[Pollinator] Farm Bill and Pollinator Habitat Protection Act

[Ladadams at aol.com]

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(Embedded image moved to file: pic26661.jpg)E&E Daily              
An E&E Publishing Service 
E&E Daily -- Friday, May 25, 2007                                  
AGRICULTURE: Harkin targets big changes to conservation programs   
Allison Winter, E&E Daily reporter                                 
Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is       
planning a dramatic reorganization of conservation programs in the 
next farm bill and wants to pump $6 billion more into conservation 
spending.                                                          
Harkin's farm bill proposal would consolidate the Agriculture      
Department's largest working lands programs into one new           
initiative called the Conservation Stewardship Incentives Program. 
Its annual budget would be twice that of the entire Fish and       
Wildlife Service.                                                  
The working land stewardship program -- which would combine the    
Environmental Quality Incentives Program, Conservation Security    
Program and Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program -- would get $3     
billion more over five years than current funding for those        
programs. The largest, EQIP, currently gets about $1 billion       
annually.                                                          
The agriculture chairman would put another $3 billion into the     
other conservation programs. The money would come from the         
"reserve fund" given to the farm bill in the 2008 budget           
resolution, which requires offsets.                                
Harkin does not have those offsets in hand yet and is basically    
going to "buy now, pay later," with the hopes that his colleagues  
will be so impressed with the conservation spending, they will     
help him come up with the offsets.                                 
"I am setting the stage, there will be battles later on for        
getting that money," Harkin said. "I want to set a dynamic so the  
Senate will be hard-pressed not to come up with that money."       
The Iowa senator is looking for his own cost-savings within the    
farm bill itself and wants to trim some farm subsidies and change  
what crops qualify for payments in the commodity title.            
"It is time to look ahead and think about how we can shuffle       
around and define what a commodity is," said Harkin, noting that   
cellulose, organics, conservation and specialty crops could all be 
considered "commodities."                                          
The conservation proposal is part of an effort to "streamline"     
programs, make the application process easier for farmers and keep 
different programs from competing against each other for funding,  
Harkin told reporters.                                             
Two conservation easement programs would also come under one       
umbrella. The two largest land retirement programs, the            
Conservation Reserve Program and the Wetlands Reserve Program,     
would stand alone.                                                 
USDA has nearly a dozen different conservation programs Congress   
has created in different farm bills over the past 20 years.        
Legislators created different programs throughout the years to     
target certain concerns, including wildlife habitat, grasslands    
preservation and water quality. But farmers have complained that   
the resulting alphabet-soup of programs, each with its own         
application process and deadlines, is too difficult to navigate.   
The Bush administration proposed a similar consolidation for       
conservation easement programs earlier this year, but Harkin's     
plan for working lands is more ambitious. The administration's     
farm bill proposal kept the two largest programs on their own and  
folded the smaller programs into one.                              
Some environmental groups were critical of that plan, saying it    
could eliminate some of the specific gains for wildlife in the     
other programs. But at least some of those groups are supporting   
Harkin's plan, which would let farmers apply for federal           
assistance for a one-time project, longer-term endeavors or to     
create wildlife habitat.                                           
"We are delighted with the new proposal ... it creates an          
opportunity to reform all of the programs and make sure we get the 
maximum environmental benefit, and it makes it so much easier on   
farmers," said Ferd Hoefner of the Sustainable Agriculture         
Coalition.                                                         


Peterson to boost conservation funds                               
Meanwhile, House Agriculture Committee Chairman Collin Peterson    
(D-Minn.) said yesterday he would restore controversial cuts he    
made to the Conservation Security Program in his farm bill         
proposal, bringing it up to baseline levels.                       
Peterson appears to have backed away from some of the hard budget  
lines he drew before the conservation and energy markups earlier   
this week. Before this week, Peterson told members they could not  
tap any more of the reserve funds to try to boost funding for      
favorite programs.                                                 
But after a meeting with House leadership last night, Peterson     
said that he is feeling more confident about being able to find    
offsets for funding and would let subcommittees tap more money in  
the reserve.                                                       
"It was a matter of us trying to be cautious in moving ahead on    
the reserve funds and maybe we were too cautious," Peterson said.  


Buzz buzz buzz                                                     
A group of 29 senators introduced a separate bill yesterday that   
would open all farm bill conservation programs to habitat          
protection for bees and other pollinators.                         
The "Pollinator Protection Act" does not create new farm bill      
programs or change their funding. Rather, it directs the USDA      
offices that dole out conservation funds to help producers develop 
habitat or farming practices that could benefit pollinators.       
The plight of bees has come to the forefront this year, as a       
mysterious "colony collapse disorder" has ravaged some bee         
colonies. More than 25 percent of the United States' 2.4 million   
bee colonies have vanished, according to some estimates. Bees and  
other pollinators are responsible for the reproduction of 75       
percent of the world's flowering plants, most of which are crop    
species.                                                           
A report last fall from the National Academy of Sciences           
recommended using farm bill programs to conserve habitat for       
native bees.                                                       
Harkin and roughly half of the Agriculture Committee have signed   
on as cosponsors.                                                  
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Laurie Davies Adams
Executive Director
Coevolution Institute
423 Washington St. 5th
San Francisco, CA 94111
415 362 1137
LDA at coevolution.org
_http://www.coevolution.org/_ (http://www.coevolution.org/) 
_http://www.pollinator.org/_ (http://www.pollinator.org/) 
_http://www.nappc.org/_ (http://www.nappc.org/) 

Bee Ready for National Pollinator Week:  June 24-30, 2007.  Contact us 
for more information at www.pollinator.org 

Our future flies on the wings of pollinators.



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