Remarks by Secretary of Agriculture Dan Glickman Ag-Earth Day Celebration -- April 13, 2000 Release No. st07.00 Remarks by Secretary Agriculture Dan Glickman Ag-Earth Day Celebration April 13, 2000 "Good morning and welcome. Happy Ag-Earth Day. It's a great honor to be here. I want to thank all of the organizations involved in the Ag-Earth Partnership, and all the exhibitors, for putting together this fantastic celebration and for raising awareness about the important role that agriculture plays in sound conservation solutions. "Earth Day is thirty years old. But for our farmers and ranchers, every day is Earth Day. No one knows the land better then they do. For generation after generation, they have been our most conscientious land stewards. "Last week, I recommended to the President that he establish a 355,000- acre national monument to provide greater protection for giant Sequoia trees in the Sequoia National Forest. This is yet another step this Administration has taken to enhance public land preservation. But there is only so much land that we can grant that level of federal protection. The fact of the matter is that most of the American landscape is privately held. And so it's farmers, ranchers and private forest landowners who, in addition to feeding and clothing the nation and much of the world, must care for the majority of American land. "And they have done a spectacular job. Farmers, ranchers and other landowners have established nearly 2.7 million acres 742,000 miles of conservation buffers to keep sediment and pesticides out of the nation's waterways. Thousands of farmers have gone beyond putting one or two conservation efforts into practice, to think more holistically about entire ecosystems. They're concerned not just about how their practices will affect their own land, but also their neighbors land and their entire watershed. They truly understand what John Muir said over a century ago: "When we try to pick anything out by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the universe." "The Department of Agriculture and its many agencies have been an important partner in these efforts, working with farmers and local conservation districts. We have programs for soil erosion reduction, farmland protection, wetlands restoration, backyard conservation, wildlife habitat development and much more. "As part of the President's Clean Water Action Plan, we have also worked for over two years with other federal agencies in a successful new partnership to address water quality problems by concentrating on watersheds most in need of attention. The Clean Water Action Plan has a booth here today, where you can pick up a copy of the second anniversary report. "Today, we're building on our USDA conservation efforts with two new announcements. "First, Governor Ridge of Pennsylvania and I have signed an agreement that will invest more than $210 million to improve the water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. This new 15-year partnership will pay farmers to create buffers on highly erodible land and keep pollutants out of the Bay. USDA has similar partnerships with nine other states. It is a voluntary program, with a maximum of 100,000 acres to be enrolled in Pennsylvania. "Second, I'm announcing new economic incentives under the Conservation Reserve Program continuous sign-up. A total of $350 million over three years will be available for farmers in the form of signing bonuses and higher payments for instituting and maintaining conservation practices. Generally, these incentives will apply to small plots of land that have a very broad environmental impact. The continuous sign-up allows farmers to enroll their land anytime throughout the year, without having to wait for a designated period or compete against other farmers. "These are important steps, but we need to do much more. That's why President Clinton, as part of his budget proposal for next year, has included a far-reaching, two-year, $2.6 billion Conservation Initiative. About half of that would go toward a new Conservation Security Program, which would provide direct stewardship payments not cost-share payments to farmers who implement or maintain comprehensive conservation plans that include practices like nutrient management, prescribed grazing, grassed waterways and windbreaks. "The Conservation Initiative is broad and inclusive. Too often in the past, our assistance has been too narrowly targeted to certain types of producers in certain parts of the country. We need to distribute federal agricultural conservation dollars more widely, bringing new participants into the programs, helping farmers and protecting natural resources throughout the nation. "As we look ahead to a new farm bill just two years from now, I believe we have to focus on making conservation a centerpiece of farm policy, not an afterthought. The land is not something that can be replaced like a piece of machinery. We need to respect it above and beyond its crop-producing capability and recognize it for what it is: our most valuable commodity of all. And we can do that while still having an agriculture sector that is productive and profitable. "Our treatment of natural resources is our legacy. An old Canadian Indian saying goes: "The real owners of the land are not yet born." Our grandchildren and their grandchildren won't remember the details of this or that farm program...or even what crops we planted and at what price they were sold. But they will know whether we cared properly for our natural resources...because they will either live with the consequences of our neglect, or reap the benefits of our stewardship. "We mustn't forget that we are only the trustees of the American landscape. It's not ours to keep and do with as we wish. It's only ours to hold for just a brief moment in time...and then to pass on in better condition than we found it. "We have the tools to do it. We know how to meet the conservation challenges of the new millennium. We have the most state-of-the-art environmental technologies at our disposal. We're familiar with all the best practices. "Now, we have to marshal the resources and forge the new partnerships to make it happen. And most of all, we have to muster the will to do what we know is the right thing. "Thank you very much." #