Commodity Credit Corporation January 16, 2009 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008 (the 2008 Act) amended the Farmland Protection Program (FPP), established by the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996, and reauthorized by the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002. In the implementing rulemaking, the program was named the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP) to describe best the types of land the program seeks to protect. Under the FRPP, the Secretary of Agriculture, acting through the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), is authorized, on behalf of the Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) and under its authorities, to facilitate and provide funding for the purchase of conservation easements or other interests in land for the purpose of protecting the agricultural use and related conservation values by limiting nonagricultural uses of the land. This rulemaking implements changes to FRPP made by the 2008 Act and makes administrative improvement to the program.