Minn. farmers have most to lose if conservation cut from farm bill

Published 8:27 am Friday, November 23, 2018

By Elizabeth Dunbar

MPR News/90.1 FM

Some Minnesota farmers are concerned about how conservation programs will fare under the next farm bill, which is being negotiated in Congress.

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House and Senate agriculture leaders — including Minnesota’s 7th District Rep. Collin Peterson, who is ranking member on the House Agriculture Committee — are working on a compromise for the massive bill, which includes funding for food stamps, crop insurance and programs focused on conservation. It comes up for renewal about every five years, and the 2014 bill expired earlier this year.

Republican congressional leaders have said they want to pass the farm bill before the end of the year — before Democrats take over control of the U.S. House.

One element of the latest version of the farm bill that looks different in the House and Senate versions is the Conservation Stewardship Program. It pays farmers to use practices that reduce soil erosion and promote better water quality, such as planting cover crops and altering the way fertilizers and herbicides are applied. The House version would eliminate the Conservation Stewardship Program and the Senate version would keep it.

“If it were eliminated, it would be a huge hit to Minnesota farmers,” said Ben Anderson, an organizer with the Land Stewardship Project, a nonprofit organization that focuses on farming and the environment.

Every year, Minnesota is among the top recipients of Conservation Stewardship Program dollars. Anderson estimates that farmers here could lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars over the next 10 years if Congress decides to get rid of it.

While some compromise proposals have involved rolling the Conservation Stewardship Program into other farm bill conservation programs, Anderson said the program is unique because it helps farmers maintain conservation practices over time, rather than paying them for one-time improvements.

Darwyn Bach, who grows corn and soybeans near Boyd in western Minnesota, said for many years he’s been able to tap Conservation Stewardship Program money to do variable-rate fertilizer applications, which involves sampling soil and figuring out exactly how much of each nutrient is needed in different parts of a field.