Special to GoJo – State agriculture commissioners and directors representing nearly 40 states convened in Washington, DC for the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA) Winter Meeting to discuss a variety of state and federal policy issues facing farmers, ranchers and agribusiness.
While perhaps not attracting the same media attention as governors or legislators, the states’ chief agriculture officials play a critical role in sustaining America’s agribusiness.
The US agriculture industry is booming. Demand is up for agricultural products, commodity prices are near all-time highs and the value of US agricultural exports increased approximately 21% from 2010 to 2011. All of that said, the attending commissioners and directors acknowledged an equal number of challenges —a dwindling agricultural workforce and disappearing farmland, myriad regulatory challenges at the state and federal levels of government, shrinking federal subsidies and the ever-present danger of another economic downturn. Like the agriculture industry as a whole, NASDA’s members recognize a potential “bust” is always around the corner.
NASDA’s lobbying efforts primarily target the federal government, and the group will play a role in reauthorizing the Farm Bill this year, but serious attention was paid to state issues at the recent meeting. Among these were discussions:
- To address agricultural runoff issues through nutrient management programs;
- To develop stronger, better funded state invasive species management programs;
- To define Agricultural Department roles in the regulation of food and nutrition; and
- To preserve working agricultural lands.
The state agriculture officials listened to an update from the Environmental Protection Agency about a multi-state hypoxia task force that has been focusing on developing voluntary state programs to manage agricultural runoff in the Mississippi River Basin.
“Hypoxic” water bodies have very low oxygen concentrations, primarily resulting from excess nutrient and pollutant runoff. That discussion also highlighted the steps that agri-business has taken in recent years to minimize runoff through improvements in tillage practices and the timing of fertilizer application. These are significant changes in agriculture industry practices. All of this prompted a spirited discussion among many of the commissioners and directors about the role of agricultural runoff in relation to other non-point sources; from parking lots to residential lawns.
The meeting featured a working session about the ongoing threat that pests and diseases pose—specifically invasive species. Members voiced their support for increased funding for state-level programs to combat local and regional invasive species, where funds can be more directly applied to specific threats. Noting that most pest and disease issues vary greatly based on geography and crop type, the general consensus of the group was that bringing invasive species management dollars to the states is the best strategy to handle the issue in the long-term.
As for land preservation, NASDA moved to create a Military-Agricultural Partnership at the meeting, intended to protect diminishing farmland. State and local governments can—and routinely do—leverage Department of Defense and other federal conservation and easement programs to protect critical conservation areas and habitat and agricultural land. Farmers make great neighbors for military installations, preserving critical open space alongside bases and serving to buffer those bases against incompatible development.
These are important issues as state and local governments try to address disappearing farms and begin bracing for the upcoming BRAC round that was recently announced. A task force is being created to foster and build this partnership and will work to identify additional strategies to leverage state and federal resources, continue to keep agricultural lands in production and protect neighboring bases.
These issues are emerging as prominent issues at NASDA and events attended by other policy markers. They will continue to be the subject of discussion among agricultural leaders and stakeholders in the coming months, especially as action items and policy amendments are developed ahead of the next NASDA meeting in September.
Written by Michael Behm, Senior Vice President and Jake Hegeman, Vice President of Stateside Associates. Stateside Associates is a sponsor of Governors Journal.
