Written by: Amie Alexander, JD/MPS Candidate, William H. Bowen School of Law

The American Prairie Conservation Act is a bipartisan bill, introduced on October 4, 2017, sponsored by Senators John Thune (R – South Dakota) and Amy Klobuchar (D – Minnesota) that aims to expand a nationwide crop insurance incentive to prevent farmers from converting grasslands to cropland.

The “sodsaver” provision of the Act is aimed to reduce incentives to convert remaining native prairie lands to cropland. The American Prairie Conservation Act would extend the current sodsaver provision from the 2014 Farm Bill to apply nation-wide. The Act would also require additional tracking and reporting on grassland losses.

You can read the text of the American Prairie Conservation Act here. Similar legislation was introduced in the House (H.R. 3939) by Representative Kristi Noem (R – South Dakota) on October 4, 2017, which you can find here.