New tools, which Stabenow included in the 2018 Farm Bill, will help farmers protect land and water, address the climate crisis
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), Chairwoman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) latest investments in land and water conservation and climate-smart agriculture.
“In the 2018 Farm Bill, I authored the most significant conservation investments of any farm bill to date. The USDA is now using what we passed to give farmers more tools to protect our land and water, improve hunting and fishing, all while also addressing the climate crisis.”
In the 2018 Farm Bill, Chairwoman Stabenow prioritized the conservation of our land and water and secured the most ambitious, bipartisan climate-smart agriculture provisions to date. She led the effort to strengthen and increase funding for the Regional Conservation Partnership Program, which she originally created in 2014 to form locally led partnerships between farmers and conservationists to preserve land and water, boost outdoor recreation, and protect the Great Lakes.
Senator Stabenow has led the effort in the Farm Bill and in the U.S. Senate to advance bipartisan climate policy that engages agriculture and forestry as part of the solution to the climate crisis. Most recently, she introduced the bipartisan Growing Climate Solutions Act with U.S. Senator Mike Braun of Indiana to help break down barriers for farmers and foresters interested in participating in carbon markets. She also introduced the Rural Forest Markets Act to help small-scale, family foresters develop climate solutions and access new economic opportunities and the REPLANT Act to plant 1.2 billion trees on national forests.
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