up on his family’s land by Discovery Farms, a research initiative that gathers field scale water quality information from different types of production systems. Putting in place conservation structures and adopting conservation practices can be Federal Policy costly, and today’s commodity marketplace doesn’t pay farmers for being good stewards. That’s why tax-funded conservation programs are key to helping farmers provide Farm Bill Policy: The Good, the Bad & the Confusing public goods like clean water. Over the years, Griebie’s family has ence. Griebie went on to work for a time in By Brian DeVore utilized numerous government conservation the natural resource field, helping do raptor programs to help them steward their land research, among other things. n a vivid September day, Adam better. For example, they’ve been enrolled So when he returned to his family’s land Griebie guides his F-150 in a couple of Conservation Stewardpickup down a field road, ship Program contracts. Also known as parks it next to a soybean field, and CSP, this initiative was drafted by LSP launches a mini-tour of the many faces member-farmers over two decades ago of federal farm conservation policy. as a system for paying farmers to utilize “It’s really been fantastic,” the farmer practices on their working acres that says of one way policy has manifested preserve soil, protect water quality, and itself on his family’s land in central create healthy wildlife habitat. Griebie Minnesota’s McLeod County. has used CSP to support precise applicaBut then, there’s the flip side. “It tions of inputs, among other things. deters farming families from doing these The Griebies also have 100 acres projects — they want to do things that enrolled in the Conservation Reserve make more sense,” he says of another Program (CRP), which pays farmers to aspect of ag policy. retire working farmland and plant it to Welcome to the Farm Bill, the piece perennial habitat such as native grasses. of legislation that’s responsible for all The Griebies have been able to use CRP these reactions on the Griebie farm. to protect environmentally vulnerable Congress is currently debating the next acres that didn’t consistently produce iteration of this law, which is scheduled a decent crop of corn or soybeans anyto be renewed every five years. This way, often because the land was in an massive bill determines what our rural area prone to flooding or washouts. landscape looks like, who’s farming that But there are times when wayward Adam Griebie in the prairie he had to replant because of landscape, and what methods they use. water and working farmland can come Historically, the Farm Bill has promoted a disconnect between two federal conservation programs. to an agreement, of sorts. For example, monocultural, industrialized systems of “We did it really well the first time, and the second time Griebie has used cost-share funding farming that aren’t good for the land, let we did it good too, but we just shouldn’t have to do it from the Environmental Quality Incentwice,” he says. (LSP Photo) alone the farmers and rural communitives Program (EQIP) to establish water ties they live in. That’s why the Land retention basins in crop fields. Stewardship Project, in its 2023 Farm Bill around a decade ago, Griebie was set on Platform, is calling for major reforms (see farming in a way that protected water qualA Step Forward, A Step Back sidebar on page 13). ity, preserved the soil, and produced good As he drives past a mosaic of ripening But there are elements of current federal wildlife habitat. He remembers well the time crop fields, riparian habitat, and natural ag policy that have a sound foundation when agricultural runoff caused a major fish kill grasslands, the farmer points out several it comes to promoting the kind of farming on Buffalo Creek. places where Farm Bill conservation initiathat’s good for the landscape. A look at how “If you talk to some of the older folks, tives have helped his family strike a balthese programs are implemented on one they remember swimming in the creek and ance between protecting the environment farm provides a few insights into how the it never flooding,” he says. “Today you’d and make a living. At the last stop on the Farm Bill can live up to its potential, and certainly be pretty apprehensive to go swimtour, Griebie walks through a grassy buffer where there’s room for improvement. ming in there and it floods often.” separating his family’s land from a neighHis parents, Joe and Sheila Griebie, had boring farm and climbs a small hump of soil Stewardship Ethic always farmed with a strong conservation the length of a suburban garage and half-aAdam Griebie has a big incentive to see ethic, and Adam wanted to continue that dozen feet high. It’s an almost imperceptible a more conservation-friendly Farm Bill. As legacy, as well as build upon it. modification to the surrounding topography, a youth, he spent many days hunting and Perhaps because he spent so much time which is dominated by the kinds of rolling fishing along Buffalo Creek, which flows on the banks of Buffalo Creek, water — its farm fields that make up this part of Minnethrough the 1,000 acres his family raises quality, quantity, and power to shape the sota. But that slug-shaped rise has made all corn and soybeans on. He always had an land in ways good and bad — is on Grieinterest in conservation and ecology, and bie’s mind a lot. At one point, he parks his Conservation, see page 13… eventually got a degree in environmental scitruck next to a water monitoring station set
Policy & Organizing
Conservation’s Contradictions
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No. 2, 2023
The Land Stewardship Letter
