The Senate and House Agriculture Committees held an informational hearing this week to help them identify priority issues for Pennsylvania’s farm community in the upcoming 2007 federal Farm Bill.

Representatives of the Department of Agriculture, the Chesapeake Bay Commission and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation presented comments that were remarkably similar—there is not enough federal help coming to farmers to help them solve environmental and conservation issues on their farms.

Ann Pesiri Swanson and Marel Roub from the Chesapeake Bay Commission noted a series of listening sessions they held throughout the Bay drainage area turned up these priorities from farmers—

· Establish a Regional Stewardship Fund;

· Implement the Conservation Security Program as an entitlement program;

· Target funds to maximize environmental benefits;

· Enhance the viability of agriculture through market development, renewable energy applications and risk management; and

· Expand technical assistance and outreach.

The full set of recommendations and background was included in a special Commission report entitled, “2007 Federal Farm Bill: Concepts for Conservation Reform in the Chesapeake Bay Region.”

Matthew Ehrhart of the PA Office of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation said, “Society is asking farmers to do more and more to improve water quality. Without robust federal and state conservation programs to assist producers with cost-share and technical assistance, farmers simply cannot implement many critical BMPs.”

CBF, Brubaker Corporation, the Grange, DEP and many other partners held 14 special public discussions with farmers through the Bay drainage area to produce a “Voices of Agriculture” report that captures recommendations made on the Farm Bill.

Ehrhart noted Pennsylvania only receives about 2 cents of every dollar in agricultural goods produced in the state. Midwest states receive about 15 cents and the nationwide average is 7 cents.

Only about $3.8 billion of the $29 billion in the Federal Farm Bill represents conservation spending, even though 96 percent of the participants in the CBF listening sessions said conservation spending should be increased.

The total conservation backlog of unfunded conservation support requested by producers as of 2004 was about $37.5 million in Pennsylvania.

CBF also gave the Committees a series of recommendations on what it would like to see in the next Farm Bill.

Ehrhart noted CBF has worked with over 850 Pennsylvania farmers and landowners on conservation practices.

Secretary of Agriculture Dennis Wolff told the Committees in comments that their series of listening sessions also resulted in strong support for increased funding for farm conservation programs.

The Department of Agriculture would like to see several improvements in federal conservation programs:

· Greater funding for the Environmental Quality Incentives and the Conservation Security Programs;

· Allowing EQIP to fund alternative manure utilization and treatment technologies;

· Ensure that only highly environmentally sensitive lands are enrolled in CREP;

· Develop a national energy policy that encourages contributions from agriculture; and

· Ensure funds are available to provide technical assistance to farmers.

Sen. Waugh (R-York) is the Majority Chair and Sen. O’Pake (D-Berks) is the Minority Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee and Rep. Hershey (R-Chester) is the Majority Chair and Rep. Daley (D-Washington) is the Minority Chair of the House Agriculture and Rural Affairs Committee.

5/5/2006