Farming Is America’s First Line Of Defense

We all know that fresh fruits and vegetables are good for our health-but did you know that the soil and the surrounding environment in which crops grow in our health and welfare matters?

The new management report that made the American Healthy again highlight how the surrounding environmental factors, including chemical exposure, can affect our health. Regardless of any side of the corridor we sit on, the health of our citizens, adults and children is a source of concern that we all share.

This new report opens the opportunity to address the issue face to face through the progress of the first defense of nature against the disease: our food. Or more specifically, how our food is planted. When it is produced in harmony with nature, our food has the ability to benefit from human health, while improving land, water and wildlife that we all depend on.

American farmers – men, women, and families who grow our food, contribute to our economy and combat our agricultural lands – a decisive role in making America healthy.

But in order for our farmers to adopt new practices, we have to provide them with incentives and support to make these changes accessible to everyone. In Nature Conservance, this is something we put on implementation.

We know that adoption on a large scale for conservative management practices can help in reversing the upward trend of chronic diseases that suffers from an estimated 129 million Americans. When farmers have the opportunity and resources necessary to use practices such as micro fertilizer management, crops and insulating strips cover their fields, they can maintain fertilizers and other agricultural inputs in the fields and leave them from the air and water we share all.

Data shows that some agricultural practices can have serious unintended health consequences. Scientists have documented that unintended exposure to excess fertilizers and secondary products of animal waste is a general health problem that affects rural and urban communities, with evidence indicating an increased risk of cancer, thyroid diseases, respiratory diseases and prenatal conditions in children. As a doctor, I know how these diseases can be devastating for patients and their families. Farmers take these risks seriously, but unfortunately, the current policies and programs do not create sufficient demand for agricultural practices that can support better health results, and many farmers lack the funding and resources needed to adopt management practices that can help.

Research also realizes that well -managed agricultural fields can reduce nitrogen, phosphorous and other chemicals in our waterways. Cover crops, reduce stirring, active fertilizer management, improve Matthew and where fertilizers are applied to the fields all the excess chemicals in water and air.

On the edges of the fields, practices such as vegetable temporary warehouses, wet lands created and wild strips can capture fertilizers and secondary treatment to leave the fields and prevent them from entering waterways. The surface flow of foodstuffs from crop fields is a useful matter for both public health and environment. The straight temporary stores are something that my wife, Tris, put in our place on our farm in Greeng Crick, Virginia, which significantly affected the quality of the water in the tables and currents surrounding.

Water and air quality is not the only ways that farmers contribute to improving health. Food safety is an important issue for all Americans. Some pathogens that harm consumers come from the farm. For example, pollution on the leafy vegetables costs $ 5 billion every year in the United States, encouraging some food safety regulations to remove vegetation around the fields and kill wildlife that may be possible nurse carriers. However, science shows the opposite: the original vegetable cover and a diverse wildlife can protect from the transmission of pathogenic factors, while supporting the original pollinators that benefit from crops and original pest control measures that can reduce the need to use pesticides. While livestock and wildlife need accurate management around the farm fields, agricultural practices can benefit from food and environment safety.

Farmers are increasingly adopting preservation cultivation practices due to their health benefits, positive environmental impact, improving soil fertility, and low costs. Federal and state programs supported this shift, which led to the implementation of these practices across millions of acres in the Mississippi River and Hay Cissapics – making measurable improvements in water quality.

In Tennessee, for example, the Agricultural Resources Preservation Fund provides the cost of management practices that help to recover our weak waters. Federal programs also play a vital role-after my time in the US Senate, we were able to expand the scope of access to the farm conservation practices worldwide through new programs that reduced the costs of producers and helped farmers and livestock breeders to establish sustainable grazing operations.

Despite the impact of these federal and state programs, we still need a greater adoption to see progress in human and environmental health. Many farmers still need to reach better financing, technical assistance, equipment and other resources to implement these practices on their farms. Private incentives -based incentives are popular with the American farm bill authorized by American farmers. Unfortunately, the applications of these programs still exceed the available financing.

How can we turn the tide, accelerate and expand the use of these practices on the country’s work lands? The Make Make America Committee is in good health to embrace many effective tactics in the upcoming strategy document scheduled for this summer.

One of the examples that they can do is to expand state programs and federal cost sharing programs that encourage adoption in flexible ways of farmers. Farmers will also benefit from new policies that stimulate the adoption of conservative management strategies, while protecting financial risks. These policies can include reducing crop insurance premiums for farmers who implement nutrient management plans, buffer strips, and other important practices. Another example is to provide lending rates designed for producers interested in purchasing micro -agriculture equipment that improves fertilizer use. In addition, the committee can propose to enter government purchases’ preference for crops cultivated using conservative cultivation practices. All of these policies will make it easier and more economical for farmers to adopt these methods.

Nature -based agricultural practices have been proven, which are science based on science that benefit from human health, land, water and air. But there is still a lot to do it. We, as a nation, have both federal and governmental levels, we need to support farmers because we strive to keep farmers and people in America in good health, and now in the future.