Earlier this year, the One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBB) included some farm bill funding, largely for commodity-crop safety nets. The latest extension provides one-year funds to remaining farm bill programs like research and organic food production.
While the extension provides some temporary certainty for the farming community, there are some policy changes to conservation programs that the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition said could “undermine” these efforts.
Specifically, the group takes issue with the extension’s lack of funding for the Conservation Reserve Program Transition Incentive Program. The effort will not be able to offer incentives for landowners to sell land to beginning farmers or ranchers who use sustainable practices or transition to organic farming, according to NSAC.
The extension also removes caps on the total cost-share an operation can receive through the Conservation Stewardship Program and Environmental Quality Incentives Program.
The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy said in a statement that these conservation programs are already oversubscribed, and over half of applicants don’t receive funding because of the competitiveness. The removal of caps, IATP said, opens the door for large agricultural operations to take up more conservation dollars while closing out small, midscale farms. (Link to this post).
