Michael Fields Policy Program

Michael Fields’ Policy Program is predicated on the simple belief that people should be empowered to use democratic processes to direct government resources to advance their vision of agriculture in society.

Given MFAI’s mission of nurturing the ecological, social and economic resilience of food and farming systems through education, research, policy, and market development, we advance many policy initiatives to support that vision both at the federal and state levels.

Overview

For many years, we coordinated the national sustainable agriculture movement’s annual grassroots campaign to obtain funding for sustainable agriculture programs. We have worked through many Farm Bills to advocate for the creation of new programs and improvement of existing ones and have worked with agencies to optimally implement those programs. Examples have ranged from local food programs like the Farmers Market Promotion Program, to conservation programs such as the Conservation Stewardship Program, to payment limits on federal commodity and crop insurance programs.

In Wisconsin, we have successfully advanced numerous programs such as the Buy Local, Buy Wisconsin program and Farm to School programs, whose legislative passage Michael Fields coordinated and led, and sustainable agriculture research and outreach programs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over many years, we have also promoted managed grazing, bioenergy, new markets and opportunities, local food, agricultural innovation, and resources for the next generation of farmers.

Michael Fields also works to build the capacity of the sustainable movement. Numerous advocates working in the sustainable agriculture movement found their first foothold in our policy internships or first jobs in our policy program. Since 1996, we have authored a nationally used Guide to Federal Programs serving sustainable agriculture interests and offer grant-writing workshops to help farmers and ranchers nationwide access federal programs’ resources. MFAI also provides free grants advising to farmers in the Midwest, particularly targeting these services to historically underserved communities.

Michael Fields’ policy work is undertaken collaboratively. For example, we are very active in the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC) and other national partners in federal Farm Bill authorizations and annual appropriations work. At the state level, virtually every initiative that we undertake engages other partners in the enterprise; we are especially known for finding unexpected partnerships.

Federal Policy

2023 Farm Bill

The authorizing legislation that governs the overwhelming majority of federal policy related to farming, agricultural conservation, rural development, research, food, and more is the Farm Bill, which is passed every 4-6 years. Principally through our work as a member of the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition (NSAC), Michael Fields Agricultural institute advocates for policies that advance our mission. Examples of policy ideas for which we are advocating in the 2023 Farm Bill include:

MFAI recognizes the the long history of racial injustice in U.S. agricultural policy, from subsidies that have disproportionately served white producers to overt discrimination in some federal agencies against people of color - as well as the difficulty many people of color experience in accessing resources of federal programs today. We propose removing matching requirements for program applications, providing more flexible agency office hours, setting aside funding specifically for applicants from groups principally serving peoples that have experienced federal discrimination historically, and placing a priority on applicants of color.
The average age of the nation’s farmers is now over 57 years. One reason for the aging farm population is the challenge beginning farmers face when seeking to purchase land from retiring farmers, who depend on its capital for their retirement funds. One solution that MFAI is exploring would provide a federal subsidy for a portion of the purchase price until the beginning farmer is in a position to purchase it, a proposal advanced by a colleague and friend of the Institute’s, Paul Bickford, who served on USDA’s Beginning Farmer and Rancher Advisory Committee. Bickford died in a farm accident in August, 2022.
Climate scientists are predicting an ever-narrowing period of opportunity to slow and reverse the effects of global climate change before the planet is forced into a self-reinforcing cycle that would irredeemably jeopardize life. Already, millions of people are being displaced by catastrophic damage due to climate change. Eleven percent of the U.S. greenhouse gas contribution to climate change comes from agriculture. MFAI recognizes the situation as extremely urgent and prioritizes responsible solutions.
Michael Fields supports several provisions in the 2023 Farm Bill, including conservation programs that prioritize practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions, reduce the use of fossil-fuel inputs, sequester carbon, and encourage farmers to adopt more perennial and grass-based systems, which research shows sequester carbon more reliably than other systems.
Small grains, like oats, rye, barley, wheat, triticale, and Kernza©, are crucial to diversifying crop rotations, stabilizing soil, holding water, accessing nutrients from lower in the soil profile, sequestering carbon, and reducing risk for farmers. However, their regional use has dropped significantly; Wisconsin’s farmers plant small grains on a fifth of the acreage that they did fifty years ago. We want to know why and what might motivate greater small grain adoption. Since 2020, MFAI has worked with a graduate researcher from UC-Davis, Lauren Asprooth, to conduct surveys and focus groups across the Upper Midwest to better understand barriers and drivers to greater planting of small grains in this region; project results can be found here.
In spring of 2022, as part of a nationwide project on diverse perennial circular agricultural systems, MFAI conducted focus groups around the nation to identify barriers to adoption of perennial systems. Based on these findings we made recommendations suited to implementation in the 2023 Farm Bill.
MFA supports the Agricultural Resilience Act (ARA), a “marker bill” (i.e., legislation preparatory to the Farm Bill) containing a comprehensive array of policies to support climate-friendly agriculture.
MFAI supports the COVER Act marker bill proposed by Representative Casten (IL-6). It is designed to be similar to IA, WI, IL programs that provide a reduced crop insurance premium of $5/acre to farmers who planted a fall cover crop. We recognize that cover crops, though not a sufficient or ubiquitous long term climate strategy, provide the first step for many farmers in row crop agriculture to move to climate-responsible practices.
MFAI supports funding the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative program through the Farm Bill at $50 million, as opposed to being funded through discretionary federal dollars at amounts determined annually through the congressional appropriations process.
Among its climate proposals, MFAI does not support using federal funds to develop or support carbon markets. Science is currently unable to reliably predict levels of carbon sequestration associated with most practices on individual soils. Further, carbon markets disadvantage smaller farms and those that invested in carbon-sequestering practices prior to establishment of a carbon market. Previous carbon markets have been unsuccessful and are an unreliable solution. We also object to the offsetting of carbon pollution, much of which is released in areas that subject people of color to its impacts.

