Prairie Rivers Network has a new neighbor, Congressman Rodney Davis of the 13th District. He is occupying the office of retired Congressman Tim Johnson on Fox Drive in Champaign. So it was an easy stroll to meet with him recently about our priorities for the federal Farm Bill.

Excessive erosion in a farm field in southern Illinois.

During the meeting, we requested that Congressman Davis support linking conservation compliance to federal crop insurance subsidies. Conservation compliance is an existing Farm Bill provision that requires farmers to reduce erosion and preserve wetlands. Farmers are subject to conservation compliance if they receive certain subsidies, but crop insurance is not one of them.

The 2013 Farm Bill is our chance to fix this lost opportunity to improve the health of our rivers. American taxpayers spend over $7 billion each year on crop insurance subsidies. At the same time, agriculture is a leading cause of water pollution across the nation and in Illinois. Conservation compliance is a government success story proven to reduce water pollution and habitat destruction. Therefore, the public will benefit if conservation compliance is linked to federal crop insurance subsidies.

Congressman Davis was attentive during our meeting, but it is unclear whether he will vote our way. Unfortunately, the agricultural and conservation groups are not all in agreement on this topic. For example, while the National Farmers Union has come out in support of linkage, the highly influential American Farm Bureau Federation has not.

Congress should be taking up the Farm Bill later this spring. Prairie Rivers Network will continue to do outreach, but it’s important for legislators to hear from their constituents on this important opportunity. Please consider writing a Letter to the Editor or contacting your Representative and Senators Durbin and Kirk with the simple message:

“I am a constituent and I am calling to ask the Senator/Congresswoman to support linking conservation compliance to federal crop insurance subsidies in the next Farm Bill.”

RELATED NEWS:  Congressman Davis has just signed on as a co-sponsor of the Protect Our Prairies Act! This is great news because the bill reduces incentives to convert prairies to row crops. Given that Illinois has lost over 99% of its original prairie habitat, we need to protect what’s left. Thanks, Congressman Davis!  But we still want you to support linking conservation compliance to crop insurance subsidies!  

The U.S. Congress voted 52-47 in favor of relinking conservation compliance to crop insurance in the next Farm Bill! This is a huge victory, and we are grateful that Illinois Senator Dick Durbin voted in favor of the amendment. We are also grateful to those of you who responded to our call-to-action and contacted your Senators to support the amendment.

If the House version of the Farm Bill also supports conservation compliance,  farmers who receive crop insurance subsidies will have to control erosion and conserve wetlands. We think that’s more than a fair deal in exchange for the billions of taxpayer dollars that subsidize crop insurance premiums each year.

What’s next? The Senate may vote on the entire Farm Bill later this week, and then the House Agriculture Committee will draft their version of the Farm Bill after the Fourth of July recess. Illinois has three Congressman on the House Agriculture Committee: Hultgren, Johnson, and Schilling. Therefore, we will be calling on you in the near future to contact these legislators and urge their support for conservation compliance in the House Farm Bill.

Here is a suggested letter (please tailor as you see fit).

Dear Senator ___:

As the Senate debates the Farm Bill this week, I urge you to support the Cardin Amendment on Conservation Compliance (SA-2219), which re-attaches important conservation requirements to crop insurance subsidies as was the case prior to 1996.

Taxpayers have supported a safety net for farmers for nearly 30 years, in return for a guarantee that subsidized farmers will follow basic conservation practices in their fields. This Conservation Compliance compact has worked to ensure a secure food system while also ensuring that critical conservation practices are in place to limit soil erosion on highly erodible land and prevent destruction of wetlands. However, crop insurance is a highly subsidized and popular program that is not subject to Conservation Compliance.

Conservation Compliance is not regulation, it is an eligibility requirement to receive taxpayer-funded support and does not threaten a farmer’s ability to get crop insurance. Compliance requirements are not new — most farmers are already meeting these requirements through the use of basic conservation practices such as no-till on highly erodible land in order to receive commodity and conservation subsidy payments. Farmers found to be out of compliance have a year to return to compliance before losing their subsidies, and farmers who suffer a weather-related disaster do not risk losing their insurance subsidy as long as they have been implementing their conservation plan and refraining from draining wetlands.

Re-establishing the link between insurance premium subsidies and Conservation Compliance is especially important as Congress considers eliminating direct payments, the major subsidy program that is currently linked to Compliance, and moving some of the savings to support substantially increased subsidies for crop insurance, which lacks Compliance requirements. Unless you help reconnect crop insurance subsidies to Conservation Compliance, a significant part of a farmer’s incentive to follow conservation plans will disappear this year.

Connecting eligibility for crop insurance subsidies to Conservation Compliance will ultimately save taxpayers money, result in more productive farmland, and ensure federal subsidies align with the public’s interest in basic conservation of our soil and water. Please not only vote for the Cardin Amendment, but encourage other Senators to do the same.

Sincerely,

[your name]

Congress must demand a higher return for the environment in exchange for our more than $8 billion annual investment in agricultural subsidies. Maintaining the status quo is a risky over-reliance on largely voluntary measures that have and will fall short of keeping our waters clean.”

Agricultural pollution is a top cause of degraded rivers and lakes, and the federal government currently invests  more than $8 billion annually in agricultural subsidies. Stacy James, Water Resources Scientist, wrote a letter to the editor in response to a Chicago Tribune editorial. Stacy’s letter calls for crop insurance subsidies to be linked to land-stewardship standards, particularly those that reduce pollution and erosion. Many farmers are already doing their part, thanks to a provision in the 1985 Farm Bill that requires farmers to reduce erosion and preserve wetlands in order to receive certain subsidies.

Now it’s time to update the Farm Bill to link crop insurance to conservation compliance. Read Stacy’s letter and the original editorial, “Congress should reign in crop insurance” to find out more.

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