2012 Farm Bill

The Center’s policy director Joe Short spent several days in Washington, D.C. in mid-May visiting agency officials and Congressional delegation staff. He joined other rural advocates from the Coalition for Eastern Forests & Communities and the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition in a broad range of meetings about the next Farm Bill, federal renewable energy policy, community forests and ecosystem services. Northern Forest delegation offices visited included Senators Shaheen, Snowe, Sanders, and Gillibrand and Representatives Michaud, Bass, Welch, and Owens.

From conversations during the week we learned that current work on the Farm Bill is on the Senate side, with the Senate Ag Committee beginning field hearings in May. The House has yet to begin significant work on the bill. Uncertainty was a consistent theme in Farm Bill conversations, whether it was on the exact timing of the bill or on how the fiscal climate will impact authorization and funding for rural development, forestry, and conservation programs that are important to the Northern Forest region. Yet there was an eagerness for Farm Bill policy ideas that are innovative, flexible, efficient, regional, and leveraged—all characteristics of the initial ideas that began to emerge from the recent Summit for the Northern Forest.
 

A regional public policy working group met at the May 4-5 Summit for the Northern Forest to outline draft priorities and a preliminary work plan to develop a Northern Forest Farm Bill platform. Action items from the session included:
• ‘Refresh’ the messaging of the Northern Forest Sustainable Economy Initiative recommendations as a basis for engaging state and federal elected officials to advance policies that support regionally-identified priorities.
• Refine Northern Forest priorities for regional advocacy in the coming year. The group will solicit input and share draft priorities with other Summit participants and other regional networks, and develop an outreach strategy for key officials to engage with the ideas.
• Conduct a regional sign-on campaign to convey continued community, business, and landowner support for the Sustainable Economy Initiative strategy
• Engage the region’s governors and congressional leaders to advance identified policy priorities for federal FY12, the Farm Bill, and other legislation.

Contact Joe Short or join Northern Forest Center policy email/RSS list for updates and to learn how you can get involved in developing priorities and in advocacy efforts.

A recent meeting of the Coalition for Eastern Forests and Communities brought together people working in the field of ecosystem services from across the eastern U.S. to discuss how the Farm Bill and other federal policies can create incentives for ecosystem services such as filtering water and carbon sequestration. Northern Forest Center Program & Policy Director Joe Short developed and facilitated the ecosystem services track at the meeting.

Al Todd from the USDA Office of Environmental Markets spoke to the group, which over the course of two days developed a preliminary set of ideas for policy in the Farm Bill related to ecosystem services.