10/12/2026
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USDA’s Regenerative Pilot Program Expansion Contradicts Farm Bill’s Funding Cuts
(10/2/26) Brownfield Radio Network reports on the USDA’s plans to expand its Regenerative Pilot Program and concerns that conservation program cuts will undermine its implementation.
Highlights:
➡The USDA announced increased financial assistance for the Regenerative Pilot Program from $700 million to $1 billion in fiscal year 2027, providing more producers with the opportunity to adopt conservation systems that improve soil health, water quality, and long-term farm resilience. Additionally, USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) is making improvements to the program, including using NRCS’s locally led conservation model to allow State Technical Advisory Committees to add conservation practices that reflect local resource concerns, production systems, and producer needs.
➡However, Rebecca Bartels, executive director of Invest in Our Land, a nonpartisan organization aimed at ensuring farmers have adequate access to conservation support, says the $1 billion is set to be delivered through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP), which would be cut by $2 billion in the Senate Farm Bill currently under consideration. Bartels said USDA staffing reductions and reorganizations also stand in the way of funding finding farmers that need it.
➡Bartels said demand for conservation assistance already outpaces available funding, and the proposed cuts to EQIP and CSP would potentially leave more than 56,500 valid farmer applications unfunded.
This and more in the latest issues of LSP's Land Lin!
