James Cummins
| The Detroit News
All too often we associate public land with wildlife, but private lands are vitally important to the conservation of wildlife in the United States. Nearly three-quarters of the land in the lower 48 states is privately held with 50% of that land base managed as cropland, pastureland and rangeland. In Michigan, almost 32 million acres are private land.The conservation successes we have achieved in this country are anchored by key pieces of legislation that passed in the last 100 years. The Farm Bill, which had its beginning in the Dust Bowl era, is one of these. This critical piece of private land conservation legislation has been reauthorized continuously for the past 90 years.However, Congress did not reauthorize it when it expired in 2023, instead extending it until Sept. 30. Unless Congress acts soon, the vital conservation and economic benefits the Farm Bill provides to private landowners in Michigan and other states will not exist after this year.
The first Farm Bill was intended to help steer the country out of the Great Depression. It addressed widespread domestic hunger, falling crop prices for farmers and the catastrophic soil erosion during the Dust Bowl. Periodically, the law is reauthorized to address evolving conservation policy, commodity payments including disaster payments and price supports, as well as nutrition. The Farm Bill of recent times is a compilation of many different acts that have been passed by Congress to enhance agricultural productivity and conservation on private lands. It affects every citizen, from all of us who eat to those who grow what we eat.The bill is extremely important to Michigan. The state ranks No. 1 in the nation for tart cherries, cucumbers, dry beans, squash and asparagus. The Farm Bill includes programs that help keep Michigan’s producers afloat by protecting farmers against price drops or crop failures.Agriculture contributes $104.7 billion annually to the state economy and provides nearly a million jobs. Michigan is also home to more than 44,300 farms that grow and raise a diverse array of food products ranging from berries to vegetables to pork, as well as 12.3 million acres of private forestland that support the $9.8 billion manufacturing industry that local economies depend on. The Farm Bill also provides tremendous benefits to the state’s 661,000 hunters and 1,191,000 anglers, improving habitat to support healthy fish and game populations.The Boone and Crockett Club’s founder, Theodore Roosevelt, said, “There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country.”
While our country is facing grave issues, I believe TR would be proud of the conservation provisions of the Farm Bill and want all of us, as citizens, farmers, conservationists and most importantly Congress, to make sure it passes this year.James L. Cummins is president of the Boone and Crockett Club.
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Publish date : 2024-08-29 13:11:00
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