2018 Farm Bill Offers Promise for the Prairie

In response to passage of the Farm Bill, World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released the following statement from Dr. Melinda Cep, senior director for policy, food and markets:

“We finally have a Farm Bill that offers promising news for America’s prairie. By maintaining funding for conservation programs and rejecting attempts to weaken environmental safeguards, it will help protect native grasslands and their wildlife and ensure clean drinking water for rural communities. 

“The bill provides farmers with greater opportunities to improve their conservation practices, including through financial and technical assistance, delivering benefits that are good for nature and good for people.

“With the Great Plains having lost 1.7 million acres of grasslands to agriculture in 2017, programs that incentivize conservation, such as Sodsaver, are all the more critical to continue and expand.”