Farm bill yields mixed crop of gains, losses

After two years of debate, Congress passed the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, otherwise known as the Farm Bill. This new act is a mixed bag for New Jersey farmers, taxpayers and the environment — some gains and some losses.

Revising and renewing the nation's Farm Bill is complex. A primary goal was to make sure that good policy — like increasing funding for land and natural resource conservation, organic farming research, and healthy food for schools — made it into the bill, while bad policy —like removing topsoil and other natural resource protections and giving billions of dollars in subsidies to large corporate farms making huge profits — did not. Even with staunch support from New Jersey's Congressional delegation, we were able to meet only some of those goals:

•$4 billion more for conservation funding, including an additional $106 million over five years for permanent farmland preservation.

•A two-year extension of the expanded conservation easement donation tax deduction.

•$100 million over five years to fund organic farming research and certification.

•Tax deductions for farmers who voluntarily restore endangered or threatened species habitat.

•More funding for the Environmental Quality Incentive Program, which supports improved environmental practices on farms.

•$33 million to promote farmers markets.

•$10 billion more for nutrition programs like food banks and food stamps.

Those gains make up for some of the Farm Bill's losses for New Jersey and the nation. But the loss of topsoil protection and building coverage limits on preserved farms within the Farm and Ranchlands Protection Program (FRPP) is a big one.

Natural resource protections afforded by building limits, including water quality, flood control and stormwater management, have gone by the wayside so that farmers can build unlimited greenhouses or other structures on preserved farms. The very topsoil that the Farm Bill was created to protect after the Dust Bowl disaster in the 1930s is no longer protected within the FRPP. Without healthy topsoil, how can we produce local food and help sequester carbon?

Instead of limiting the amount of land that can be covered with structures, the Farm Bill gave each state the job of setting its own limits. It remains to be seen how this will happen, given that many states — including New Jersey — do not restrict agricultural buildings in their own farmland preservation programs. Conservationists must now work at the state level to protect soils and agricultural viability.

With support from statewide and national groups from such diverse interests as Taxpayers for Common Sense, Bread for the World and Environmental Defense, and our legislators, we thought that surely this was the year for reform. But another huge Farm Bill failure was the inability to reform the subsidy program that continues to gives billions of dollars to growers, including many large corporate farms that are getting record high prices for commodities like corn, soy, wheat, rice and cotton.

The Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), America's largest private lands conservation program, is also threatened. Under pressure due to high food and feed prices and ethanol demand, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture decided in May to let farmers to break their CRP contracts in order to use the land for grain production. Landowners in this program sign contracts agreeing to protect soil, improve water quality and enhance wildlife habitat in exchange for federal payments. However, since most land in this program isn't well suited for grain crops, the benefits of breaking these contracts are questionable, and the harmful impacts on soil, water and wildlife habitat are high.

With the Farm Bill now law, there's a lot of work to do. We must ensure that the funding increases proposed for the conservation programs are not lost through budget cuts and that the states take care of their soils. This means vigilance and advocacy by citizens, the conservation and farming community and our elected officials. Working together, we have a chance to harvest the greatest yield of opportunities presented by the new Farm Bill. I hope you'll contact me at info@njconservation.org, or visit www.njconservation.org, for more information about conserving New Jersey's precious land and natural resources.
Michele S. Byers
Executive Director
NJ Conservation Foundation
Far Hills