The Senate Agriculture Committee tomorrow will hold a hearing on the farm bill's conservation title. Like the hearing on energy programs, we also expect to hear a lot about crop insurance, albeit with a slightly different angle this time around. The issue of conservation compliance will be on the agenda. Since the 1996 Farm Bill, conservation compliance has been linked to farm program payments, but with the restructuring of farm programs -- especially the direct payment that made its debut in 1996 -- there is a move to try linking conservation compliance with crop insurance (see WPI 25 October).It will be interesting to see what Farm Service Agency Administrator Bruce Nelson and Natural Resources Conservation Service Chief David White hav...

TAGS – Energy