Policy: Snack when we need a feast?

Excerpt

For the public policy process to successfully address resource conservation issues, it needs timely and accurate information about resource conservation on privately owned “working lands.” Since the 1985 farm bill was enacted, the overall need has exponentially increased. Why? Because new programs were created, and spending on those programs rose in response to the demand for conservation assistance from farmers, ranchers, and other private landowners nationwide. By any measure, those changes have translated into a need for more and better data and information about baseline conditions surrounding our soil, water, air, and wildlife resources; current trends in the status and condition of those resources; and what degree of success can be ascribed to the delivery of various conservation programs and the outcomes they produce.

Data and information needed to refine public policy are necessary but traditionally undervalued commodities. Program evaluation generally is accorded low priority in most government agencies, and employees who perform program evaluation functions often are perceived as outside the fast track to promotion and institutional recognition. Most institutional leaders rarely anticipate data and information needs and often recognize the value of such work only after a need becomes apparent. Policymakers rarely anticipate such needs as …