Farming & Water Quality: Conservation Policies Working to Reduce Nutrient Loss
Channel: eesionline
Date: 2015-11-02

Learn more and download slides at http://www.eesi.org/briefings/view/110215water
Table of contents: https://youtu.be/k_69ymR3YB4?t=7s

From the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone to the Des Moines Waterworks lawsuit against drainage districts, water quality challenges are growing and the Farm Bill’s conservation programs are helping farmers in their efforts to reduce nutrient loss. The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a briefing examining these water quality challenges and how stakeholders are partnering to implement effective, voluntary, farm-level conservation practices that will provide multiple benefits both to rural and urban areas. 

SPEAKERS:

Jonathan Coppess
Clinical Assistant Professor of Law and Policy, University of Illinois
Download Slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/Jonathan_Coppess_110215.pdf
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/k_69ymR3YB4?t=1m14s

Adam Sharp
Vice President of Public Policy, Ohio Farm Bureau
Download Slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/Adam_Sharp_110215.pdf
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/k_69ymR3YB4?t=11m44s

Leon Corzine
Family farm owner, Illinois
Download Slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/Len_Corzine_110215.pdf
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/k_69ymR3YB4?t=28m11s

Tariq Baloch
Water Utility Plant Manager, City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Download Slides: http://www.eesi.org/files/Tariq_Baloch_110215.pdf
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/k_69ymR3YB4?t=43m35s

John Larson
Executive Director, American Farmland Trust
Skip to presentation: https://youtu.be/k_69ymR3YB4?t=58m36s

Question & Answer Session
https://youtu.be/k_69ymR3YB4?t=1h11m42s

The discussion highlighted Farm Bill conservation policies in action, which are helping advance best management practices that improve drinking water quality and farmers' bottom lines by enhancing in-field nutrient management. Farmers know that conserving nutrients makes both economic and environmental sense, but substantial work remains to achieve the widespread adoption necessary to address water quality and stave off regulation.

Ongoing water quality issues, such as phosphorus-driven, harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie and high nitrate levels in municipal drinking water in the Midwest, are bringing heightened attention to the nutrient loss challenge for water utilities and farmers. The 2014 Farm Bill’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) is demonstrating how farmers can partner with interested parties (commodity groups, NGO’s, agribusinesses, etc.) to further the adoption of these voluntary best management practices addressing the critical issue of water quality. RCPP encourages partnerships between agricultural producers and stakeholders to address regional problems while maintaining or improving agricultural productivity.

The discussion showcased efforts by farmers and their allied organizations and businesses to implement RCPP in modern commercial farming operations. For instance, they are adapting precision agricultural technology tools and field-level data to help analyze and understand nutrient loss and conservation practices so as to improve farm and field management.

Administered by the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), RCPP has $1.2 billion in federal funding, with USDA partners providing matching funds for a total of $2.8 billion through 2018. RCPP combines and reinforces four pre-existing NRCS conservation programs.