, senior director of government relations at the Land Trust Alliance, said on the podcast. “So, we are seeking a significant increase in funding for ACEP, which is what we call the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program.”
And the benefits would be far-reaching.
“All of these programs are a big part of the climate solution,” Faeth said. “We want our farmers and ranchers to be able to stay on the land, remain viable, and keep being a part of providing us with food security, climate benefits, healthy water, healthy air — all of those things that we get from our working lands.”
Check out the podcast episode below or read more about how Farm Bill conservation programs can “supercharge” private and public land conservation.