Excerpt
The two previous issues of the Journal contained new SWCS policy position statements, as will the next. Since the fall of 1993, SWCS has developed eight position statements. Three have outlined principles that provide a framework for addressing specific legislative proposals: the Farm Bill, the Reauthorization of the Clean Water Act, and the reorganization of natural resource functions within the USDA. Another addressed policy options for the future use of acreage currently enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program.
The most recent position statements address matters of long-term outlook for resource management; preservation of strategic farmland, sustainable agriculture, municipal solid waste management, and, in the next issue of the Journal, a statement on biodiversity.
Three additional policy statements are currently under development; land application of sewage sludge, manure management, and flood-plain management. These topics look at issues from a systems point of view, examining interfaces and impacts of the increasing resource pressures of day-to-day living, economic development, and production agriculture.
This spurt of policy-oriented activity represents a renewed direction for SWCS. SWCS embarked on this course in order to be more proactive and more visible in our advocacy efforts.
One of the biggest challenges in effective …
Footnotes
Executive Vice President, SWCS.
- Copyright 1996 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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