"A federal judge last week sided with environmental groups and US regulators in a dispute with an Iowa landowner over a Farm Bill provision that protects wetlands.
The move to uphold the “Swampbuster” rule marks a victory for family farmers, wetlands and water quality across the country, said environmental and sustainable agriculture groups that intervened in the case.
“This decision is an unequivocal victory for sustainable farming,” Dani Replogle, staff attorney for Food & Water Watch, one of the intervening groups, said in a statement. “The message is clear: we will not let fringe legal theories turn our wetlands into sacrifice zones for corporate landlords.”
The Swampbuster decision, filed May 29, comes as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) works to redefine “waters of the United States” language in the Clean Water Act, a move with huge implications for the protection of remote wetlands and other waterways.
The Swampbuster rule stipulates that farmers cannot drain, fill or otherwise alter wetlands on their property if they want to remain eligible for crop insurance subsidies, farm loans and other federal benefits. The provision, introduced by Congress in 1985, protects about 78 million acres of wetlands across the country."
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