National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture

October 17th is Conservation Call In Day!

Conservation, environment and sustainable agriculture groups from all across the country are urging calls to members of the Senate Agriculture Committee on October 17th. Thousands of callers will be urging their Senators to provide additional funding for conventional and working lands conservation programs. Call your Senator this Wednesday and help call attention to the urgent need to invest in sustainable agriculture!

The Senate Agriculture Committee is set to take up its version of the 2008 Farm Bill the week of October 22nd. Many of our Farm Bill priorities are included in Committee Chairman Harkin’s draft bill including an updated version of the Conservation Security Program called the Comprehensive Stewardship Incentives Program. Basic funding decisions, however, are being made even before markup in informal meetings between Agriculture Committee members. It is becoming increasingly clear that the funding levels now under discussion for conservation will be inadequate to provide meaningful support to farmers who conserve soil, water and wildlife habitat.

Please call your Senator on October 17th and ask them to:

Provide at least $5 billion more for conservation in the farm bill, including $2 billion for the Comprehensive Stewardship Incentives Program.

Time is of the essence. If your Senator is on the Agriculture Committee (see list of Members and their contact information below) call and ask for their legislative aide that works on agriculture. If the agriculture aide is available, talk to them about the need for adequate funding for conservation in the Farm Bill. (See background below for more information on the Comprehensive Stewardship Incentives Program.) If the aide is unavailable, leave a short message of support, along with your name and phone number, on the aide’s voice mail or with the receptionist.

If you prefer to write, fax a brief letter of support, addressed to the Senator, and remember to include your name and address and contact information. The fax numbers are listed below.

The message is simple. I am a constituent and am calling to urge Senator _________ to support an additional $5 billion for conservation programs, including $2 billion for the Comprehensive Stewardship Incentive’s Program.

Background

The good news is that Senate Agriculture Chairman Tom Harkin’s proposed Conservation Title expands support for working lands conservation policy through a new program that continues, improves and streamlines the CSP while fostering closer coordination between the CSP and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), the other major working lands conservation program. The combination and coordination of the two programs is being referred to as the Comprehensive Stewardship Incentives Program, or CSIP, in the Harkin bill.

Under this new CSIP “umbrella” both EQIP and CSP will be available annually on a nationwide basis. Like its predecessor, the new CSP program will support farmers who improve and maintain farming systems that provide public benefits including cleaner air and streams, healthy soil, wildlife habitat, biodiversity, and energy conservation. Unlike the current CSP program, however, it will be regularly available to all producers each year through a continuous sign-up and ranking process. The coordination of CSP and EQIP through CSIP will result in ‘one-stop shopping’ for farmers and ranchers seeking working lands conservation assistance.

Annual, nationwide availability, however, will only happen if the program is provided adequate funding. The combined program needs at least $2 billion in new funding over the next five years of the new farm bill in order to serve farmers in all 50 states. This increase is actually equal to just 40 percent of the $5 billion in funding for CSP and EQIP that Congress has shortsightedly cut from the two programs over the past 4 years.

Despite the relatively modest request for a $2 billion increase in working lands conservation funding for the next 5 years, many Senators on the Committee have so far been unwilling to support it. Concerned citizens have until October 23 to convince those Senators that at least $2 billion more funding is needed for working lands conservation so that farmers and ranchers in all parts of the country have a fair opportunity to participate and help protect the environment.

110th CONGRESS: SENATE AGRICULTURE COMMITTEE

Democrats

Member	Staff	Phone	FAX
Tom Harkin (IA), Chair	Mark Halverson	202-224-3254	202-224-9369
Patrick Leahy (VT)	Brian Baenig	224-4242	202-224-3479
Kent Conrad (ND)	John Fuher	224-2043	202-224-7776
Max Baucus (MT)	Brandon Willis	224-2651	202-224-0515
Blanche Lincoln (AR)	Robert Holifield	224-4843	202-228-1371
Debbie Stabenow (MI)	Chris Adamo	224-4822	202-228-0325
Ben Nelson (NE)	Jonathan Coppess	224-6551	202-228-0012
Ken Salazar (CO)	Brendan McGuire	224-5852	202-228-5036
Sherrod Brown (OH)	Joe Shultz	224-2315	202-228-6321
Robert B. Casey, Jr. (PA)	Kasey Gillette	224-6324	202-228-0604
Amy Klobuchar (MN)	Hilary Meggin Bolea	224-3244	202-228-2186

Republicans

Member	Staff	Phone	FAX
Saxby Chambliss (GA) Ranking Member	Martha Scott Poindexter	202-224-3521	202-224-0103
Richard Lugar (IN)	Aaron Whitesel	224-4814	202-228-0360
Thad Cochran (MS)	West Higginbothom	224-5054	202-228-9450
Mitch McConnell (KY)	Allison Thompson	224-2541	202-224-2499
Pat Roberts (KS)	Mike Seyfert	224-4774	202-224-3514
Lindsey Graham (SC)	Laura Bauld	224-5972	202-224-3808
Norman Coleman (MN)	Tony Eberhard	224-5641	202-224-1152
Michael Crapo (ID)	Staci Lancaster	224-6142	202-228-1375
John Thune (SD)	Brendon Plack	224-2321	202-228-5429
Chuck Grassley (IA)	Amanda Taylor	224-3744	202-224-6020