AMWA co-signed a letter to the Department of Agriculture’s Farm Service Agency on March 10 that urges setting “a robust target” for continuous enrollments in the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). The program compensates farmers who preserve environmentally sensitive lands, thereby reducing soil erosion and reducing runoff into nearby water bodies.
The letter, which was organized by the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, asks the Farm Service Agency to implement several policies to promote CREP enrollment, such as reserving at least 800,000 acres annually for new and repeat land enrollments, allowing enrollment to occur on a continuous basis, and proactively notifying farmers with expiring contracts with an option to re-enroll their lands in the program.
AMWA has regularly supported initiatives to reduce farm-based runoff into nearby water supplies, arguing that an effective means of ensuring clean drinking water is to reduce the flow of pollutants into drinking water sources.