WASHINGTON, DC – Last week, Field to Market (FTM) held its first Farm Bill and Agriculture Policy Conference, bringing together various stakeholders across the food and agriculture value chain to hear from policy makers and administration officials, as well as representatives from agriculture and conservation organizations.
Jamison Cruce, USA Rice senior director of government affairs, represented the U.S. rice industry on a panel discussing the Farm Bill conservation title alongside representatives from the corn, cotton, sorghum, soybean, and wheat industries.
“Rice farmers believe the Conservation Title should focus on the locally led, voluntary, incentive-based conservation model instead of a top-down regulatory regime,” Cruce told conference attendees. “Conservation programs should provide options for all farmers to participate, not incentivize a one-size-fits all model. The best programs should have the dual goal of promoting environmentally beneficial practices and also helping producers be more productive and economically viable which in turn bolsters the rural economy.”
Cruce also highlighted the Rice Stewardship Partnership, USA Rice’s historic partnership with Ducks Unlimited.
“Created in 2013, the Rice Stewardship Partnership is a unique collaboration of a farm group and conservation group that has proved extremely successful in delivering on the ground conservation for rice farmers,” said Cruce. “Since the initial 2014 Regional Conservation Partnership Program call for proposals, 10 individual RCPP awards, two of which received renewals, have been led by the Rice Stewardship Partnership. These RCPP projects have impacted more than 800,000 acres of rice and rice rotation ground, and provided more than $108 million in additional conservation funding.”
USA Rice is an FTM member and holds a Board of Directors seat representing the grower sector, and has several rice industry experts participating on many of the organization's workgroups. The Rice Foundation used Field to Market National Indicator Data to publish the
U.S. Rice Sustainability Report.