Conservation and Resources Management

Agriculture is critical to the health and prosperity of the Nation. This economic mainstay is based in the land resources of this vast country. In the lower 48 states, more than 60 percent of the public and private lands is in cropland, pastureland, and rangeland owned or utilized by farmers and ranchers and their families. This percentage jumps dramatically if you include the privately held forestland that many landowners manage. It is proper, then, to view the majority of the land in this country as  working agricultural land.  It is the product of the hopes, dreams and aspirations of millions of individuals and generations of people that have sought to make a better life for themselves, their families, and in the process a better country.
 

Our country and the world still depend on these working lands for its much needed food and fiber.  But our country is also looking to these lands for something else — a contribution to improving the country’s environment. NASDA wholeheartedly supports this objective.  The challenge is how to maintain an economically viable and healthy working agricultural landscape producing the food and fiber on which the country depends, while improving the environmental benefits that the country seeks. 
 

We must meet this challenge to preserve sustainable agriculture — keeping agricultural lands working in support of thriving, healthy economic and business activities, while incorporating into farm and ranch operations the practices and systems needed to maintain healthy environmental functions of the landscape.  The American farmer and rancher and the consuming public want an agricultural production system that will not only be productive and profitable, but one that will also conserve resources, protect the environment, and enhance the health and safety of the public. NASDA believes this country and agricultural community can meet these challenges, provided that we create the correct balance of policies and incentives between agriculture and the environment.