I 
110TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2656 
To enhance the ongoing profitability and viability of America’s farms, forests, 
and ranches by making conservation activities more cost-effective and 
efficient, by creating new revenue opportunities through biofuels, and 
for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JUNE 11, 2007 
Mr. MAHONEY of Florida (for himself and Mr. PUTNAM) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in 
addition to the Committees on Energy and Commerce and Science and 
Technology, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, 
in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the juris-
diction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To enhance the ongoing profitability and viability of Amer-
ica’s farms, forests, and ranches by making conservation 
activities more cost-effective and efficient, by creating 
new revenue opportunities through biofuels, and for other 
purposes. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘American Farm Improvement Act of 2007’’. 
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(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows: 
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
TITLE I—CONSERVATION 
Sec. 101. Farmland stewardship process. 
Sec. 102. Expansion of farmland protection tools and opportunities. 
TITLE II—RENEWABLE ENERGY 
Sec. 201. Consistent definitions of ‘‘biomass’’, ‘‘renewable biomass’’, ‘‘cellulosic 
biomass’’, ‘‘cellulosic biomass ethanol’’, ‘‘cellulosic feedstock’’, 
and ‘‘lignocellulosic feedstock’’ throughout the laws of the 
United States. 
Sec. 202. Cellulosic biofuel and emerging technology loan guarantee program. 
Sec. 203. Animal waste environmental protection and bioenergy production 
grants and loans. 
Sec. 204. Biomass feedstock commercialization initiative. 
TITLE I—CONSERVATION 
SEC. 101. FARMLAND STEWARDSHIP PROCESS. 
(a) PARTNERSHIPS
AND
COOPERATION.—Section 
1243(f) of the Food Security Act of 1985 (16 U.S.C. 
3843(f)) is amended— 
(1) by striking paragraph (1) and inserting the 
following new paragraph: 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall use re-
sources provided under subtitle D to enter into stew-
ardship agreements with owners, operators and pro-
ducers, as described under section 1240Q, and to 
designate special projects, as recommended by the 
State Conservationist, after consultation with the 
State technical committee, to enhance technical and 
financial assistance provided to owners, operators, 
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and producers to address natural resource issues re-
lated to agricultural production.’’; 
(2) by striking paragraph (3) and inserting the 
following new paragraph: 
‘‘(3) INCENTIVES.—To realize the purposes of 
the special projects under paragraph (1), and con-
sistent with section 1240Q, the Secretary shall pro-
vide special incentives to owners, operators, and pro-
ducers participating in the special projects to en-
courage partnerships and enrollments of optimal 
conservation value.’’; 
(3) in paragraph (4)(A), by striking ‘‘may’’ and 
inserting ‘‘shall’’ and by inserting ‘‘in cooperation’’ 
after ‘‘stewardship agreement’’; and 
(4) in paragraph (4)(B), by striking ‘‘Each 
party to’’ and inserting ‘‘The designated State agen-
cy responsible for’’ and by striking ‘‘by the party’’ 
and inserting ‘‘under a stewardship agreement’’. 
(b) ESTABLISHMENT AND PURPOSES OF THE FARM-
LAND STEWARDSHIP PROCESS.—Subtitle D of title XII 
of the Food Security Act of 1985 is amended by inserting 
after section 1240P (16 U.S.C. 3839bb–3) the following 
new section: 
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‘‘SEC. 1240Q. ESTABLISHMENT AND PURPOSES OF THE 
FARMLAND STEWARDSHIP PROCESS. 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall establish 
within the Department a process to be known as the 
‘Farmland Stewardship Process’. 
‘‘(b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this process shall 
be to— 
‘‘(1) ensure adequate flexibility to enable con-
servation programs administered by the Secretary to 
be responsive to local conditions and tailored to the 
site-specific needs of, and opportunities presented 
by, individual parcels of eligible agricultural land; 
‘‘(2) reduce administrative procedures and 
costs, provide simplified conservation and expand 
conservation opportunities by allowing owners, oper-
ators and producers to carry out multiple conserva-
tion activities through one application and one con-
tract; 
‘‘(3) provide a means through which the con-
servation objectives of multiple programs, adminis-
tered by multiple agencies at multiple levels of gov-
ernment can be more easily coordinated and applied 
to individual parcels of property; and 
‘‘(4) maximize the effectiveness of existing pro-
grams by providing a mechanism through which con-
servation objectives and practices that are needed to 
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supplement, complement or optimize one or more ex-
isting programs can be incorporated into a contract 
with an owner, operator or producer. 
‘‘(c) RELATION
TO OTHER CONSERVATION PRO-
GRAMS.—Under this process, the Secretary may imple-
ment, or combine together, the features of— 
‘‘(1) any conservation program administered by 
the Secretary; or 
‘‘(2) Any conservation program administered by 
another Federal agency or a State or local govern-
ment, if implementation by the Secretary— 
‘‘(A) is feasible; and 
‘‘(B) is carried out with the consent of the 
applicable administering agency or government. 
‘‘(d) FUNDING.— 
‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—This process and the stew-
ardship agreements created by this process shall be 
funded by the Secretary using— 
‘‘(A) the funding authorities of the con-
servation 
programs 
that 
are 
implemented 
through the use of stewardship agreements; 
‘‘(B) technical assistance in accordance 
with section 1243(d); 
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