From Audrey Hoffer's story ("Kind's proposal would help farmers, local communities: Lawmaker wants to change farm priorities") in today's Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

"There's a lot of pent-up demand to implement good land and water conservation programs," said Kind of farmers across the country; but three out of four farmers are rejected when they offer to share the cost of cleaner water, open space and wildlife habitats "because of our misplaced spending priorities."

In Wisconsin, more than one-third of conservation assistance requests in 2004 were not funded, according to the Natural Resource Conservation Service. The Healthy Farms bill would increase voluntary conservation incentives among farmers.

Here's Steve Callahan's piece in the La Crosse Tribune.