Terry J. Cosby Chief, Natural Resources Conservation Service U.S. Department of Agriculture appeared this week before the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.
Here is the intro to his opening statement:
Chairwoman Stabenow, Ranking Member Boozman, and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak with you today about the continued importance that conservation programs provide for American agriculture. In implementing the programs authorized by the 2018 Farm Bill, USDA works alongside producers to support and strengthen agriculture and work with them to protect and enhance our shared natural resources, build resiliency, and mitigate climate change.
My name is Terry Cosby, and I am honored to serve as the Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), where I have spent the past 42 years engaging with agricultural producers and rural communities, helping them to invest in the lands that they work. My great grandfather purchased our family land in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi in the late 1800s, and the importance of conservation has been handed down through generations with that family land.
The 2018 Farm Bill made it clear that voluntary conservation programs are critical to the continued viability of production agriculture. It also provided new incentives for producers and created new agricultural opportunities in urban communities. The ongoing success of the Farm Bill conservation programs has led to greater opportunity to make financial and technical assistance available to agricultural producers and communities. Producer demand for voluntary conservation continues to result in our programs being oversubscribed. This is further driven by the opportunities available through voluntary conservation to respond and build resiliency in the face of devastating natural disasters while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and increasing carbon sequestration to help mitigate climate change.
Recognizing the important role that conservation and watershed programs, including the Watershed Rehabilitation Program, the Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations Program, and the Emergency Watershed Protection Program , can play in addressing critical needs across the country, the Congress provided much needed additional resources through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) as well as generational investments provided by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) to implement and quantify the field scale impacts of climate smart conservation. These additional funds will continue to support producers and communities in making long-term conservation and infrastructure investments that enhance natural resources, adapt to and mitigate climate change impacts, and support increase resiliency. At NRCS, we are working to meet the needs of our customers across the country and ensure effective and efficient implementation of these laws while building upon the investments contained in the 2018 Farm Bill. We are achieving this while wisely using the resources entrusted to us by the Congress to deliver on the President’s promise to grow the economy from the bottom up and middle out, not from the top down.