VFBF Vows to Resist New Chesapeake Bay Clean-up Effort

Possibility of Unfunded Conservation Mandates of Great Concern

Andrew Jenner
Virginia Correspondent

RICHMOND, Va. — Conservation has been a priority on Donna Kerr’s Amelia County, Va. dairy farm for three generations over half a century. Speaking to a group of reporters, Kerr described the conservation measures she employs — strip cropping, sows cover crops, buffer zones and stream fencing — for the benefit of her operation and the environment.

“I don’t know what [other conservation practices] I can put in,” Kerr said, at a press conference convened by the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation in response to a new Chesapeake Bay restoration effort led by the federal government.

Calling her farm her “my of life” and “my home,” Kerr said the economic difficulties now facing dairy farmers have stretched her operation to the breaking point, and she would not be able afford additional conservation practices.

Kerr and the rest of the crowd assembled at the annual VFBF convention in Richmond, though, fear they may all soon face tougher environmental regulations than ever before, thanks to the latest proposed plan to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay. Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a draft plan that will establish new water quality standards throughout the Bay watershed, and impose consequences on states that fail to meet specific goals.

Data published by the Chesapeake Bay Program – a partnership of state governments and various federal agencies — show that agriculture contributes the largest share of nitrogen, phosphorous and sediment pollution to the Chesapeake Bay.

At the press conference, VFBF President Wayne Pryor said that farmers recognize that they, and everyone else, benefit from a healthy environment, but the recent proposal requiring additional agricultural conservation practices would place an unbearable financial burden on farmers in Virginia.

“We feel there is a better way to attack this issue than for farmers to close their gates and fallow their fields,” Pryor said.

VFBF Associate Director of Governmental Relations Wilmer Stoneman said that for many farmers who have already implemented voluntary conservation measures, “the only thing left to do is to not farm that land.”

Leigh Pemberton, a dairy farmer from Hanover County, also spoke at the press conference, describing numerous conservation practices in place on his farm, and the dire economic circumstances he now faces.

“I have never lost so much money in one year,” said Pemberton, adding that his children will not be able to keep working the 110-year-old family farm if the current initiative proceeds.

Both Pemberton and Kerr were applauded by hundreds of farmers who attended the convention and were at the press conferece.

“We will not rest until our concerns are addressed,” Pryor concluded, as the entire roomful of farmers behind him stood in solidarity. “We will stand our ground.”

After the press conference, Gary Cross, a row crop farmer from Southampton County said policies adverse to dairy farmers like Kerr and Pemberton would trickle down to farmers like him who raise cottonseed for dairy cow feed.

Hunter Richardson, a crop, livestock and timber producer from King and Queen County, said that the latest federal effort to improve water quality in the Chesapeake Bay could drive him out of agriculture for financial reasons.

“I’m thinking of… having [my farm] developed,” said Richardson, adding that development would likely have an even larger negative impact on the Bay.

He said that an unintended consequence of the proposed Bay restoration effort could be lots of development on farmland that was well-managed until being forced out of production unaffordable conservation regulations.

The possibility that farm conservation programs might become mandatory, not voluntary, is “what really scares us,” said Peter Truban, a cow-calf farmer from Shenandoah County. Truban said incentives to encourage voluntary conservation efforts on farms would be better than strict regulations. Farmers, he continued, are interested in these practices, evidenced by the frequent shortfall in cost-share funds available for various practices.

Truban and Cross agreed that this latest round of worry over new environmental regulation — a perennial concern for farmers — is more serious than any they ever remember during their life-long careers on the farm.

“We don’t know what will happen,” Cross said.