Every five years, Congress either passes a revised Federal Farm Bill, or renews the existing one.  The current Federal Farm Bill, called the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, of which much our country's agricultural production and a substantial amount of conservation practices operate under, is currently set to expire in September of this year.  

So, why should the average American care?

I know what you are thinking.  She doesn't know where the cookie jar went.

Well, there are a few important functions of the Farm Bill that Americans should care about.  First, the Farm Bill establishes a multi-year pricing mechanism to ensure some degree of financial stability from year-to-year for farmers.  This just means that farmers get paid a certain guaranteed price for their crops each year.  Just as important though, the Farm Bill provides crop insurance, in case of catastrophes that ruin a farmer's crop.  These are both important mechanisms that provide farmers with confidence to plant and supply America's food system--and we all want homegrown, especially locally-grown, food.  I don't know about you, but I sure want farmers to be confident that they can make a living, especially since most farmers are already barely making it (at least the small, family farm variety).

How does the Farm Bill relate to our waterways?

This is the more important question, in KWA's mind.  Since the inclusion of the Conservation Title in 1985, the Farm Bill has provided significant funding to implement conservation techniques on farmland throughout the country.  This has been carried out primarily through voluntary farmer participation encouraged by land rental payments, cost-sharing conservation practice impementation, technical assistance, education, and research.  

The Farm Bill Conservation programs and provisions include the following:

• The Working Lands Programs, which allows private land to remain in production, while implementing conservation practices to addres natural resource concerns specific to the area, including the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, among others
• The Land Retirement and Easement Programs, which provide federal payments to private agricultural landowners for temporary changes in land use or management to achieve environmental benefits, including Conservation Reserve Program, Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, Wetlands Reserve Program, and others
• Compliance, which prohibits a producer from receiving most Farm Bill benefits when conservation requirements for highly erodible lands and wetlands are not met, including the Swampbuster provision
• Other Conservation Programs and Provisions, such as the Chesapeak Bay Watershed Program, Conservation Innovation Grants, Grassroots Source Water Protection Program, etc.

These conservation programs and provisions accomplish several very important things, in relation to protecting the quality of our waterways:

• They help to prevent soil erosion and sedimentation of streams
• They help to reduce the levels of nutrients that enter our waterways
• They help protect critical ecosystem features and aquatic areas, including floodplains, riparian buffers, and wetlands.  

In effect, the Conservation Title helps to reduce the impacts of what comes off of agricultural land through the combination of better agricultural practices, and the use of and conservation of landscape features that have a naturally positive impact on water quality of streams.

[Did I mention this would be a long post?  Sorry!  Here's some images related to the Conservation Title]

And...why should Kentucky residents care? 

Darius Miller, a lifelong and average Kentuckian, says we should care because according to the USDA, 55% of Kentucky's land area is used for farmland, including 28% specifically for crops.  Even though other midwestern states knock that number out of the park, that is a lot of land devoted to farming, especially for Kentucky, where we have significant lands in state forests and parks.  

The good news is that portions of the Conservation Title have been well-used in Kentucky over the past several decades.  For example, the Green River Watershed has been using the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program to target and protect environmentally sensitive land, decrease erosion, restore wildlife habitat, and safeguard ground and surface water sources.  In 2010, Kentucky put over $58 million into Conservation programs and intitiatives throughout the state. 

The bad news is that for 1997, 2002, and 2007 respectively, Kentucky went from 370,090 acres, to 403,946 acres, to 375,049 acres of land in conservation and wetland reserve programs.  For that 10 year period, Kentucky stayed flatlined, in terms of farmland dedicated to conservation practices.  This means important wetlands and riparian areas are not getting the protection they need.

The bottom line: as residents of Kentucky, you should care about the Farm Bill because of the food you are able to eat, and more than anything, we need to make sure that the new Farm Bill contains sufficient funding for conservation programs.

NOW, I get to the important part (deep breath, a la Ace Ventura).  At the end of 2011 we sent out an Action Alert for you to contact our representatives in Congress and stop the potential Farm Bill that was being pushed through the Super Committee process (which eventually failed, thank goodness), but now, Congress is starting discussions and having hearings to move towards hopefully passing a Farm Bill in the spring session of 2012, in hopes to pass a Farm Bill prior to the election rhetoric heating up too much this summer, and making it nearly impossible, which would ultimately result in the continuation of the current Farm Bill, which apparently, no one wants. (deep breath)

KWA has already signed on to several petitions with a whole bunch of other organizations, asking that funding for Conservation Title programs be maintained to the utmost possible.  Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for Action Alerts on the Farm Bill so that as citizens of Kentucky, you can advocate on behalf of your local waterways!

For more info on Farm Bill stuff and Kentucky programs, check out the following links.

--on the 2012 farm bill: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42357.pdf

--on KY farming subsidies: http://farm.ewg.org/region.php?fips=21000

--on KY programs throug NRCS: http://www.ky.nrcs.usda.gov/programs/

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