Central Valley Farmers Embrace NRCS Program to Buy Cleaner Equipment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact:
Dan Cronin, 202-572-3354, dcronin@edf.org
Kathryn Phillips, 916-893-8494, kphillips@edf.org

(Davis, CA – November 10, 2009) Nearly 600 farmers and ranchers receiving funds this year from a new program administered by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) to reduce on-farm air pollution will improve air quality in the Central Valley by the equivalent of taking more than 150,000 cars off the road.

Environmental Defense Fund partnered with farm groups and members of Congress last year to develop the funding source within the 2008 Farm Bill to reduce on-farm air pollution. The NRCS program will provide up to $37.5 million in funding annually over a four year period to help farmers nationwide reduce emissions from diesel engines and other air pollution sources.

“Everybody wins in this NRCS program,” said Kathryn Phillips, director of the California Transportation and Air Initiative for Environmental Defense Fund (EDF). “It’s a triple play: Farmers struggling in a tough economy get financial help to buy cleaner, newer equipment; they and their families can breathe cleaner, healthier air; and the government reduces its soaring health care costs.

NRCS recently approved funding for 586 applications out of more than 2,500 submitted for the program to reduce on-farm air pollution. Farmers and ranchers provide approximately half of the funds needed to implement pollution-reducing practices, including voluntarily replacing older diesel farm engines with newer, more efficient ones that are nearly 75 percent cleaner.

“The success of the air quality initiative in California is largely due to an effective partnership,” said Acting State Conservationist Gayle Norman. “Conservation, farming and environmental groups all got behind the effort to help put California agriculture on the leading edge of conducting business in a cleaner, greener way that protects the air and complies with local and state regulations.”

Farmers in counties where air quality does not meet National Ambient Air Quality Standards are eligible to apply for the federal funds. Thirty-six counties in California fall in that category: Alameda, Amador, Butte, Calaveras, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Merced, Mono, Napa, Nevada, Orange, Placer, Riverside, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Joaquin, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Solano, Sonoma, Stanislaus, Sutter, Tulare, Tuolumne, Ventura, and Yolo.
 

###