On Monday, President Obama released his FY 2011 Budget Proposal.
At a time when we most need to invest in protecting our natural resources and keeping them healthy for the future, the President’s proposed budget would cut hundreds of millions of dollars (nearly 20%) from key farmland preservation, conservation, and water quality programs that were promised under the 2008 Farm Bill. I am concerned that it is penny-wise now, but will be very pound foolish for America’s future.
Slashing these programs will do nothing significant to address our nation’s budget problems while it will dramatically reduce
our ability to protect the resources that supply abundant food and a healthy environment.
Despite the administration’s rhetorical desire to support conservation and agriculture, and address such issues as climate change and renewable energy, reductions of over one-half a billion dollars in mandatory conservation program spending will make it much more difficult for farmers and ranchers to make changes necessary to protect our air, land and water.
Farmers like Jim Andrew, who reversed soil erosion on his farm through no-till planting and is the first farmer in the U.S. to qualify for Tier III, the highest performance level under the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP)- one of the crucial conservation programs to be cut under the President’s budget.
On a more positive note, the administration is building on new programs for farmers by developing local and regional food systems through new programs under the 2008 Farm Bill; and during the last year, USDA has moved forward in conservation and environmental programs.
However, we simply must address loss of farmland, and the potential of farms and ranches to maximize their production of environmental benefits like cleaner water and air, sequestering carbon, renewable energy, and more. This is a critical time to invest even more cost-share money, not less. We look forward to working with members of Congress and the administration to highlight our concerns, reexamine the President’s budget and recalibrate the priorities for agriculture.
Read the President’s proposed budget for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency in full.
About the Author: Jon Scholl is President of American Farmland Trust. Prior to AFT, he served as Counselor to the Administrator for Agriculture Policy at the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Jon and his family operate a corn and soybean farm in McLean County, Illinois.
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Dear Jon, thank you for your years of effort on behalf of farmers. This particular article is not only informative but vital to those of us who are small farmers, working on local food projects, and establishing a community garden here on our little collective. We have operated here for 30 years now on our 15 acres, about 5 of them are in pine trees and small animal pens and pasturage. These programs are critical to us. We are moving farther off grid each year, two years ago Hurricane Ike destroyed our entire site and we could get no assistance at all through Fema so rebuilding has been quite an effort and we are learning a lot about recycling materials. but enough of that.
Our website is sbafarms.com, it hosts a number of forums and we would appreciate your permission to reprint this article, with full credit to you and your organization, as well as a link to your site.
Thank you for your time and consideration, by the way we are a not for profit corporation in the process of obtaining 501c (3) status.
Peace and continued success
michael sykes
founder sba farms collective
Without resources to adequately preserve and develop our land, we are lost. The President’s budget also cuts the Resource Conservation and Development Areas program’s federal budget: -0 money means that a valuable private/public partnership may well disappear. The RC&D program is made up of hundreds of nonprofit councils around our country. We all volunteer to insure that grassroots projects that promote resource conservation and development have the best chance to see the light of day and succeed. Often, we partner with real people to make their interface with USDA and other governmental programs easier. Our coordinators are USDA NRCS employees, and they carry out the work that creates a connection between the private (our councils) and public (the government). Without this integral interface, government programs will not serve people at the grassroots level well: Congress mandated the resource development and conservation areas program because they felt this private/public partnership was important. Find your local RC&D council and ask them what they do, then ask your congressional representatives and senators to support our work by putting us back into the budget. Thank you.
Now would be the time for everybody to contact their legislators and urge them not to vote for a bill containing these budget cuts until such funding has been restored. Can you provide a link for us e-mail receipients so we can send our Congressmen such a message?