Legislative Conference Brings Together National Leaders in Conservation

Last week, NACD held its annual Summer Legislative Conference in Washington, D.C. More than 140 people representing 45 states and territories attended the successful event which featured keynote remarks from U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow, agency briefings, panel discussions and member meetings with Senators and Representatives on Capitol Hill.

In remarks at Monday’s luncheon, Stabenow thanked NACD’s members for their leadership and outreach efforts in helping people understand how important conservation is for the next generation, stressing that “farming isn’t about years; it’s about generations…particularly from the standpoint of conservation.”
 
“We have come a long way,” Stabenow said. “We now have the safest, most affordable food supply in the world, and we should be very proud of that. But we have a lot more to do. Last year, we suffered a drought worse than any we have seen in fifty years.  We saw crops withering in the field from California to the Carolinas, and it’s only because of conservation policies that were put in place decades ago, since the Dust Bowl, that we didn’t have another Dust Bowl destroy farmland; the soil stayed on the ground, not by accident, but because of a set of policies and vision and a whole lot of hard work.”
 
Stabenow said that our greatest challenge, in addition to continuing our conservation practices, is to feed the world’s growing population -- which is why it’s so important that we get a Farm Bill done, and called on House Leadership to bring their bill to Conference.

Attendees also heard briefings by officials from a number of federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of the Interior, Environmental Protection Agency, Forest Service, Department of Agriculture (USDA) and USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. The conference also included a panel discussion with water quality experts and a Farm Bill panel with staffers from the House and Senate Agricultures Committees.

To view photos from the conference, visit NACD’s Flickr page. To watch the full video of Chairwoman Stabenow’s remarks, click here.