Aug 16, 2022
Farmers are Adopting Advanced Technology and Employing Environmentally Smart Practices to Protect America’s WaterwaysKey Issues: SustainabilityFarm Policy
Author: Chris Edgington
Over the last decade, farmers have been employing some of the most innovative practices in history to reduce nutrient losses and protect the nation’s rivers, lakes and streams. And the research shows that we’re making a difference, as water quality is improving across the country. That’s why I am perplexed by recent news coverage claiming runoff from fertilizer use is causing problems in the nation’s waterways. These stories run counter to the facts being released by some of the country’s most reputable groups in this space. Here are just a few snippets of what these groups are saying: The US Geological Survey, which monitors the loads of nutrients being delivered to the Gulf of Mexico, reports that the 5-year moving average of total nitrogen load in America’s streams has steadily declined since 2009. The US Army Corps of Engineers, working with the USGS and others, issued a report in June 2022 providing a 15-year update on the health of the Upper Mississippi and...
Read MoreAug 1, 2022
To Successfully Shape 2023 Farm Bill, Corn Growers Encouraged to Build Bridges with Groups Outside of the Ag CommunityKey Issues: TradeFarm Policy
Author: Brooke S. Appleton
After Abraham Lincoln became president in 1861, he appointed to his cabinet the very opponents he had vanquished in the bitter and hard-fought battle for the Republican nomination the year before. The team of rivals, representing very different ideological positions within the GOP of the time, helped the president go on to win the Civil War, abolish slavery and keep the country intact. I thought of Lincoln’s team of rivals as I moderated a recent discussion in Washington on the upcoming farm bill reauthorization. The panel, composed of Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, former Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman and Richard Fordyce, who served as Farm Service Agency administrator during the Trump administration, echoed the team of rivals' approach by challenging corn growers to take the lead in broadening the coalition engaged in the farm bill and fostering relationships with stakeholders outside of commodity and livestock organizations. Heitkamp used food security as an example,...
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