1990 Farm Bill Forum 



Proceedings 



Interest Groups 



Alternative Energy Resource 

 Organization 

 Tom Elliott 



Chairperson 



The Alternative Energy Resources Organization 

 is a statewide nonprofit group which serves a 

 growing number of farmers and ranchers who 

 are seeking to optimize the use of on-farm 

 resources and minimize the use of production 

 items and practices with few adverse impacts 

 on human health and environment. While we're 

 doing this, we are trying to maintain acceptable 

 levels of production and profit from our opera- 

 tions. We have some specific suggestions from 

 our farmer membership for your review of 

 federal farm policy over the forthcoming 

 months. 



We would like to see laws enacted which 

 would prohibit the Federal Crop Insurance 

 Corp>oration and the companies that it reinsures 

 from limiting or refusing insurance, denying 

 payments, or reducing yields solely on the basis 

 of a producer's utilization of low input sustain- 

 able farming practices. 



We would like to see the Secretary of Agricul- 

 ture directed to conduct a study and issue a 

 rep)ort on the crop insurance needs of producers 

 using low input sustainable systems and to 

 suggest options for ways to alter or supplement 

 federal crop insurance to meet those needs. 



We would like to see the FCIC prohibited from 

 substantially increasing. premiums for sustain- 

 able farming practices as it currently does for a 

 wheat crop. We would like to require the USDA 

 agencies create regionally applicable low input 

 sustainable agriculture technical guides, 

 including information on crop selection, crop 

 plant varieties, rotation practices, tillage sys- 

 tems, nutrient management, soil fertility and 

 productivity, pest, weed, and disease manage- 

 ment, water conservation and livestock man- 

 agement. We also support funding to promote 

 research and to promote application of these re- 

 generative agricultural techniques. 



We would also like to expand the eligible 

 purposes for operating loans to include financ- 

 ing for costs, incident to converting to low input 

 sustainable systems and to achieving compli- 

 ance with conservation requirements. 



We urge this congressional delegation to look 

 seriously at base acreage protection, volume 

 control, multi-year set-asides and a range of 

 other incentives for us to make our agriculture 

 more ecologically sustainable. 



We're victims of our own arrogance here. We 

 presume that we can understand and control 

 the process of agriculture, but the very best we 

 can do is assist and collaborate with this 

 mystery that we call nature, that we call agricul- 

 ture. Even the term steward implies that we 

 own something. It's a certain arrogant attitude. 

 We're not owners of the land, we're part of it, 

 we come from it, we go back to it. As a result of 

 this arrogance, as a result of the p)olides that 

 have stemmed from this arrogance, we're living 

 on the edge of a knife today. That's why your 

 work is so incredibly important right now. 



You've got to develop a farm bill that both 

 coheres and endures. We've got to see legisla- 

 tion that reduces depletion of non-renewable 

 resources. We've got to encourage farm re- 

 search and farm practices that don't further 

 degrade the environment and that enhance 

 rural communities and our rural income. We've 

 got to protect the national food supply and the 

 business interest of our farmers. We have to do 

 it in the context of a greater economy. That is 

 the economy of the earth — the debits and 

 credits that exist between people, animals, and 

 plants; the spreadsheet that includes soil, water, 

 and rural communities. 



We urge you to consider those bills introduced 

 by Senator Fowler and Senator Luber. We need 

 to incorporate language that accepts the process 

 of agriculture. Your legislation has to support a 

 profound and fundamental shift from the dev- 

 astating mentality of a consumptive industrial 

 agriculture of which we've all been a part to 

 that of a balanced and sustainable agriculture 

 that supports the people involved in it and 

 operates within the limits imposed by our 

 earth. 



11 



Montana Ctiapter, Son and Water Contirvatlon Society 



/UiguttZS, 1989 



