Ecological modernization and the US Farm Bill: The case of the Conservation Security Program

Associating conservation/production patterns in US farm policy with agricultural land-use in three Iowa, USA townships, 1933–2002

“…Frameworks have been proposed for enhanced multifunctionality in US agriculture (Boody et al, 2005;Jordan and Warner, 2010), and US farm policy includes several programs that might contribute to multifunctional landscapes. For example, the Environmental Quality Enhancement Program (initiated in 1996) and the Conservation Stewardship Program (initiated in 2002 as the Conservation Security Program) are both popular programs that target working land (Hanrahan and Zinn, 2005;Lenihan and Brasier, 2010;Stubbs, 2010;Reimer and Prokopy, 2014). Each are expected to increase in their relative proportion of funds in the 2014 Agricultural Act (Claassen, 2014).…”

Ecological modernization in U.S. agri-environmental programs: Trends in the 2014 Farm Bill

“…While these incentive programs are not direct market mechanisms, Lenihan and Brasier (2010) point out that the CSP is a potential policy structure for incorporating market mechanisms into agri-environmental policy. While CSP is a working lands program with an emphasis on technology adoption (BMPs), the focus of the program is on holistic management of resource goals at the farm level.…”

“…While EM has rarely been applied in the U.S. agriculture context, one notable study identified a shift toward ecological modernization as a policy framing device in a new agricultural conservation program, the Conservation Security Program (CSP; Lenihan and Brasier, 2010). This study investigated the discourse of interest groups and conservation agencies during the establishment of this program.…”

“…This study investigated the discourse of interest groups and conservation agencies during the establishment of this program. Lenihan and Brasier (2010) identified several ecological modernization principles in discourse surrounding passage of the CSP by Congress: (1) increased reliance on voluntary selfregulation (as opposed to command-and-control approaches); (2) the adoption of new conservation technologies; and (3) collaborative management.…”

“…Both agriculture and agricultural policy in the United States have undergone significant change in recent decades (Napier, 2009). Improvements in technology and supportive government policies have generally led to intensified agricultural production (Evans et al, 2002;Lenihan and Brasier, 2010), while having the consequence of increased negative environmental impacts (Dowd et al, 2008). Government policy has shifted accordingly, with increased efforts to curb environmental degradation through a variety of policy approaches (Claassen, 2003;Dowd et al, 2008).…”