Contact: Mark Schultz, LSP, 612-722-6377
Dave Serfling, farmer & LSP member, Preston, Minn., 507-765-2797
Dan Specht, farmer & LSP member, McGregor, Iowa, 563-873-3873
Alisa Harrison, USDA Press Secretary, 202-720-4623

12/2/03
Now that Congress has provided funding to the Conservation Security Program (CSP), it is the USDA’s turn to make it a reality and issue the rules that will govern this exciting initiative, said farmer-members of the Land Stewardship Project (LSP) today.

Congressional negotiators announced last week that they had agreed to provide $41.4 million to CSP for the rest of the fiscal year, while removing the $3.77 billion multiyear funding cap for the program. This was a dramatic turnaround from earlier this summer, when the U.S. House voted to eliminate funding for CSP in 2004.

“We applaud Congress and mainstream farm organizations for recognizing how much of a boost to our rural communities and the environment CSP can be,” said Dave Serfling, a Preston, Minn., farmer and member of LSP’s Federal Farm Policy Committee. “But without practical, meaningful rules guiding this program, it’s not worth the paper it’s written on. Farmers like me need those rules now so we can start making plans for the 2004 planting season.”

CSP has been hailed by sustainable agriculture advocates and environmentalists as one of the 2002 Farm Bill’s most innovative programs. CSP would provide payments for producers who historically have practiced good stewardship on their agricultural lands, and incentives for those who want to do more.

The program would provide financial and technical assistance to farmers and ranchers who develop and maintain conservation systems on working lands. These stewardship incentives encourage and reward farmers and ranchers for creating public benefits such as clean water, clean air, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, rangeland improvement, and wetland restoration and enhancements. Unlike the Farm Bill’s commodity programs, CSP payments are capped at a modest amount per farm per year, are fully compliant with “green box” requirements under international trade obligations, and are available to all types of farms in all regions of the country.

But the implementation of the CSP, which will be administered by the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), has been delayed by the Bush Administration since it was signed into law. The rules to implement the CSP have been stuck at USDA for more than a year and a half—10 months longer than the legal limit established by the Farm Bill for final rules. In August 2003, the proposed rules were sent to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for review. The White House then held up the proposed rules for 90 days, the legal time limit for OMB to hold onto the rules before USDA could issue them for comment. As of Nov. 28, full legal authority to issue the rules returned to Secretary of Agriculture Ann Veneman.

“The bottom line is Secretary Veneman now has the responsibility to immediately issue the proposed rules, so that we can get the CSP up and running,” said Serfling. “We’ve already lost one growing season due to USDA delays. NRCS staff needs training and farmers need time to develop plans if this program is going to start producing real benefits in 2004. Farmers and conservationists are calling for this program now.”

Once the proposed rules are issued, the public will have 45 or 60 days to comment on the final draft. It is critical that farmers and nonfarmers alike contact USDA officials during the comment period and provide input as to how the CSP should be operated, said Dan Specht, a McGregor, Iowa, farmer who is also a member of LSP’s Federal Farm Policy Committee.

Specht said positive environmental outcomes achieved by innovative producers should be a major objective of the CSP, rather than just funding specific practices with little emphasis on outcomes. At a minimum, farmers participating in the CSP should be required to bring soil erosion levels below the soil loss “tolerance” or “T” level (the amount of soil that can be lost while maintaining current production levels), he said. Compliance should be applied to all land eroding at greater than the tolerance level, not just so-called highly erodible land, he said. And as a way to use USDA programs efficiently, and to focus CSP funds on outcomes rather than the installation of new practices, CSP cost-share funds should be used for the maintenance of current effective conservation practices and structures, Specht added.

“We can’t let agribusiness write the rules so that this program turns out to be just another handout for large-scale agribusiness,” said Specht. “The core values of CSP as a program that rewards true conservation benefits must stay intact. Only then will we get what we’re paying for.”

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EDITORS: This release is available at http://www.landstewardshipproject.org