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Conservationist says compliance portion nothing to fear

The Senate Farm Bill provision that ties conservation compliance in with crop insurance has raised a lot of concerns among farmers. Greg Fogel, policy associate with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, who helped craft that provision says farmers will NOT lose access to crop insurance. There’s a one-year grace period if they come out of compliance.

Fogel says, “If they’re found out of compliance after a year’s time and choose not to come back into compliance, they would not lose access to the program. They would simply lose access to the federal premium subsidy. They could still acquire crop insurance.”

Fogel says there are also variances built in, in the event of extreme weather events such as the drought.  He says, “Nothing changes there. There’s a good faith exemption. There’s a statutory requirement for NRCS to work with producers to get them back into compliance.”

Fogel says it would not be a paperwork headache for farmers or the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).  Fogel adds, “We wouldn’t really see any new paperwork requirements for producers. They’d simply have to check a box when they apply for crop insurance. And, for NRCS, the current enforcement system would remain in place.”

A five-year grace period is also given to farmers who would be entering into conservation compliance for the first time.  The House Ag Committee farm bill does not contain the compliance/crop insurance provision.