Minneapolis Star Tribune

Editorial: Rural conservation
Why exclude so many farmers?

Published Sunday, March 7, 2004

When Congress created a promising new conservation subsidy as part of the 2002 farm bill, farmers interested in protecting the soil and water under their stewardship waited patiently for the program to take effect. First came an ugly budget wrangle that nearly snuffed out the program at birth, then months of delay while the Bush administration wrote eligibility rules.

It would be nice to say that rural America’s patience has been rewarded. But last week, after two months of public comment from the agricultural and environmental communities, it became plain that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has written rules that would exclude thousands of farmers and needlessly cripple the program’s impact on rural natural resources. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman needs to take stock of the hundreds of critical comments her department has received and revise the participation rules quickly.

It's not just farmers who are complaining, it’s the members of Congress who actually wrote the law. Last week Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Gordon Smith, R-Ore., wrote to Veneman about the proposed regulations. They didn't mince words.

“The proposed rule creates a multi-layered and unnecessarily complex scheme of eligibility hurdles, sharply-reduced payments, geographical limitations and other constraints and restrictions—all designed to quell interest and deter enrollment,” the senators wrote.

USDA officials say they are trying to get the most bang for the taxpayers’ buck—by targeting the new conservation subsidies on especially fragile watersheds, for example, and on farmers who have never practiced conservation agriculture in the past. Targeting is a fine idea at a time of limited federal resources and growing budget deficits. But Congress never intended to rule out entire sections of major farm states, and it explicitly intended to reward farmers who already are practicing conversation techniques, in addition to recruiting new practitioners.

Farmers—and taxpayers—have already lost one entire planting season to the delay in issuing these rules. The USDA needs to revise them to reflect public comment—and do it quickly so that farmers can get ready for spring planting.

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