Institute Critiques USDA’s EQIP for Favoring Big Farms, Urges Congress to Support Smaller Farms in Next Farm Bill.

The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy has criticised the USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program for focusing on practices that yield little climate or conservation benefit. The report found that EQIP, a key part of the five-year farm bill’s conservation efforts, invests too much money into projects such as manure digesters on big farms, depriving smaller farms of help on climate-smart efforts. The institute has called on Congress to adjust the program in the next farm bill, including targeting funds to smaller farms by reducing the funding cap for any project. However, there is little appetite for shifting the program’s focus.