Comments on: President’s Budget Slashes Conservation Funding

By: Laurel Gress

Laurel Gress — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:46:26 +0000

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?

By: Steve Hoad

Steve Hoad — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:24:35 +0000

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.

By: Michael sykes

Michael sykes — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 13:22:28 +0000

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