Sponsored: One Farm’s Clean(er) Water Story
American Farmland Trust, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and other partners established the nation’s first interstate water quality trading market. Now farmers can fulfill their desire to be good environmental stewards.
The Lowmillers found the help they needed through an award-winning pilot program underway in the Ohio River Basin. American Farmland Trust, the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), and other partners established the nation’s first interstate water quality trading market, which allows industries to purchase water quality “credits” from farmers in the watershed. In turn, farmers use the funds to pay for conservation practices that reduce the amount of fertilizer running off their farms.
In the pilot program’s first year, 29 farms in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana made improvements that kept an estimated 12,000 pounds of nitrogen and 3,800 pounds of phosphorus out of the Ohio River, which flows into the Mississippi and eventually into the Gulf of Mexico, where nutrient runoff from agriculture and other human activities is a major problem.
“AFT and our partners think we’ve found part of the solution in the Ohio River Basin Trading Project. At full scale, this program could have a significant positive impact on the water quality and health of the watershed,” says Brian Brandt, AFT’s director of Agricultural Conservation Innovations.
Leading water quality experts agree. In 2015, the U.S. Water Alliance awarded the project the U.S. Water Prize. For the Lowmillers, the project helped them improve their operation and fulfill their desire to be good environmental stewards.
“You’ve got to take care of the ground,” says Bret Lowmiller. “That’s what feeds us. If you take care of the land, it will take care of you.”
You can help raise awareness about the loss of farmland and the impact it has fresh, local food for the next generation. Sign-up to get a FREE No Farms No Food® car magnet from American Farmland Trust and join the farmland movement.
This article is brought to you by American Farmland Trust the nation’s leading national conservation nonprofit dedicated to protecting farmland, promoting sound farming practices and keeping farmers on the land. Learn more about AFT and how we are helping beginning farmers thrive by visiting us online at, www.farmland.org.
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March 8, 2016
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