IARN — Farmers appreciate partnerships that protect water quality, according to a new report from the Agricultural Nutrient Policy Council.
Farm Bureau’s Laura Lurkins serves as president of the council, and says the report highlights the conservation work of farmers and ranchers.
“We actually did a series of in-depth interviews with state agricultural trade associations across 16 states in the Mississippi River Basin to see what work has been happening in each state to implement nutrient loss reduction strategies. The product of that is some outstanding work that really highlights the work done by agriculture in each of those state efforts.”
Lurkins says the report was recently presented at an Environmental Protection Agency meeting.
“And we really do credit all of those folks for the work that they have been doing and for including state-level and local-level stakeholders in that work. But the thing that we think was missing was really that report that kind of tied it all together, all of the ag work that has happened, either farmers individually or farmer-led associations, working either with or without state and federal funding. That is the importance of this report to make sure that ag is represented in the discussion.”
Lurkins talks about the overall response to the report’s findings.
“We’re seeing some early statements from U.S. EPA Office of Water leadership that highlight kind of where we would like to go and that is very exciting for us to hear. They’re talking about lifting up farmer innovation and working collaboratively with agriculture and actually coming out into the countryside to find out and to see for themselves what we’re doing. So, that’s very exciting for the Ag Nutrient Policy Council to hear and we very much look forward to working with the federal agencies.”
Learn more by visiting the American Farm Bureau’s website.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
Photo Credit: Sam Beebe / CC BY 2.0
