The National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) has released its comprehensive 2018 Farm Bill policy platform, An Agenda for the 2018 Farm Bill.

NSAC’s 120 member-organizations put together these recommendations after months of working closely with each other and with grassroots stakeholders. The platform provides a comprehensive vision for a more sustainable farm and food system based on the expert analysis and experience of farmers and ranchers and the groups who represent them.

“NSAC has spent the last two years hosting farmer listening sessions and working closely with our members to ensure that our farm bill recommendations were informed and guided by the experiences of family farmers and ranchers,” said Greg Fogel, NSAC Policy Director. “We heard a lot of positive feedback about experiences with USDA programs, but we also learned that many producers and rural communities are continuing to struggle and are in need of the kind of deep and long-lasting support Congress can provide in the 2018 Farm Bill. An Agenda for the 2018 Farm Bill touches on nearly all titles of the farm bill and provides detailed recommendations on how Congress can build upon the successes of the 2014 Farm Bill to help farmers and ranchers ensure a robust and thriving American agricultural system for years to come.”

NSAC 2018 Farm Bill priorities fall into five broad areas:

Increasing opportunity

Nearly 100 million acres of farmland is set to change hands over the next five years – during the course of the next farm bill. To keep our agricultural economy strong, we need to facilitate the transfer of skills, knowledge, and land between current and future generations of family farmers. The 2018 Farm Bill should support aspiring and retiring farmers and ranchers by:

Advancing land stewardship

American farmers and ranchers face a myriad of economic and environmental obstacles and challenges. USDA programs can help producers address these challenges by supporting agricultural resilience. The 2018 Farm Bill should empower farmers and ranchers with the skills, resources, and training necessary to ensure farms and food systems are resilient and healthy by:

Local foods

Consumer demand for local and regional products is on the rise, and this growing interest in the “farm to fork” pipeline is helping to open new markets and economic opportunities to farmers and ranchers across the nation. However, a lack of infrastructure and technical links has made it difficult for many farmers and ranchers to update their businesses to reach these new customer bases. The 2018 Farm Bill should help connect the dots by:

R&D investment

Diversification is a central tenet of any good risk management plan. In agriculture, biological diversity is key to ensuring success: having a variety of well-adapted crops not only reduces the impacts of extreme weather, pests, and disease, it also protects against price fluctuations in the market. Yet, the federal investment in public plant breeding R&D has fallen precipitously, putting food security at risk. By re-investing in public plant breeding research and public cultivar development, we can better ensure that all farmers have access to high performing, locally adapted seeds. The 2018 Farm Bill should keep American agriculture competitive and resilient by:

Crop insurance

The federal crop insurance program is a cornerstone of the farm safety net, but it must be improved to better serve all of America’s farmers and use taxpayer dollars more efficiently. In its current form, the program has limited utility for certain types of farms and farmers in many areas of the country; it discourages sustainable farming practices like cover cropping while encouraging some unsustainable practices like short rotations; and it precipitates farm consolidation through its unlimited subsidies. The 2018 Farm Bill should modernize federal crop insurance by:

Other priorities

In addition to the priorities outlined above, NSAC will advocate for 2018 Farm Bill provisions that will:

Source: National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition