Washington, DC, May 9, 2008—“The conference report on the 2008 Farm Bill delivers important improvements over existing policy,” says Ralph Grossi, President of American Farmland Trust (AFT). “After a long effort, the bill has strong bipartisan support with real gains in subsidy reform in the new Average Crop Revenue Election (ACRE) program, and desperately needed new funds for conservation, nutrition, and healthy, local foods. The final compromise bill does not include all the reforms we would like to see, but there is no question it is better than the alternative—an extension of current policies.”

“We’ve known for a long time that Americans—producers and consumers—are not well-served by many of today’s farm and food policies.  For years, farmers and ranchers have told us they need better risk management tools and more effective programs to help them enhance conservation and land protection efforts. AFT worked with Congress, the administration, and partners to make sure both farmers and consumers will be better served by the 2008 Farm Bill announced by the Agriculture Conference Committee leadership.

“The ACRE program is an important element of reform that is not well understood. It represents a fundamental reform in how U.S. commodity programs operate—reducing market distortions, cutting direct payments, reducing loan deficiency payment rates, and freeing up funding for other priorities.  This is an historic change,” Grossi notes. “ACRE allows producers to choose a market-oriented, risk management tool that adjusts with market prices and pays farmers only when they need it—when they suffer a real loss in revenue. Existing policies are based on politically set target prices and loan rates that distort the market. We know many farmers want this choice and we expect more than 50-million acres to be enrolled in the program. It is a small step for farmers but a giant leap forward for U.S. farm policy now—and sets the stage for future improvements.”

American Farmland Trust is very pleased with the increased funding and policy improvements for the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) that permanently protects our nations working farms and ranches. Over one million acres of our best farm and ranchland is lost each year. “With all the pressure to produce more food and energy, it is critical to protect this strategic American resource,” adds Grossi. “The increased FRPP funding and program changes will make the program more flexible and increase farmers’ participation.”

In addition, Congress responded to the critical need for more conservation funding, better efficiencies in current working lands programs and several new options including:

• Increased funding and policy improvements for the Environmental Quality Incentives Program;
• Increased funding and policy improvements for Conservation Stewardship Program;
• Funding for Wetland Reserve and Grassland Reserve Programs;
• A new conservation loan program to leverage additional funding for agriculture conservation;
• A new cooperative conservation program to more effectively address the nation’s natural resource concerns;
• A new Chesapeake Bay program to help farmers improve water quality in one of the nation’s premier watersheds; and
• Extension of the tax credit for donated easements resulting in more land being protected for the future.

“We all will enjoy the benefits that will come from enhancing the stewardship efforts on our nation’s working lands including improved water quality, soil conservation, wildlife habitat, and more, that will come from this increased investment in conservation,” adds Grossi.

The bill also includes significant advances in AFT priorities of supporting and expanding access to healthy and local foods, which will help address growing diet-related health concerns, food security and infrastructure needs. This bill expands the commitment to important farmers’ market programs, Healthy Urban Food Enterprise Development program, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable (SNACK) program, and the Community Food Security Program. Just as important, it allows schools flexibility to give preference to local farmers in supplying food for the school food programs. This should help support urban edge farmers and ranchers across the nation.

“At the end of the day, no one got everything they wanted; but we need to answer this question: Is this bill better than the alternative, extending the 2002 bill? I believe it is better to secure these important gains and build on them in the future.  The important thing to focus on in this 2008 Farm Bill is how far we’ve come in setting new policies that will benefit producers, consumers and our working farmland,” says Grossi. “We’ve laid some historic and very important groundwork in federal agriculture and food policy. It is time to pull together and support the passage of this bill.”

-30-