Building Resilience Through the Conservation Stewardship Program

One of the key questions lingering over the 2023 farm bill reauthorization is whether Congress will approve a farm bill that builds climate resilience for the countless farmers whose livelihoods depend on it. While there is not one policy solution that can do this alone, the facts show that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP) is perhaps the single most ready-made tool for farmers to voluntarily tackle climate change. 

CSP is an incredibly popular program among farmers. In 2020, more than 20,000 farmers were turned away from the program due to a lack of funding. And in 2022, the number of farmers turned away from CSP due to a lack of funding had grown to over 24,000. In these two years, more than 75% of the farmers that applied to one of USDA’s most effective…