What it takes to "Get to Yes" for Whole Farm Planning Policy

As new policy concepts emerge, their informed evolution is often hampered by unarticulated differences in individual and group interpretations of what they embody. Such is the case with "whole farm planning (WFP)," a systems-based concept for agroenvironmental management. If WFP is to move from preliminary concept to institutionalized policy tool. problems of definition, goal-setting, and implementation strategies must be resolved. An initial step to resolving those problems, or "getting to yes," requires clear articulation of the diverse views. This report is meant to accomplish two objectives. First, it provides a "primer" on the concept of whole farm planning and the issues involved in the development of whole farm planning policy. Second, it reports new information resulting from a structured interaction among a diverse set of interest groups, which adds richness to the idea of incorporating WFP into policy and identifies areas of common interest and potential disagreement among stakeholding groups in whole farm planning policy. No particular position on whole farm planning policy is advocated in this report. Rather, it is designed to elucidate the policy issues, identify key features that stakeholding groups see as essential for policy effectiveness, and make clearer the potential opportunities and challenges confronting policy makers if they pursue WFP policy. Partial funding for the effort was provided by the Soil and Water Conservation Society and the u.S. Environmental Protection Agency. All of the report's contents and conclusions, however, are solely the responsibility of the authors and the Wallace Institute. iii