How the farm bill affects our land, water and wildlife

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by Duane Sand, INHF's public policy consultant

Iowans who eat food, drink water, breathe air, enjoy wildlife or love rural Iowa should care about the current farm bill debate. Farm bill discussions are now underway in the U.S. Congress, and the final vote could be taken in late 2001 or in 2002.

Conservation has always been a part of federal farm policy, but it became more prominent since 1985, when several conservation programs were added. The Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation has always followed the debates and commented on farm policy because the U.S. Department of Agriculture has incredible impact on Iowa's natural heritage-often positive and sometimes negative.

Despite its low population, Iowa has one of the most developed and manipulated landscapes of any state in the nation. The quality of our food, water, air, forests, wetlands, soils and wildlife habitat is largely determined by farmers. The farm bill determines whether farmers are rewarded for protecting our natural resources-or for damaging them.

The farm bill now being written is likely to allocate about $20 billion per year for the next several years, a substantial increase from past budgets. Typically, about 10% of those funds are tied to conservation incentives. However, enough people have expressed their concerns that Congress seems willing to put more into conservation-related payments.

A big shift toward conservation is long overdue. The current farm bill's emphasis on grain subsidies provides taxpayer dollars for farmers to plow marginal cropland to grow more grain-and results in low grain prices for the very farmers it's supposed to help. A shift to more conservation payments will enable appropriate land uses and sustainable farming practices. Farmers, taxpayers, the environment and future generations can all benefit from this basic change in policy.

The Conservation Security Act proposed by Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Gordon Smith (R, Oregon) and other members of Congress could help make that shift. If passed as part of the farm bill, their program would-for the first time-make conservation incentives as readily available as grain subsidies. Farmers would get financial incentives to manage their land to reduce soil erosion, manure run-off, nutrient run-off and pesticide use. Payments would help to keep marginal land in permanent vegetation and to put marginal croplands into grazing, forestry or wildlife habitat. The highest payments would go to farmers with comprehensive conservation plans to help protect all of the natural resources they touch. Payments for demonstrating innovative conservation practices and techniques would also be provided.

Other conservation programs are being debated, but INHF prefers the Conservation Security Act because it offers a comprehensive program for conservation.

Want to see the effect of farm policy on Iowa's landscape? Visit our clickable map.

Keep reading for comments from Mark Ackelson about this article. Want to reach another article on farm policy, co-written by Mark Ackelson and Duane Sand, which appeared as a guest column in the Des Moines Register?

Want to visit other web sites with farm policy information?
www.swcs.org (Soil and Water Conservation Society)
www.sustainableagri culture.net (National Campaign for Sustainable Ag)
www.cfra.org (Center for Rural Affairs)

Want some statistics about the effect of farm policy on our land, water and wildlife?
Soil erosion is damaging the productivity of 29% of America's cropland.
Agriculture is the primary pollution source for 60% of America's impaired rivers and streams.
Agriculture is the primary ollution source for 30% of America's impaired lakes, reservoirs and wetlands.
Agriculture affects 57% of the threatened and endangered species in the contiguous 48 states.
The ecological health of 35% of America's rangeland is seriously threatened.
Those who do not depend on subsidized crops operate 72% of America's agricultural land.
Last year 20% of America's farmers received almost two-thirds of the $27 billion paid in federal farm subsidies.
Last year the average farm subsidy was $16,000, but at least 154 farms got more than $1 million each.

Comments from Mark Ackelson, INHF president, which accompanied the above article in INHF's Fall 2001 magazine.

"At INHF, we're privileged to experience firsthand how conservation-minded many Iowa farmers are. We constantly meet landowners who go above and beyond what any conservation program would ever demand-because that's what their grandparents and parents did or because that's what their heart tells them to do.

On the other hand, we meet others who want to integrate more conservation into their farm plans but who feel they can't afford it. And, sadly, we meet a few who 'farm the system' with no regard for the land. As taxpayers we provide financial incentives for them to overproduce, lower their own prices and damage Iowa's natural resources. Then we spend more tax dollars to restore our damaged lands and clean our impaired waters-at a cost that's mounting each year. I sincerely hope the new farm bill will look at the big picture."

For more information about this or other INHF articles, e-mail Cathy Engstrom, Director of Communications, or call (515) 288-1846.