[caption id="attachment_980" align="alignleft" width="158" caption="Image: U.S. Coast Guard"][/caption] As I write this post, the oil rig explosion continues to degrade the Gulf of Mexico, damaging marine ecosystems, local fishing and tourism industries and threatening farms and farmland —a tragic and poignant illustration of how valuable and fragile our nation’s natural resources are. Upsetting as it is to watch, it also serves as a stark reminder of the inextricable link between our environment and our nation’s economy. In today’s world, neither can succeed at the expense of the other and we must work for solutions that create a healthier environment while promoting economic viability- not one or the other.  At American Farmland Trust, we see this as the future for farms and ranches - and as the gulf spill shows, this future could not come soon enough. As stewards of almost half the land in America, farmers and ranchers are uniquely poised to provide solutions to our most pressing environmental challenges-and do so at comparatively low costs.  We are already engaging in these issues daily, but there are two major pieces of legislation on the horizon that could turn our vision into a new national reality: clean energy legislation and the 2012 Farm Bill. Several studies have shown that the agriculture sector has much to gain through clean energy legislation, and so we are working with legislators to view agriculture as a cost-effective solution to our climate and energy challenges and to craft legislation that fully engages the agriculture sector (Click to learn more about agriculture’s role in clean energy legislation). If drafted correctly, this legislation could be the most sweeping conservation legislation enacted in the 21st century. Likewise, we’re already getting started on our 2012 Farm Bill work and know that conservation and environmental issues will be a main focus as we build off progress made in the 2008 Farm Bill to continue advancing U.S. farm and food policy to best serve farmers and consumers. In the meantime, the 2012 Farm Bill process has also gotten underway in the House Agriculture Committee, and they are offering the public an opportunity to submit their ideas. I encourage you to submit ideas to help bolster conservation and environmental protection.  If you need help, use these talking points. Environmental issues should be something we all agree on: the inherent value of protecting the air, land and water on which our very existence relies.  I know given the choice, everyone would choose a healthy environment, but division occurs over how we achieve these qualities.  Through agriculture, we see the opportunity to achieve simultaneous environmental and economic progress, a combination which everyone can agree!  And with oil still pouring into our Gulf, and congress poised to start work on clean energy legislation and the next farm bill, we hope you’ll join us in our endeavors. 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.