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Details in MAEAP bill matter for ag groups
While a large number of ag groups support a bill in Michigan’s Senate that continues the state’s voluntary environmental stewardship program on farms, some details are under debate.
Ben Tirrell with Michigan Farm Bureau tells Brownfield Senate Bill 494 introduced by state Senator Kevin Daley continues current fertilizer and pesticide fees which support the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program, or MAEAP, and provides some enhancements including shifting funds within the program.
“It takes some ancillary activities that weren’t really being conducted by MAEAP that don’t perhaps belong as part of the MAEAP program and just moves them to another piece of statute where those could potentially be funded conducted in an intentional way,” he says.
Farm Bureau and others, like the Michigan United Conservation Club, say allowing additional usage of funds, like for research, would support pilot programs and efforts to improve water quality.
The bill would expand the scope of the Agriculture Pollution Prevention Fund through which it’s funded to more directly impact environmental issues on farms and shift programming from the Freshwater Protection Fund. Amendments clarify that not only can the Agriculture Pollution Prevention Fund receive money from any source including state appropriation or federal funds, but that it also must receive a minimum of 10 percent of any money appropriated to the state’s Clean Water Fund.
For Tim Boring, who represents the Michigan Agriculture Advancement, it’s in the details where his group disapproves.
“One of the chief contentions I have with the legislation is the fact that these are really important steps that we need to be taking to address environmental issues here in Michigan and it’s important, then if we’re providing the provisions and the capacity to do these things, the funding needs to be there,” he says.
The Michigan Environmental Council is raising the same concern.
Boring tells Brownfield it’s also not appropriate for the legislation to extend surface water protections in the bill to verified farm. He says it’s likely the Department of Agriculture wants to take it’s hallmark program and create something to further increase environmental capabilities of farms.
“The real opportunity to do something like we need in water quality and climate mitigation hasn’t been done by other states before, it’s hard to get all the different agencies and different partners aligned on these kinds of things,” he says.
Michigan’s Department of Agriculture has said it’s opposed to the measure in its current form while Dairy Farmers of America, GreenStone Farm Credit Services, Michigan Agri-Business Association, Michigan Allied Poultry Industries, Michigan Corn Growers Association, Michigan Milk Producers Association, Michigan Pork Producers Association, Michigan Soybean Association, Michigan Vegetable Council and Potato Growers of Michigan have voiced support.
