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Runoff management keeps watershed clean
A producer who farms near the shore of Chesapeake Bay advises other watershed farmers to be proactive in managing nutrient runoff. Delaware farmer Richard Wilkins has always paid close attention to keeping water clean. It’s a regulatory necessity, but he feels it’s the right thing to do.
“It’s very, very difficult to argue against clean water,” said Wilkins, during an interview on a bus traveling the Delmarva countryside. “Everybody, including farmers, desires water to be clean. We have a responsibility as stewards of the land that we’ve entrusted with, to leave it in better shape than it was when we began to farm on it.”
Illinois soybean growers who farm the Mississippi Watershed went to the Delmarva Peninsula to find out how Delaware and Maryland farmers deal with the challenges of farming near the bay. Wilkins, who is the first vice president of the American Soybean Association, tells Brownfield his advice to Illinois growers and others farming large watersheds is to engage with elected officials and with career regulators.
“Try to make sure,” said Wilkins, “that whatever programs that are put in place provide a carrot rather than a stick.”
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