Contact: Dan French, LSP Federal Farm Policy Committee, Dodge Center, Minn., 507-635-5619
Dave Serfling, LSP Federal Farm Policy Committee, Preston, Minn., 507-765-2797
Jeff Klinge, LSP Federal Farm Policy Committee Farmersburg, Iowa, 563-536-2314
Bill Gorman, LSP Federal Farm Policy Committee, Goodhue, Minn., 651-258-4127
Dan Specht, LSP Federal Farm Policy Committee, McGregor, Iowa, 563-873-3873
Audrey Arner, LSP member and farmer, Montevideo, Minn., 320-269-8971
Mark Schultz, LSP Policy Program Director, 612-722-6377

3/3/04
WASHINGTON, D.C.—The USDA’s proposed rules for the Conservation Security Program (CSP), one of the most innovative conservation programs ever passed by Congress, have drawn a record 10,000 public comments, according to the USDA. The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) says this is an indication of how strong the public opposition is to the Bush Administration’s attempt to severely curtail the CSP, and how much farmers, consumers, and conservationists want this important program implemented in a timely manner and in a way that keeps it true to the original law passed by Congress.

“That far exceeds any number of comments that we have had on any conservation program in the past,” said Mary Cressel, a public affairs officer for the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service. Cressel added that prior to this the most comments submitted on proposed rules for a conservation program was “around a thousand.” The deadline for submitting comments was March 2, and Cressel said she expected the final comment tally to rise by the end of the week.

The Conservation Security Program was passed as part of the 2002 Farm Bill. The program, which is to be implemented by the Natural Resources Conservation Service, was enacted by Congress to make payments to farmers based on how well they are protecting and improving the environment, specifically for enhancing water quality, protecting soil and nurturing wildlife habitat, among other things. This is a dramatic departure from current federal farm policy, which often penalizes farmers for utilizing farming systems that benefit the environment.

However, when the USDA’s proposed rules were published on Jan. 2 after long delays by the agency, farmers and other members of the public began raising serious concerns about how little the proposed CSP resembled the law passed by Congress. These concerns continued to grow during the 60-day comment period, leading to thousands of farmers, consumers and environmentalists to call on USDA to make CSP a widely available, nationwide program that would recognize the benefits of sustainable farming systems such as rotational grazing, resource conserving crop rotations, and organic farming. Members of the public also turned up to testify at 10 USDA “listening sessions” that were held around the country during the comment period. Reports from those sessions indicate that those who testified were not happy with the proposed rules coming out of the Bush Administration.

“Unfortunately, the USDA’s proposed rules for CSP are not at all consistent with the law passed by Congress, and the government had better listen to the message they got during this comment period,” said Dan French, a Dodge County, Minn., farmer and member of LSP’s Federal Farm Policy Committee.

French testified at a listening session held in Wisconsin on Feb. 26. In 1999, he and other members of LSP’s Federal Farm Policy Committee helped develop many elements that went into the CSP legislation that was eventually passed by Congress.

“Now that they’ve seen the incredible public support for a fully implemented CSP and opposition to their attempts to hamstring it, the Administration needs to act on these comments by the end of August and issue a final rule that is consistent with the law,” said French.

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NOTE: For more information of the Conservation Security Program, visit http://www.landstewardshipproject.org/programs_csp.html.