**U R G E N T   A C T I O N   A L E R T**

U.S. House attempting to Eliminate a
national Conservation Security Program

*** Your call needed today! ***

Yesterday while approving next year's USDA funding bill, the House
Agricultural Appropriations Sub-committee surprisingly decided to re-open
the Farm Bill (which was recently signed into law) and cut funding to the
Conservation Security Program (CSP), limiting what was designed as a
national program to a pilot program only available to farmers in the state
of Iowa.

CSP is a new farm program with an entirely different approach. CSP will
provide payments to farmers for the multiple benefits their farming systems
generate for society: soil conservation, increased biodiversity and wildlife
habitat, healthy food, maintaining small and moderate scale farms, and
enhanced water quality. This program will be especially helpful to family
farmers who currently do not receive benefits for their sustainable farming
practices (such as grass-based livestock systems and resource-conserving
crop rotations) through the commodity programs.

This program was passed by the full U.S. House and Senate, and signed by the
President as a national, entitlement program, which means that any farmer in
the United States that meets the program requirements would receive the
benefits for which they qualified according to the level of stewardship they
were practicing.

Yesterday the House Agricultural Appropriations Sub-committee voted to cut
CSP from a national program to a single state, pilot program. Under the
proposal from the Sub-committee only farmers in Iowa would be eligible for
the program. This would deny thousands of farmers in Minnesota and across
the country hundreds of millions of dollars to practice stewardship on their
farms. The recommendations of the Agriculture Sub-committee will now be
voted on by the full House Appropriations Committee following the 4th of
July break.

Right now (today) we need calls into Representatives Gil Gutknecht
(R-Minnesota), Mark Kennedy (R-Minnesota), and Martin Olav Sabo
(D-Minnesota). We also want to generate calls to Representative David Obey
(D-WI), the ranking member on the full House Appropriations Committee. If
you do not live in any of these representatives' districts, it would be good
to call your own representative as well. If you know the name of your
representative you can call the Congressional switchboard (202-225-3121) and
they will connect you with your representative's office. The phone numbers
for Gutknecht, Kennedy,Sabo, and Obey are listed at the end of this alert.

The message is simple: We want the provision making CSP an Iowa only
program deleted. This program needs to be a national, entitlement program.
Turning CSP into an Iowa-only program would mean the loss of millions and
millions of dollars to family farmers and rural communities.

Sabo is a member of the House Appropriations Committee. Gutknecht and
Kennedy are not on the Committee but they are representatives from
agricultural districts and members of the majority party. We want Gutknecht
and Kennedy to urge the majority party members of the Appropriations
Committee to support full funding for a national CSP.

Our best shot at winning full funding for CSP is in the full House
Appropriations Committee. The full committee will take up the Farm Bill
following the 4th of July break, so calls are needed right away.

If you have any questions, please call Mike or Mark in LSP's Policy Program
office at 612-722-6377.

**Take Action - Call Congress today!**

Phone numbers of U.S. Representatives to call about full funding for the
Conservation Security Program:

Rep. Mark Kennedy (R-SW Minnesota)
phone: 202-225-2331
email: mark.kennedy@mail.house.gov

Rep. Gil Gutknecht (R-SE Minnesota)
phone: 202-225-2472
email: gil@mail.house.gov

Rep. Martin Olav Sabo (D-Minneapolis, Minnesota)
House Appropriations Committee Member
phone: 202-225-4755
email: martin.sabo@mail.house.gov

Rep. David Obey (D-Wisconsin)
Ranking member on House Appropriations Committee
phone: 202-225-3365

When you call, ask to speak to the Representative's agricultural aide. If
you are not able to speak to anyone directly, make sure to leave a strong
message that includes your name and address. If you are a farmer, it is
worth mentioning that in your message. If you want, ask for someone to call
you back to discuss the issue. Most offices will try to give people a call
back if they want to discuss an issue. If you hear anything that may be
useful, please give us a call at 612-722-6377. Thank you for calling
today. Your voice can make a difference.

Visit the Federal & State Policy section for more information on LSP policy work.

-----

The Land Stewardship Project sends out occasional action alerts via e-mail.
These alerts cover a variety of issues of interest to our members. Please
feel free to forward this message to friends, co-workers or family who may
be interested in these issues and encourage them to join the Land
Stewardship Project.

If you currently are not on our Action Alert list and would like to be added, please E-mail Cathy with your first and last name (required) and E-mail address. Please take a moment to read our privacy policy.