If you're like many Americans, you've spent some time over the last few weeks thinking about the NCAA Tournament.
After considering the brackets, you made your selections, celebrating if your teams advanced, and wishing you had chosen differently if they lost.
For America's farmers and anyone involved in agriculture, a different type of competition is just getting started.
Over the next 18 months, lawmakers on Capitol Hill will hash out the details of the 2012 Farm Bill.
The result of these negotiations will have a significant impact on American taxpayers-as well as everyone who relies on food, fiber, and fuel from America's farm and ranch lands.
Now is the time to develop our strategy.
In the coming months, crippling budget deficits at every level of government combined with a strong U.
S.
farm economy will provide us with a terrific opportunity to rethink our public investment in agriculture.
We should be asking what is it we need to do to assure a stable and viable agriculture? What are we as taxpayers willing to spend to get it? What do we expect to get in return? A smart farm bill will stretch our public investment in agriculture by providing the greatest benefits to our communities and the environment while assuring that we keep farmers and ranchers on the land to keep producing as they do so well.
It will recognize that agriculture in the new century will be required to do more with less.
Over the last 25 years, we have lost more than 23 million acres of farmland (an area roughly the size of Indiana) to sprawling development.
With the world's population growing, American's farms and ranches will need to feed billions more people on a diminishing land base.
A smart farm bill will encourage on-farm solutions to many of the environmental problems we face.
Well-managed farmland is a tremendous natural resource, providing clean air, wildlife habitat, and groundwater filters that reduce toxic runoff into our lakes and streams, often at a price well below what other traditional clean-up options cost.
Much progress has been made on the environmental front in the past, but we must recognize that more needs to be done to earn us enough points to achieve the healthy land and food expected by today's consumers.
A recent USDA report on the effects of on-farm conservation practices in the Upper Mississippi River Basin found that past practices have significantly reduced sediment loss from fields and in-stream nutrient build-up.
That same study also found that 36 million acres (62 percent of the basin's cropped areas) still suffer from sediment, nitrogen, or phosphorous loss.
Farm Bill conservation programs will be key to turning around these losses and must play a central role in the policy lineup.
In addition to these challenges, 21st century agriculture must grapple with dramatic weather shifts, prolonged periods of drought, punctuated with flash flooding.
Indeed, a primary function of the farm bill should be to help farmers respond to and overcome these challenges.
A smart farm bill will make government support more market oriented and responsive to taxpayers' demands.
Farmers want and need programs to help manage the risks associated with changing markets and weather that are beyond their ability to self-insure.
Current programs don't give them that in a way that is effective and relevant to the challenges they now face.
Farmers don't want and need assistance when there isn't a substantial loss to cover and taxpayers shouldn't be asked to provide it.
We as taxpayers must recognize that we have an interest in helping farmers maintain a level of stability that will keep them on the land producing for the benefit of us all.
So before lawmakers determine the brackets for the next farm bill, I hope they'll develop a strategy that takes into account the challenges and opportunities faced by America's farm and ranch lands.
Competition for limited dollars will be stiff.
We must choose wisely to strengthen American agriculture while getting the most bang from our taxpayer buck.
After considering the brackets, you made your selections, celebrating if your teams advanced, and wishing you had chosen differently if they lost.
For America's farmers and anyone involved in agriculture, a different type of competition is just getting started.
Over the next 18 months, lawmakers on Capitol Hill will hash out the details of the 2012 Farm Bill.
The result of these negotiations will have a significant impact on American taxpayers-as well as everyone who relies on food, fiber, and fuel from America's farm and ranch lands.
Now is the time to develop our strategy.
In the coming months, crippling budget deficits at every level of government combined with a strong U.
S.
farm economy will provide us with a terrific opportunity to rethink our public investment in agriculture.
We should be asking what is it we need to do to assure a stable and viable agriculture? What are we as taxpayers willing to spend to get it? What do we expect to get in return? A smart farm bill will stretch our public investment in agriculture by providing the greatest benefits to our communities and the environment while assuring that we keep farmers and ranchers on the land to keep producing as they do so well.
It will recognize that agriculture in the new century will be required to do more with less.
Over the last 25 years, we have lost more than 23 million acres of farmland (an area roughly the size of Indiana) to sprawling development.
With the world's population growing, American's farms and ranches will need to feed billions more people on a diminishing land base.
A smart farm bill will encourage on-farm solutions to many of the environmental problems we face.
Well-managed farmland is a tremendous natural resource, providing clean air, wildlife habitat, and groundwater filters that reduce toxic runoff into our lakes and streams, often at a price well below what other traditional clean-up options cost.
Much progress has been made on the environmental front in the past, but we must recognize that more needs to be done to earn us enough points to achieve the healthy land and food expected by today's consumers.
A recent USDA report on the effects of on-farm conservation practices in the Upper Mississippi River Basin found that past practices have significantly reduced sediment loss from fields and in-stream nutrient build-up.
That same study also found that 36 million acres (62 percent of the basin's cropped areas) still suffer from sediment, nitrogen, or phosphorous loss.
Farm Bill conservation programs will be key to turning around these losses and must play a central role in the policy lineup.
In addition to these challenges, 21st century agriculture must grapple with dramatic weather shifts, prolonged periods of drought, punctuated with flash flooding.
Indeed, a primary function of the farm bill should be to help farmers respond to and overcome these challenges.
A smart farm bill will make government support more market oriented and responsive to taxpayers' demands.
Farmers want and need programs to help manage the risks associated with changing markets and weather that are beyond their ability to self-insure.
Current programs don't give them that in a way that is effective and relevant to the challenges they now face.
Farmers don't want and need assistance when there isn't a substantial loss to cover and taxpayers shouldn't be asked to provide it.
We as taxpayers must recognize that we have an interest in helping farmers maintain a level of stability that will keep them on the land producing for the benefit of us all.
So before lawmakers determine the brackets for the next farm bill, I hope they'll develop a strategy that takes into account the challenges and opportunities faced by America's farm and ranch lands.
Competition for limited dollars will be stiff.
We must choose wisely to strengthen American agriculture while getting the most bang from our taxpayer buck.
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