Undersecretary talks conservation and the next farm bill
Farm and Ranch October 25, 2010 USDA Undersecretary for Natural Resources and the Environment Harris Sherman visited an eastern Washington farm Friday to see first hand how government conservation programs are helping producers adopt direct seeding to address water quality issues while maintaining productive working agricultural lands. Sherman also had the next farm bill in mind during the visit. Sherman: “You know the 2012 Farm Bill will be a forum to assess how well we are doing and to see where we should be fine-tuning these programs. And where we should be moving to new types of programs. So, as I travel through this country, and I know Secretary Vilsack is doing this as well, we are asking the question what is working? How can we improve these programs. And we are going to continue to ask these questions and then take these ideas and suggestions to the Congress and have a very thorough dialogue in terms of what makes sense in terms of a 2012 Farm Bill (Hoff- Any ideas at this time?) Well I think many of the 2008 Farm Bill programs are working very well and I think it is important to show Congress that these programs have merit and they should be fully funded in the future.” The undersecretary said he was impressed with the collaboration going on among producers, the local conservation district, in this case the Spokane County district, the Natural Resources Conservation Service and other partners. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report on Northwest Aginfo Net. ?
