{"id":5637,"date":"2015-11-03T14:52:43","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T18:52:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/?p=5637"},"modified":"2025-06-11T12:48:28","modified_gmt":"2025-06-11T16:48:28","slug":"new-white-house-mitigation-standard-opens-market-opportunities-for-farmers-and-ranchers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/2015\/11\/03\/new-white-house-mitigation-standard-opens-market-opportunities-for-farmers-and-ranchers\/","title":{"rendered":"New White House mitigation standard opens market opportunities for farmers and ranchers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"farm\"<\/a>Today, President Obama announced a plan<\/a> to safeguard America\u2019s land, water and wildlife by establishing a \u201cno net loss\u201d standard for mitigating impacts on natural resources and encouraging related private investment to deliver better outcomes for the environment.<\/p>\n

The plan will create a more sustainable future<\/a> for the energy and agriculture sectors, for example, that provide our nation’s food, fuel and fiber.<\/p>\n

If there is one sector that I believe can gain the most from this new mitigation standard, it\u2019s agriculture.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n

A historic commitment to conservation<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some might see today’s announcement as the administration overstepping its bounds, but I see it as a continuation of the legacy established more than 25 years ago by President George H. W. Bush when he established a \u201cno net loss\u201d of wetlands policy \u2013 a policy that dramatically slowed the rapid loss of wetlands threatening our nation\u2019s economy and national security.<\/p>\n

By extending the \u201cno net loss\u201d standard to all natural resources, President Obama is creating a path for economic and environmental prosperity \u2013 understanding that, as our nation\u2019s industries grow and thrive, we must also protect and enhance the natural systems that sustain us.<\/p>\n

Opening new environmental markets for agriculture<\/strong><\/p>\n

If there is one sector that I believe can gain the most from this new mitigation standard, it\u2019s agriculture.<\/p>\n

Private lands make up the vast majority of the continental U.S. \u2013 lands that will be essential in offsetting environmental impacts from a variety of sectors. And when all of these industries need to mitigate their impacts with \u201cno net loss\u201d to land, water and wildlife, they will be looking to pay private landowners \u2013 farmers and ranchers \u2013 to offset these impacts.<\/p>\n

The President\u2019s new mitigation strategy should open the door to a whole slew of new environmental markets for agriculture, giving farmers and ranchers the opportunity to earn new revenue for conservation activities. If conservation isn\u2019t already a part of their business models, it certainly can be now.<\/p>\n

Benefits for the environment and the economy<\/strong><\/p>\n

The White House strategy specifically calls for landscape-scale, market-based solutions that allow us to achieve \u201cno net loss\u201d for the environment. Fortunately, such solutions already exist.<\/p>\n

At Environmental Defense Fund, we\u2019re working almost exclusively on these types of solutions. We\u2019ve worked with energy and agriculture partners to develop habitat exchanges <\/a>that create net benefit for wildlife on working lands – most recently for the greater sage-grouse. We also launched a Sustainable Sourcing Initiative<\/a> that increases fertilizer efficiency to reduce runoff and improve soil health. Both of these initiatives allow farmers and ranchers to maintain their bottom line, creating net benefit for the environment and the economy.<\/p>\n

With more solutions like this, agriculture will be well-equipped to help achieve the President\u2019s \u201cno net loss\u201d goals, and to help sustain all that is core to America\u2019s history, economy and prosperity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today, President Obama announced a plan to safeguard America\u2019s land, water and wildlife by establishing a \u201cno net loss\u201d standard for mitigating impacts on natural resources and encouraging related private investment to deliver better outcomes for the environment. The plan will create a more sustainable future for the energy and agriculture sectors, for example, that …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[120554],"tags":[84699,56,75,383,75690,3475,39998,71853,84703,84702,665,84700,35119,676,569],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-5637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-agriculture","tag-ceq","tag-conservation","tag-environment","tag-environmental-defense-fund","tag-habitat-exchanges","tag-land","tag-markets","tag-mitigation","tag-net-benefit","tag-no-net-loss","tag-president-obama","tag-presidential-memorandum","tag-water-2","tag-white-house","tag-wildlife"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15728,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5637\/revisions\/15728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5637"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/growingreturns\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=5637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}