The Minnesota Farmers Union is making conservation a top priority as Congress works on a new Farm Bill. MFU Vice President Anne Schwagerl (SHWAY-gull) says members will keep pressing lawmakers during the August recess to protect the Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP. 

The current Farm Bill proposal would shift about two billion dollars from EQIP to other conservation programs, a move Schwagerl says could undermine long-term contracts farmers are already relying on. MFU also lists mandatory country-of-origin labeling as another Farm Bill priority. For more information, visit the Minnesota Farmers Union website at mfu.org.