An article in the Christian Science Monitor calls the Farmland Stewardship Initiative (FSI) a marriage of "sound public policy with smart politics."

The November 14, 2000 article states that: "By linking federal payments to services that benefit the whole tax-paying public, FSI can build a political constituency among suburban Americans who look to rural areas for recreation, open space, and other amenities.  

The article goes on to say that "FSI can also transform a landscape that now helps feed the world into one that also reduces flood damages, safeguards environmental quality, increases recreation and tourism opportunities, and reduces the risk of climate change."

The Farmland Stewardship Initiative emerged in response to years of repeated and devastating flood losses in the Dakotas, Minnesota, and the Canadian province of Manitoba. Faced with billions of dollars in damage, the US Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and Manitoba launched the International Flood Mitigation Initiative (IFMI) to develop basin-wide strategies to deal with future floods.

IFMI formed a working group of government, agriculture, and conservation interests to identify ways to foster flood mitigation on private lands. Following the conclusion of their efforts in 1999, the group presented the Farmland Stewardship Initiative to Congress and FEMA.  

FSI starts with the premise that farms and ranches produce much more than food, fuel, and fiber. They also provide land-stewardship services -- flood mitigation, protection of water quality, management of wildlife habitat and biodiversity, outdoor recreation, and tourism, to name a few. These services benefit all Americans, yet the market undervalues such services. As a result, agricultural commodities are in surplus, while producers' essential services of land stewardship are in deficit.

FSI would compensate farmers and ranchers directly for their stewardship of private lands.

FSI is completely consistent with the Farmland Stewardship Program.  Both programs share the same insights, same objectives, and same approach to addressing farm conservation issues, and both foresee the same spectrum of benefits.

Here are links to six documents that describe how FSI works.  All of FSI's concepts are encompassed in the Farmland Stewardship Program, which is included as Sec. 256  in both  the House-passed Farm Bill (HR 2646) and S. 1673 in the U.S. Senate:

• "Rewarding farmers as 'stewards,'" an article in The Christian Science Monitor, November 14, 2000

• Two-page description: The Farmland Stewardship Initiative - Supporting Farmers' Stewardship of Private Lands Benefits All Americans 

• Full description:  Compensating Producers for Land Stewardship Services That Provide Multiple Benefits

• Preliminary Draft Discussion Paper (Sept 1999) - Payments for Stewardship Services on Private Lands That Deliver Multiple Public Benefits

• Draft Legislative Language

• Cost Estimates for MN and ND Portions of Red River Basin Pilot