As Congress begins to consider this year’s farm bill, it is more important than ever that they recognize the intrinsic connection between our agricultural lands and water quality.
Agriculture occupies about one-quarter of the U.S. land surrounding the Great Lakes, producing corn, soybeans, grain, and livestock. The Great Lakes themselves are the world’s largest source of surface freshwater, but polluted runoff from agricultural lands has serious negative impacts on the Great Lakes as well as the rivers and streams that flow into them. This comes with a real cost to the ecosystem and downstream communities, as we’ve seen recently with toxic algal blooms affecting Green Bay, Wis., and causing a water crisis in Toledo, Ohio.
AdChoices The Hill The Hill Congress should consider water quality in this year’s farm bill Opinion by Tom Zimnicki and Sara Walling, opinion contributors • 12h ago
Congress should consider water quality in this year’s farm bill Congress should consider water quality in this year’s farm bill © Provided by The Hill As Congress begins to consider this year’s farm bill, it is more important than ever that they recognize the intrinsic connection between our agricultural lands and water quality.
Agriculture occupies about one-quarter of the U.S. land surrounding the Great Lakes, producing corn, soybeans, grain, and livestock. The Great Lakes themselves are the world’s largest source of surface freshwater, but polluted runoff from agricultural lands has serious negative impacts on the Great Lakes as well as the rivers and streams that flow into them. This comes with a real cost to the ecosystem and downstream communities, as we’ve seen recently with toxic algal blooms affecting Green Bay, Wis., and causing a water crisis in Toledo, Ohio.
The farm bill, which Congress passes every five years, is the largest investment in the U.S. food system. It provides billions of dollars for food production and access, school lunch programs, and rural development. The farm bill is also the primary vehicle for investing in on-farm conservation efforts to mitigate the human and environmental health effects of modern, industrial agriculture. And while the farm bill has directed billions of dollars into conservation efforts to improve water quality, recent reporting from the Alliance for the Great Lakes has found that current investments in states like Ohio and Michigan are still woefully inadequate to meet phosphorus runoff targets in the Western Basin of Lake Erie. The effects of climate change will only exacerbate water quality issues throughout the Great Lakes Basin, making addressing the shortcomings in our current incentive-based conservation programs even more pressing.
Farm bill programs under the “conservation title” — the section of the farm bill with most of the water quality-related programs — are in theory intended to prevent or limit farm runoff from polluting waterways. Programs like the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) fund conservation practices or best management practices (BMPs) like cover crops, nutrient management planning, reduced tillage, and conservation crop rotations. While these practices can generate nutrient loss reductions and improve soil health, farm bill programs are not currently designed or administered in a way to maximize environmental benefits, or even measure the water quality or soil health benefits they provide. At minimum, the farm bill should increase accountability by requiring more comprehensive monitoring and modeling of the impacts of BMPs implemented across the states and prioritize funding for practices that have proven efficacy.
USDA’s agricultural conservation programs in the “conservation title” can help prevent farm runoff from polluting waterways, but the current shotgun approach for participation — in which producers sign up for individual, self-selected practices for relatively short commitment periods — does not focus spending in a way that achieves the long-term environmental outcomes that state and federal agencies, nor the public, want to see from these programs. If in fact the goal of these programs is to improve environmental outcomes, then a major shift in programs to a “pay-for-performance” model will maximize water quality benefits with the funding available. A performance-based model will compensate farmers for the environmental benefit of a practice, compared to the current model, which rewards landowners simply for implementing a farm bill program BMP.
Source: msn.com
Photo Credit: Environmental Protection Agency
Categories: Ohio, Government & Policy