For Immediate Release
Contact: Laura Zaks
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
lzaks@sustainableagriculture.net
Release: Broad Coalition of Conservation Organizations Endorses Recommendations to Strengthen Conservation in the 2023 Farm Bill
Washington, DC, Wednesday, March 22, 2023 — Today, thirty-one members of the Conservation Coalition, a group of national and regional organizations collaborating on Farm Bill conservation policy and advocacy, delivered a list of comprehensive farm bill priorities to members of the House and Senate Agriculture Committees.
The group provided specific recommendations for the next farm bill to help ensure that farmers, ranchers, and forest owners have access to a variety of tools to conserve, manage, and enhance natural resources, while increasing productivity, resilience, and the financial viability of their operations.
In the statement, the group wrote: “We, the undersigned organizations from diverse geographies and constituencies, stand united in calling for a strong, robust Conservation Title in the next Farm Bill… We offer overall recommendations for USDA conservation programs, as well as detailed reforms and improvements for specific Conservation Title programs, conservation compliance, Sodsaver, and the Crop Insurance Title.”
The Conservation Coalition calls on Congress to:
- Protect and build upon conservation funding included in previous legislation to provide support for producers to meet the growing demand for conservation assistance.
- Harness the talents and practices of farmers, ranchers, and forest owners to face a changing climate and incentivize practices that help farms mitigate and adapt to climate change, improve soil health, halt ecosystem conversion, shore up resilience against flood and drought, increase biodiversity, and conserve wildlife corridors.
- Advance equity and ensure that all producers, regardless of geography, race, gender, ethnicity, income, or farm size, can access and benefit from conservation programs.
- Improve conservation program delivery by increasing USDA’s technical assistance capacity, streamlining application and contracting processes, and by expanding USDA’s ability to measure, evaluate, and report on conservation outcomes and economic benefits.
- Ensure that investments in any one conservation program do not come at the expense of any other Title II program, or compromise the conservation mission of these programs.
“We are excited to see strong support across the conservation community for a solid slate of Farm Bill reforms,” said Jesse Womack, Conservation Policy Specialist for the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC). NSAC is a core member of the Conservation Coalition. “Many of these reforms reinforce NSAC’s own platform for the 2023 Farm Bill,” added Womack.
Signatories:
Alliance for the Shenandoah Valley
American Bird Conservancy
American Farmland Trust
Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy
Carbon180
Chesapeake Bay Foundation
Cultivate KC
Defenders of Wildlife
Food Animal Concerns Trust (FACT)
Illinois Environmental Council
Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy
Izaak Walton League of America
Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition
National Wildlife Federation
Natural Resources Defense Council
Organic Farming Research Foundation
Pasa Sustainable Agriculture
PennFuture
Pollinator Partnership
Practical Farmers of Iowa
Soil and Water Conservation Society
Sweet Springs Resort Park Foundation Inc
The Wildlife Society
Trust for Public Land
Union of Concerned Scientists
Virginia Association for Biological Farming
Wallace Center at Winrock International
Waterkeepers Chesapeake – Fair Farms Initiative
World Wildlife Fund
Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation
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About the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC)The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition is a grassroots alliance that advocates for federal policy reform supporting the long-term social, economic, and environmental sustainability of agriculture, natural resources, and rural communities. Learn more and get involved at: https://sustainableagriculture.net
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