The Case for Conservation
Reports & Consumer Guides
Farm Bill 2013: The Case for Conservation
Farms and ranches cover more than half of all land in the United States. Farm bill conservation programs and policies work to keep the land productive and to protect soil, water and wildlife. These programs and policies are needed now more than ever as high prices spur all-out production. Yet Congress is proposing to cut program funding and weaken critical conservation policies.
Troubled Waters
Water that runs off fields treated with chemical fertilizers and manure is loaded with nitrogen and phosphorus, two potent pollutants that inevitably end up in rivers and lakes and set off a cascade of harmful consequences, contaminating the drinking water used by millions of Americans. Treating this water after the fact to clean up the contamination is increasingly expensive, difficult and, if current trends continue, ultimately unsustainable. The only solution that will preserve the clean, healthy and tasty drinking water that people expect is to tackle the problem at the source. Read More
Clean Drinking Water and the Conservation Title
The Conservation Title of the Farm Bill is critical to protecting drinking water. Water that runs off fields treated with chemical fertilizer and manure is loaded with nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients that inevitably end up in rivers, streams and lakes and set off a cascade of harmful consequences that contaminate drinking water for millions of Americans. Read More
Losing Ground
Across wide swaths of Iowa and other Corn Belt states, the rich, dark soil that made this region the nation’s breadbasket is being swept away at rates many times higher than official estimates. That is the disturbing picture revealed by new techniques that track soil erosion with unprecedented precision.Read More
Plowed Under
High crop prices and unlimited crop insurance subsidies contributed to the loss of more than 23 million acres of grassland, shrub land and wetlands between 2008 and 2011, wiping out habitat that sustains many species of birds and other animals and threatening the diversity of North America’s wildlife, new research by Environmental Working Group and Defenders of Wildlife shows. Read More
Conservation Compliance
America’s farmers need a safety net, but so do the rich soil and clean water that sustain not just agriculture but the entire fabric of American society. Read More
Honor the Conservation Compact
Some commitments should be honored. In exchange for farm subsidies, farmers have for decades committed to adopt land management practices that reduce the runoff from their fields – a provision of the 1985 farm bill called "conservation compliance." Read More