Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 1/29/20

House Agriculture Chairman Collin Peterson at a hearing on Tuesday lit into Matthew Lohr, head of USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service, over USDA's recent rollout of a new online tool intended to ease the process of applying for conservation programs.

The Conservation Assessment Ranking Tool, unveiled last week, aims to help farmers and ranchers with conservation planning by tracking land conditions and matching producers with funding pools tailored to local concerns. Methodologies are based on factors like geospatial data and resource concerns.

But that logic didn't fly with Peterson: "This streamlining is just more bureaucracy," the Minnesota Democrat told Lohr, adding that he's worried lobbyists could take advantage of the system.

Lohr said the program is intended to cut back on "red tape and paperwork and redundancy," a common complaint from producers about USDA's conservation initiatives. He said the goal is for NRCS employees to utilize a central technology when working with producers. NRCS staff across the country are being trained on the program, which will continue throughout the year.

Let's take this offline: Following the exchange, Peterson told reporters, "My farmers are not going to go on the internet and look at something and make a decision. They're going to go in and ask the guy at the county office."