American Farmland Trust Statement on House Farm, Food, and National Security Act (Farm Bill) of 2026
The draft Farm Bill text released last week by the House Agriculture Committee would make critical improvements to USDA conservation programs to better serve farmers, ranchers, and landowners. It also maintains the historic investment into conservation programs from the recent transfer of unspent Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding. This means even more producers, both now and in the future, would be able to protect their land and implement the very practices needed to build more profitable, resilient, and sustainable operations.
Specifically, AFT applauds the numerous reforms proposed for the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP). With 2,000 acres a day of agricultural land lost or threatened by conversion, these two programs are critically important to stem the loss of productive agricultural land to development. The legislation makes improvements sought by landowners and program partners for years. These include increasing the federal cost-share for easement acquisitions, providing a lower cost-share option with no federal right of enforcement, clarifying the process for easement modifications, extending entity certification to RCPP, exempting ACEP from the Adjusted Gross Income (AGI) requirement, and ensuring that easement proceeds do not count against a landowner’s AGI for other Farm Bill programs. Together, these would enable more farmers and ranchers to protect their family’s legacy and tap into their land’s equity to improve their operation or transfer it to a successor.
The inclusion of a new program that would match funding for state and tribal soil health programs is another crucial step forward. Many states across the nation have been driving conservation innovation and filling gaps in federal support by creating their own programs to help farmers and ranchers increase profitability, reduce soil erosion, improve water and air quality, and build resilience to extreme weather. We applaud Chairman Thompson for proposing to match and incentivize greater state and tribal conservation investments, and look forward to working with the House and Senate Agriculture Committees to make this a standalone program.
While AFT considers the legislation to be a win for conservation, we recognize that additional bipartisan discussion is needed on how the next Farm Bill can best meet the nutritional needs of the most vulnerable, more fully support local and regional food systems, and address other concerns.
AFT has long worked with the agriculture committees to identify opportunities in the Farm Bill to advance Smart Solar policy. We applaud the Committee’s inclusion of some of these priorities, such as directing USDA to study agrivoltaics (or “shared solar and agricultural production”) and directing USDA to require that developers implement best practices to ensure that land put into solar can return to agricultural production after project removal. However, unrealized opportunities remain to incentivize solar development on less productive land and to advance agrivoltaic projects. Furthermore, the present language would restrict a farmer or rancher’s ability to access support for solar to power their own operation at a time of ballooning energy costs. AFT hopes to work with the Committee to remove these proposed restrictions specific to solar development, and instead to maintain the ability of these programs to improve farm viability and support rural vitality while incentivizing Smart Solar development that keeps productive land in farming.
AFT recently led the development of federal policy recommendations endorsed by fifteen other agricultural stakeholders related to the emerging issue of PFAS contamination of agricultural land. AFT praises the bill for making PFAS a high priority research initiative, identifying PFAS as a Center of Excellence area of focus, and directing USDA to coordinate with the Department of Defense on research to mitigate the impacts of PFAS on farmland. We look forward to continuing to work with the agriculture committees toward the creation of a dedicated PFAS relief and support program since we believe such a program is foundational to ensuring that impacted farmers are able to remain viable and stay safely in business.
AFT also appreciates the bill’s authorization of a local food purchasing program similar to the former Local Food Purchase Assistance program. However, without mandatory funding, it will likely be unable to meet its substantial demand. In addition, as the process moves forward, AFT recommends that the Farm Bill include authorization of the Regional Food Business Centers to strengthen local and regional food systems, establishment of an Office of Small Farms to help USDA better serve smaller acreage farm and forest operations, and provide greater support for farmer-to-farmer conservation education which is key to helping producers successfully incorporate conservation practices into their management systems.
Finally, at a time when record land prices are placing the dream of farmland ownership out of reach for so many new farmers, AFT applauds the proposed establishment of a pre-approval pilot program for farm ownership loans and the reauthorization of the Commission on Farm Transitions. The Commission would create a platform for identifying the barriers to transition facing both retiring and aspiring producers and provide policymakers with concrete recommendations to address this national concern.
This bill marks a vital first step in what we hope will be a bipartisan process moving forward. The passage of a Farm Bill remains both urgent and essential to provide the certainty farmers need to run viable operations, and to enable the types of improvements needed to ensure that programs are working well for the very people they are intended to serve.
AFT thanks Chairman Thompson, the Committee, and staff for all their hard work in developing this legislation, and for their continued partnership with stakeholders to pass a Farm Bill that meets the needs of farmers, ranchers, and rural communities across the nation.
