The USDA released a set of 2007 farm bill recommendations last week, and it’s kinda ugly. Every five years, the bill is reauthorized, and it’s important that greens pay attention. Aside from the glaring question of why the U.S. subsidizes its food chain with $20 billion a year that largely determines which crops are grown, the news is that it proposes (PDF) to eliminate the Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program (WHIP) and the Grasslands Reserve Program (GRP) by rolling them into larger programs that will likely suck the funds up without effecting good policy. These programs are key farm bill conservation programs that provide farmers and ranchers money to protect wildlife and wildlife habitat.
Farms and wildlife can and must coexist. Oodles of proof now on display courtesy of superb grassroots group Wild Farm Alliance.
