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NEWS RELEASE
FOR
RELEASE February 26, 2001
CONTACT:
Karen Scanlon or Dan Towery (765) 494-9555
NEW
AGRICULTURAL CONSERVATION PROPOSAL GOING BEFORE SENATE AG COMMITTEE
CTIC
Executive Director to Testify next week
WEST
LAFAYETTE, Ind. – The new Farm Bill could help America’s farmers
provide better soil and cleaner water for the nation as well as greater
profits and brighter future for their families. That’s the message
John Hassell, executive director of Conservation Technology Information
Center (CTIC), will deliver during conservation oversight hearings of
the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee on Thursday,
March 1.
Hassell
has been invited to testify before the committee and to comment on the
future of conservation programs and their relation to the Farm Bill,
which is up for reauthorization in 2002. Speaking on behalf of CTIC, a
nonprofit organization based in West Lafayette, Indiana, Hassell will
emphasize that a new approach to agricultural conservation is necessary
to address both production and environmental protection.
This
new approach, called Core 4 Conservation, will result in site-specific
ag management systems. These systems, designed by a farmer with
assistance from local advisers, use a combination of proven conservation
practices to minimize soil erosion, enhance water infiltration and
retention, filter nonpoint source (NPS) pollution from runoff, and more
efficiently manage inputs to increase profits. The practices, which
include conservation tillage, crop nutrient management, pest management
(Integrated Pest Management), water management, conservation buffers and
others, are not new or revolutionary. What makes this approach
innovative is the use of multiple practices together in a system to meet
local resource and economic objectives.
“Scientists
and other experts estimate that the Core 4 Conservation systems approach
can reduce nonpoint source pollution from cropland by as much as 80
percent,” says Hassell.
Promoting
these goals demonstrates recognition of the inextricable link between
profitability and environmental protection in modern agriculture. Many
past government efforts emphasized using farm conservation plans to meet
program requirements, rather than the needs of the overall operation.
Core 4 Conservation instead engages the public/private
partnership in a united effort to meet short-term and long-term goals.
It recognizes that no two producers have the same operation, and
every producer will have different needs when changing their operation
to more widely incorporate conservation practices.
“With
Core 4 Conservation, American agriculture can move toward flexible,
locally led and site-specific conservation in agriculture,” says
Hassell. “Core 4
Conservation addresses multiple objectives yet is simple enough that
producers understand the elements that make a successful system.”
Core
4 Conservation protects and improves the land while addressing on-farm
profits; it considers productivity and conservation equally; it enables
farmers to reclaim their status as America’s original environmental
stewards while protecting their livelihood; and it involves all sectors
of agriculture, including government, industry and farmers.
For
more information about CTIC, and Core 4 Conservation, go to www.ctic.purdue.edu or www.core4.org.
CTIC, a division of the National Association of Conservation Districts,
is a national, nonprofit public-private partnership working to promote
soil and water quality and equip agriculture with affordable, integrated
management solutions.
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