Measuring Societal Benefits Project

In 2020, MFAI launched a national discussion about the non-farm, or societal, benefits of soil health practices. With the National Center for Appropriate Technology, we convened an interdisciplinary team that chose to begin with the question, “How do different conservation/soil health-building practices reduce the amount and contamination of water leaving farm fields from storms of differing severity and timing?” Under principal authorship respectively of Dr. Dianna Bagnall, with the Soil Health Institute, and consultant Juli Obudzinski, we developed and in March 2022 presented two papers reflecting our discussions, Measuring Societal Benefits of Soil Health: Biophysical Dynamics and Hydrological Ecosystem Services, and Cost Savings for Local Municipalities, Rural Communities, and States.

Annual Appropriations

For over 20 years, MFAI coordinated the annual grassroots campaign to optimize federal funding for the sustainable agriculture movement, through NSAC. In more recent years, we have applied those skills and strategies to two main priorities for conservation:

Since 2020, we have led several partners in the successful national campaign to restore funding to the Grazing Lands Conservation Initiative (GLCI). Before its funding was eliminated in 2008, GLCI was an NRCS program that provided competitive funding for cooperative agreements to provide technical assistance in writing and implementing grazing plans; education on managed grazing; and farmer networks around grass-based agriculture.
Managed grazing sequesters carbon, reduces soil and nutrient loss, increases water infiltration, and can be very profitable for farmers. MFAI is proud that, thanks to grassroots support nationwide and with the strong leadership of Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin, GLCI funding began to be restored in Fiscal Year 2022, with an appropriation of $14 million. MFAI continues to work with partners to build its funding to the levels needed to support grass-based farmers and ranchers nationwide and is working with NRCS leaders to optimize its implementation.
Most Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offices experience staffing shortages and are constrained in their ability to provide the “boots on the ground” support that farmers need from NRCS staff to help them access important working lands programs such as the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP). For several years, MFAI has advocated within the annual appropriations process for increased funding for conservation technical assistance staff.

Starting with a statewide survey in 2019, Michael Fields worked with several partners to advance legislation (ultimately, Assembly Bill 727) that passed in March, 2022. The program provides $5/acre reductions in crop insurance premiums on acres planted to cover crops the previous fall.
The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade, and Consumer Protection implemented the legislation in the fall of 2022, inviting applications from farmers from early December, 2022 through January, 2023. Many Wisconsin agricultural groups have embraced the program and are seeking significant budgetary increases in the State’s 2023-25 budget.
Starting in 2017, MFAI successfully obtained congressional funding for a five-year collaborative project to address cover crops in the Upper Midwest - their efficacy, implications for farm profitability, the systems within which they contribute environmental and economic benefits and circumstances when their benefits are more limited, and the many farm management decisions affecting how and when to plant them. CCROP collaborators comprised UW-Madison and the USDA Dairy Forage Research Center and related partners.
One of many projects funded through CCROP is a Citizen Science cover crops research project which continues. Beginning in 2020, due to limitations that university scientists experienced in gathering cover crop data from farms, we launched a network of farmers statewide who record data from their cover crops systems, ranging from planting dates to biomass sampling and contribute to the state’s growing knowledge base about cover crops. Read the 2020 Season Report here and the 2021 Season Report here.
Learn more at: https://cias.wisc.edu/our-work/farming-systems/cover-crops/ccrop/
The field of regenerative agriculture builds on five widely accepted Principles of Soil Health. Following these principles, soil health is increased in a farming system when 1) the soil is protected; 2) soil disturbance is minimized; 3) plant diversity is increased; 4) there is continuous living plant cover; and 5) livestock is integrated into the system.
In Autumn 2022, in partnership with SDA ARS Dairy Forage Research Center (DFRC) and UW-Madison's Center for Integrated Agricultural Systems (CIAS), Michael Fields launched a 5-year Soil Health Collaborative (SHC) to investigate and conduct outreach on profitable, community supporting, and practical strategies to build agricultural soil health.

