Coalition to House and Senate Chairpersons Regarding the Farm Bill

To: The Honorable Frank Lucas
Chairperson
House Committee on Agriculture
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Debbie Stabenow
Chairperson
Senate Committee on Agriculture
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Collin Peterson
Ranking Member
House Committee on Agriculture
Washington, DC 20515

The Honorable Thad Cochrane
Ranking Member
Senate Committee on Agriculture
Washington, DC 20510

From: The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition

Dear Chairpersons and Ranking Members:

On behalf of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, we urge you to pass a new Farm Bill this year. The USDA’s voluntary, incentives-based conservation programs are helping address one of the biggest threats to the Great Lakes—run-off from farms. A 2011 study by the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service found that conservation tillage and other conservation practices have resulted in a 50 percent decline in sediment entering rivers and streams that flow into the Great Lakes from the fields implementing those practices. It also found 36 and 37 percent declines, respectively, in phosphorus and nitrogen loading…