U.S. Senators Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), both members of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, have reintroduced legislation to expand the reach of peer-to-peer networks, helping farmers manage challenges. The Senators say this bill fills a critical gap in federal programs to support and provide guidance to those networks.
The Farmer to Farmer Education Act would leverage existing technical assistance resources by supporting farmer-led education networks, and build capacity for new ones as a key strategy to increase adoption of conservation practices. Specifically, the bill would authorize the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to enter into cooperative agreements with community-based organizations in each state that are able to identify and build on established and burgeoning peer-to-peer networks and create new ones.
“Limited access to technical assistance is one of the many conservation challenges farmers and ranchers across the country face every day,” said Sen. Moran. “This legislation would allow farmer-to-farmer groups to develop cooperative agreements with USDA to share conservation concepts and new practices.”
“When it comes to adopting conservation practices, farmers trust information and guidance from other farmers,” said Samantha Levy, AFT’s Senior Policy Manager for Conservation and Energy. “We applaud Senators Lujan and Moran for introducing a bipartisan bill that would enable more farmers to provide practical, experience-based assistance to their peers. This would supplement the essential support producers receive from NRCS, nonprofit conservation organizations and districts, and others to successfully implement practices critical to the resilience and viability of their operations.”
“For farming and ranching families, helping one another is just part of their way of life,” said Jenny Conner Nelms, Associate Director of Legislative Affairs at The Nature Conservancy. “Supporting local, producer-led networks is a natural, common-sense way to help farmers and ranchers share information with their neighbors and manage challenges together, like droughts and floods. We are grateful for Senators Lujan and Moran’s proposal, which would help producers, communities, and nature thrive.”