Congressman Costa visits CT workgroup

United States Congressman Jim Costa met with the Conservation Tillage and Cropping Systems Workgroup at the UC West Side Research and Extension Center on April 27. During the meeting, he voiced his support for increasing implementation of conservation tillage farming systems. Costa is a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, which is laying the groundwork for the reauthorization of the Farm Bill in 2012.

Workgroup member Ron Harben, air quality planner and coordinator with the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts, asked the congressman for $5 million over five years to study the adoption process and fund CT extension activities.

Harben suggested U.S. representatives create a California agriculture caucus in order to work together to ensure the state, the No. 1 ag producer in the nation, gets its fair share of federal support for agricultural programs.

Costa said he liked the idea of establishing a California ag caucus.

"The question is how to put it together without it becoming political," he said. "We had such a caucus with 21 bipartisan members. It worked pretty well for a number of years."

 

Congressman Jim Costa comments about conservation tillage in this 90-second video.