Farms that keep soil protected, minimize soil disturbance, increase plant diversity, have continuous living cover on the soil, and incorporate livestock, i.e., optimize soil health, result in higher organic matter, more microbial and other life, and better soil structure. When intense rains come, healthy soils hold water and reduce soil and nutrient losses, keeping water clean and reducing costly damage to roads, bridges, culverts, dams and other infrastructure. Healthy soils can also mitigate climate impacts, soil compaction, biodiversity decline, energy use, pesticide drift, and fine particulate pollution. Under drought conditions, healthy soils can hold water for when it is needed. Generally, more diverse systems build better soil health and are more resilient in the face of market as well as climate challenges, stabilizing income and contributing to greater community vitality.
The overarching goals of the SHC are to identify barriers and constraints to the widespread use of soil health practices by diverse farmers and to develop opportunities and remedies to support greater use of those practices, building short- and long-term farm and ecosystem resilience. The Collaborative works in several areas, from economic, social and political dimensions to ecological and farming system dimensions of soil health.

Learn more at: https://cias.wisc.edu/our-work/farming-systems/cover-crops/ccrop/
The Midwest Farmers of Color Soil Health Network (MFCSHN) is a five-year project funded in part by the Soil Health Collaborative to support BIPOC-led organizations in helping farmers use soil health practices to successfully start farming. We currently partner with six groups in the upper Midwest - Advocates for Urban Agriculture, Chicago, Groundswell Conservancy, Madison, WI; Latino Economic Development Center, St. Paul, MN; Motherland Community Gardens Project, Springfield, IL; Neighborhood Food Solutions, Madison, WI; and a number of Indigenous Communities across Wisconsin. Most groups work with an average of 8-10 farmers on this project.
“The MFCSHN brings together leaders who are each other's resources, have deep relationships with the BIPOC community, and are intentionally advancing the work of color farmers.” -Yimmuaj Yang & Jazmin Martinez , Groundswell Groundswell Conservancy, Madison, WI
BIPOC group leaders’ early advice about needs guided our project’s offerings. In this first year (2022-2023), groups are focusing on soil health demonstrations and networking, to be followed by helping farmers access capital and related resources, to be then followed by marketing and value-added support. Beginning spring 2023, we will begin offering financial literacy training, to be followed in later years with help in pairing BIPOC farmers with “patient capital” lenders, government loan agencies, and/or other appropriate options.
Since the late 1980s, the US government has partnered with states to address water quality problems through low-interest loans. Each state administers its funds within EPA guidelines to address its specific water quality concerns. Wisconsin DNR’s Clean Water Fund Program gives low-interest loans to local governments to invest in clean water and drinking water infrastructure projects. Like many states, Wisconsin’s fund has been used almost exclusively to address point source concerns, replacing lead pipes, addressing PFAS contamination, and water treatment facilities. While MFAI strongly supports those uses, a significant influx of SRF funds opens an opportunity to use the fund to address agricultural non-point source pollution, Wisconsin’s leading water quality challenge. We are working side-by-side with DNR, UW, and other partners to develop recommendations to provide farmers with access to capital specifically designated to meet their water quality goals.
An important part of our policy work is working with the Iowa County Uplands Watershed Group in hilly Southwest Wisconsin. Since helping to found the group in 2016, MFAI has served as this group’s coordinator, working with the group’s farmer leader, currently diversified grain and livestock farmer Joe Stapleton of Spring Green, WI. The Uplands Group has grown from eight farms in 2016 to 44 farms in 2022. Because of the hilly terrain of the Driftless region, our farmers focus on ways to reduce erosion and polluted runoff, through grazing, cover crops, no-till, stream bank management, and more. Working with the group grounds our policy work in our relationships with farmers and with their opportunities and challenges. Learn more about the Uplands Watershed Group at www.uplandswatershedgroup.com
In response to water quality concerns in one of Uplands’ subwatersheds, in 2018 MFAI published the Meudt Creek and Knight Hollow Subwatershed 9 Key Element Plan Report with the Iowa County Land Conservation Department and Iowa County University of Wisconsin Extension. Following up from the findings in the report, the partners received a Targeted Runoff Management grant from the DNR to address specific resource concerns in the impaired sub-watershed. Working through the complexities of trying to implement this Wisconsin state program gives us many insights in the structural and policy-based issues facing conservation professionals, state and county government officials, and farmers in their efforts to implement conservation practices.
Our work with the watershed group and with our TRM grant in Iowa County is bolstered by our participation in one of Grassland 2.0’s Learning Hubs. Grassland 2.0 is a collaborative group of producers, researchers, and public and private sector folks working to develop pathways for producers to achieve increased profitability, production stability, and nutrient and water efficiency, while improving water quality, soil health, biodiversity, and climate resiliency through grassland-based agriculture. MFAI works to connect farmers in our network to the Driftless Learning Hub and all the resources and energy that the multidisciplinary team brings. For example, when a farmer discussed in a meeting in April, 2022 that meat processing is a major bottleneck in the region for the growth of grass-based agriculture, MFAI worked with a value chain specialist with Grassland 2.0 to investigate the problem and to coordinate one successful grant proposal and more to come that aim to work with the community towards solutions.