Last week Dan Keppen, Executive Director of the Family Farm Alliance hosted a Zoom presentation from his home in Oregon entitled Conserving Natural Resources through Collaboration-Water, Drought and Farming. The Family Farm Alliance was launched in 1998 to provide an effective lobby to present the needs of the “Reclamation States” (those west of the 100th meridian) to Congress.The Family Farm Alliance leadership is provided by a 14 member board. Low overhead is assured as all members are contractors. The Wyoming and Colorado representatives include Pat O’Toole (president) and Don Schwindt (VP).
The core program is public education - through monthly briefings, water reviews, issue alerts (such as an upcoming vote) and various other reports. Members meet annually in person and there is an annual farmer’s lobby trip to Washington DC. Members have appeared 80x before Congress since 2005. In 2015 they attended a White House Water Forum hosted by the Obama administration. Ongoing efforts are aimed at improving and implementing such programs as the Clean Water and Endangered Species Acts. During the last Congress the focus was on water resource development, better inspection, invasive species and small storage projects.
Currently, engagement with the Biden administration seeks to streamline administrative protocols (eg, title transfers) and conserve farms. 95% of the West is either "abnormally dry" or in some degree of drought. Protecting western water supply and agriculture is vital to the entire nation. Over 200 organizations have signed on to support the Western Water Infrastructure Initiative towards this end. In the next few years the Family Farm Alliance hopes to align its needs with those of the current administration for economic recovery, environmental rulemaking and climate change.
Our speaker’s last comments were about the importance of the Colorado River and the role the Family Farm Alliance has played in its protection and enhancement. The group was involved in the Arizona Reconsultation of 2007; in 2015 it produced a white paper profiling the agricultural interests in the watershed and in 2019 produced a two volume collection of interviews regarding the Colorado River system and its importance in the West.
Finally Dan emphasized the importance of Western irrigated agriculture – a sector that has produced a trade surplus for 50 years, its contribution to the US position as the world’s largest food exporter and how continued food independence is a matter of national security.