For Immediate Release
May 19, 2004

Contact: Ferd Hoefner or Martha Noble
(202)-547-5754

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE COALITION RESPONDS TO USDA SELECTION OF CONSERVATION
SECURITY PROGRAM WATERSHEDS

WASHINGTON, D.C. Today, the Bush Administration announced its selection of
the few watersheds where a small number of farmers and ranchers will be
eligible for the Conservation Security Program (CSP) this year. Earlier this
month, the Administration announced its intent to make permanent this
drastic narrowing of the CSP, even though the budget cap of $41 million
imposed on the program is lifted at the beginning of the new fiscal year in
October. With its constricted approach, the Administration plans to block
the implementation of the CSP as provided in the 2002 Farm Bill, as a
nationwide program for all farmers and ranchers who practice effective
conservation and environmental protection through the establishment and
maintenance of a comprehensive approach to farm and ranch management.

"The USDA has prepared a map of the U.S. with the watersheds it selected for
the CSP which dramatically illustrates the Administration's short-sighted
approach to the program. Huge areas on this map are completely blank,
including most of the southwest, and all of New England. Major agricultural
states such as California and Florida, also draw a blank. In the entire
mid-Atlantic region, only one watershed is on the map," said Martha Noble, a
policy analyst with the Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. "USDA tries to
cover over the deficiencies of its restrictive implementation with an
estimate that over 27,000 farms and ranches and 14 million acres are within
the selected watersheds. But the USDA's restrictive approach to CSP farmer
and rancher eligibility means that even in these few selected "priority"
watersheds, most of these farms and ranches and agricultural acres will be
excluded from the CSP."

USDA estimates that it has received over 14,000 comments on the CSP from
around the nation, including farmers, ranchers, agricultural organizations,
environmental organizations, state and local agencies, and thousands of
citizens concerned that federal agricultural dollars be used to reward the
nation's best conservation farmers and ranchers and provide meaningful
incentives for those who want to improve their agricultural systems. With a
very few exceptions, these comments opposed the USDA's proposed watershed
approach for CSP implementation.

"The Sustainable Agriculture Coalition urges the Administration to show its
support for the future of the CSP by issuing a program rule for a
comprehensive, nationwide approach with adequate incentives for farmer and
rancher participation," said Noble. "It is not too late for USDA to show
leadership and commitment to the future of the CSP by issuing a rule for the
CSP as the nationwide, comprehensive environmental program intended by
Congress in the 2002 farm bill."

The Conservation Security Program is a comprehensive stewardship incentives
program that provides financial and technical assistance to farmers and
ranchers to reward them for investments of labor, management, and capital
aimed at fostering healthy, productive, and non-eroding soils, clean air and
water, energy savings, wildlife habitat, and prairie, wetland, and other
ecosystem restorations. Unlike the US commodity programs which are under
attack in the WTO, the CSP is a trade rule-compliant "green box" program
aimed not at increasing production but rather at maximizing long-term
environmental benefits. The sustainable agriculture community was a leading
proponent of the initiative during the 2002 Farm Bill debate and continues
to monitor implementation closely.

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