USDA BACKS MARKET-BASED FOCUS TO LIMIT ENVIRONMENT CUTS IN FARM BILL

The Agriculture Department (USDA) is highlighting a host of new market-based approaches that encourage environmental improvements on farmland as part of a new strategy for leveraging private sector dollars to head off likely shortages in conservation program funding when the Farm Bill is reauthorized next year. USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) says in a strategic plan for 2005-10 that the agency is exploring air and water quality trading initiatives and other programs that would give private sector companies incentives...