President-elect Donald Trump is returning to the White House in large part because people were fed up with high food and fuel prices driven by policies that put domestic food production on the back burner.

The Family Farm Alliance and the producers and conservationists who we work with are dedicated to the pragmatic implementation of actions that seek to find a sustainable balance of environmental protection and economic prosperity.   

Western irrigated agriculture has and can continue to provide the most stable food supply in the world - but only if we allow it to function.

We are very encouraged that the new administration will again make Western irrigated agriculture one of its priorities.

The Trump team will once again have to go back to the drawing board and reform the past four years’ implementation of burdensome federal environmental laws and regulations. The National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Endangered Species Act are all key issues of concern for our membership.

Over the past four years, we’ve also seen the Biden administration align itself with litigious environmental organizations and advanced initiatives that favored fish and wildlife management over Western food production.

This is unfortunate, since family farmers and ranchers are willing to partner with constructive conservation groups and government agencies, especially if there are opportunities to both help strengthen their businesses and improve the environment. 

Related:Rightward shift to impact Western ag, water

Infrastructure funded

The Alliance was part of a five-organization steering committee that led over 220 water and agriculture organizations to help secure over $12 billion in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) funding.

Both the IIJA and IRA laws collectively provided a once in a generation level of federal funding to support water infrastructure and drought needs in the West. These funds largely support existing Bureau of Reclamation programs that are critically important to Western farmers, ranchers and water purveyors.

We share concerns that the exploding federal national debt must be addressed, and we know there may be pressure exerted in Washington, D.C. to claw back these funds. However, we recommend a strategy that focuses these funds toward accelerating the approval and permitting processes that can finally start to translate these dollars into projects that help Western irrigators’ ability to improve drought resilience.

The federal government really has a role and a duty to reach out to these producers, educate and work with them on a policy level, work in partnership with them using available funding and federal cost-share opportunities, and generally support their efforts to secure a stable water supply for their farms and ranches. 

Related:What will Trump 2.0 look like?

We must start trimming chapters, rather than adding new ones to a regulatory playbook that is much too voluminous, top-down, and daunting.

We are hopeful that the new administration will share our philosophy that the best solutions come from the ground up and are driven locally by people with a grasp of reality “on the ground.”

These people – farmers, ranchers and local water managers - are also the ones most heavily invested in the success of such solutions.