Farming & Your Freedom

Sign up for year number two is underway in farm country as selected producers in certain watersheds get the opportunity to become part of the most innovative farm program in years, the Conservation Security Program (CSP).

At least 40,000 farmers in six Iowa watersheds are among those invited to participate in the first national sign up of the historic new Conservation Security Program (CSP). This includes producers in two Iowa watersheds included in the 2004 CSP pilot program sign-up. The 2005 sign up will be available from March 28 to May 27, according to the NRCS.

Nationwide, 220 watersheds will be eligible for the new sign-up, 202 of them are new this year, 18 were part of 2004's pilot project. In Iowa, there was one watershed project in the southwestern part of the state last year. In 2005, there will be one in extreme southwestern Iowa, one in Northwest Iowa, and a large one in extreme Northeast Iowa.

The CSP is innovative because it is selective, provides financial incentives and tech assistance, but primarily because it develops conservation programs for working land. This is no set-aside program.

CSP should reward conservation efforts for the environmental benefits that are derived from their adoption of conservation practices on the farm. Principally, plans include conservation of water, soil, air, plant and animal resources. It's pretty much an all-of-life thing.

Nicely, the CSP is one "subsidy" that is compatible with the World Trade Organization (WTO) and won't get us in trouble with our sensitive trade partners. Usually, payments are tied to production of certain commodity crops, but CSP benefits are open to any farmer who develops a conservation plan to protect the resources noted above.

In these days of tough sledding for federal regulatory functions and wholesale slashing of government-paid benefits or entitlements, CSP has broad support from conservatives well as liberals. CSP has a goal that benefits everyone and does not threaten to evolve into a tangled bureaucracy more interested in self-perpetuation than in solving actual problems.

CSP is the first federal program to reward farmers for good stewardship of their working lands, while providing incentives to achieve higher levels of conservation and resource protection. Farmers can enter one of three levels of participation, enter into five or ten-year contracts that address conservation concerns outlined by the NRCS, and enter a program that allows producers to earn additional financial incentives. Watershed-wide participation is encouraged.

In order for CSP to do its good works, supporters need to have success in fending off attacks on its funding, while working hard to establish regulations that are workable, that encourage participation and responsible land stewardship. There is a delicate balance when you go to conserving working land. CSP must reach that if it is to continue growing and become the government farm program of the future.

The CSP was aborned in 2002 and the Bush Administration has been slow in implementing it. With Washington's backdrop of vicious partisan budget fights, it is a wonder the program took wing at all. But it has, and with encouragement from farmers, ranchers and ordinary Americans who want to reach two goals, sustainable agriculture, and a robust farm economy to keep America strong.

Conservation is vital to the survival of our world, and any program that truly promotes it while recognizing the fact that people have to make a living, is a good one. CSP seems to fit the bill.

I'll see ya!