The Department of Agriculture announced an initiative that will prioritize certain regenerative agriculture practices, including cover crops, in national conservation programs. Ag grpups recations to this news is as follows:
Farm Bureau Welcomes USDA Approach to Regenerative Agriculture
“We value USDA’s acknowledgement that farmers have long practiced regenerative agriculture on their farms, both through federal conservation programs and on their own. Building on these efforts by leveraging existing voluntary and incentive-based programs to advance additional regenerative goals sounds like smart government to me, especially when farmers remain in the driver’s seat. “The public trusts farmers more than anyone — including government — to lead on regenerative agriculture, based on national polling. We don’t take that trust for granted. Farmers rely on healthy land to grow nutritious crops, raise healthy animals, and ensure our farms thrive for future generations. So, we take seriously our responsibility to care for the land. “We are still digging into the details of the new initiative and look forward to learning more about how it will be administered to ensure it’s effective and workable for farmers.”
EWG statement on USDA announcing regenerative agriculture initiative
The following is a statement from Anne Schechinger, the Environmental Working Group’s midwest director: Prioritizing regenerative agriculture practices like cover crops and encouraging farmers to develop whole farm plans, as announced today, are important steps in the right direction to improving farm resilience. We hope the administration will provide more funding to meet the growing backlog of farmer demand for the most effective conservation practices. The administration should also restore funding for the USDA experts needed to help farmers develop whole farm and regenerative agriculture conservation plans and enroll in this new initiative.
