Gearing up for 2023 Farm Bill

Every five years, Congress passes a farm bill, which encompasses a wide range of issues, including conservation, rural development, forestry and nutrition. Since the 2018 Farm Bill will expire in 2023, Congress has begun to hold hearings and receive input about the next iteration of the bill.

Engaging in the development of the 2023 Farm Bill is a top priority for organizations like the Irrigation Association and the Family Farm Alliance, both internally and through our association with the Western Agriculture and Conservation Coalition.

The Alliance and the IA are members of the Steering Committee of the WACC, a coalition of constructive agriculture and conservation groups who have engaged in recent years on farm bill, environmental appropriations, climate-smart agriculture, forestry, wildfire and Endangered Species Act issues.

While the actual “brass tacks” work on drafting the next farm bill may not occur until 2023, farm and conservation groups are beginning to advance their own policies to take to Congress.

The WACC plans to put together the story of how the Natural Resources Conservation Service is using its current farm bill conservation title dollars and construct a rationale based on facts for why they should keep the baseline in the upcoming round of negotiations.

The conservation title of the last farm bill was a good thing, and parts are due to the direct work of the WACC Alliance and its agricultural and conservation allies. The 2018 conservation title reflects the growing trend in the West, where individual producers working with irrigation districts, nongovernmental organizations, and state and federal partners are performing large-scale projects that benefit the environment, improve on-farm water management and provide a new cash stream that helps rural communities.

The WACC last month teed up a letter to the Senate Subcommittee on Agriculture Appropriations, asking for full funding in the fiscal year 2023 agriculture appropriations bill for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Regional Conservation Partnership Program, Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, and the Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations Program.

“In the face of worsening drought, flood and weather events that continue to impact critical working landscapes and communities, we believe these funds could be deployed more strategically through a combination of incentive structures and streamlined procurement processes that would drive funding to high impact projects much more quickly,” according to the WACC letter.

These arguments will likely be advanced by the WACC as the 2023 Farm Bureau negotiations begin. Our recommendations will likely seek to remove some of the existing contracting barriers for Western producers and make the farm bill’s conservation title programs more accessible and relevant to those producers. Following are other specific objectives of the Family Farm Alliance:

• Strengthen NRCS Technical Assistance capacity for both program implementation and non-farm bill conservation planning.
• Better define interagency cooperation to improve conservation program delivery and yield broader positive impacts.
• Encourage and provide tools to local, regional and state land to lead watershed enhancement efforts.
• Encourage the development of programs to compensate for ecological services provided by farmers, either water conservation and nutrient management or more habitat-related irrigation practices.

At the Alliance, we’ll also support provisions that would protect our valuable Western watersheds and incentivize young farmers to enter and stay in the industry.

We look forward to working with the IA, the WACC and Congress to build a 2023 Farm Bill that embeds some of these sensible, workable policies

Dan Keppen is executive director for the Family Farm Alliance. The Alliance advocates for farmers, ranchers, irrigation districts and allied industries in 17 western states.