Washington, D.C., March 21, 2008—“It is rare in life that one gets to work with a true pioneer in agricultural conservation, and who at 90, felt so passionate about the importance of our nation’s natural resources that he commuted an hour and a half to downtown Washington, DC, to continue writing and developing policies in this area,” said Ralph Grossi, President of American Farmland Trust (AFT). “It is with a heavy heart that the AFT family mourns the loss of Norman (Norm) A. Berg, who passed away Tuesday morning of an apparent heart attack.”

Having witnessed the Dust Bowl first hand, Norm provided a crucial link to the beginnings of agricultural conservation in the United States. He worked for the first chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Soil Conservation Service (SCS), Hugh Hammond Bennett, considered the “father of soil conservation”, and then rose steadily through the USDA ranks, serving as the chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) from 1979-1982. “Norm was this tireless advocate for conservation, because he saw, before many people, that sprawl and development was a serious threat to our nation’s agricultural resources,” Grossi added.

“One key achievement was his drafting of the Soil and Water Resources Conservation Act (RCA), which gave greater authority over natural resources to the USDA,” says Grossi. “It required the agency to write a national conservation plan for Congress.”  Unfortunately, the bill was seen as a national land-use law, and was vetoed by President Ford. Later, President Carter asked for the bill to be reintroduced, and it was quickly signed into law. That led to USDA linking commodity programs to conservation goals for the first time.

As chief of the NRCS, Berg supervised the first National Agricultural Lands Study (NALS), and Grossi says it was the baseline documentation of the extent and causes of farmland loss in the United States. As a result, the 1981 Farm Bill authorized farmland protection efforts by the USDA, and established the Farmland Information Center.

“Norm once said that although he came from a farm background, he learned early that urban dwellers have a great impact on the land and great deal at stake with what happens in rural America. That was very real understanding of people and politics, along with an encyclopedic technical knowledge that he brought to AFT and all the organizations he worked with,” Grossi adds. “He was so gracious about sharing his knowledge of conservation, putting issues into perspective and helping us avoid critical missteps along the way.”

Berg joined the staff of American Farmland Trust as Senior Advisor just after the organization’s inception in 1982. Concurrently, he served as the Washington representative of the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) of which he was a charter member and fellow, and was a long-time member of the Anne Arundel County Soil and Water Conservation District. USDA acknowledged his enduring influence in 1998 naming him Chief Emeritus and offering him a permanent office at NRCS headquarters.

Norm was born in Iowa, but raised on a family farm in Pine County, Minnesota, received his BS from the University of Minnesota and a masters in Public Administration from Harvard University. He served in the U.S. Marines during World War II. A devoted husband and father, Berg was predeceased by his wife Ruth, and is survived by four daughters, five grandsons and granddaughters, and four great-grandchildren.

Recently, American Farmland Trust, with the help of NRCS, SWCS, Anne Arundel Soil Conservation District and Norm Berg’s friends and colleagues established the Norm Berg Special Collection, an online archive of speeches and writings by and about Berg, and key laws and reports that represent milestones in agricultural conservation. The archive can be found at www.farmlandinfo.org, and the collection’s director, Jennifer Dempsey, welcomes additional materials.

You are invited to share your accolades and memories of Norm Berg at the on-line condolence book that has been established on AFT’s website: www.farmland.org/about/leadership/NormBerg.asp. A memorial service will be held on Saturday, March 29th at 1:00 p.m., at the Severna Park United Methodist Church. The church is located at 731 Benfield Road, Severna Park, MD 21146. Telephone: 410-987-4700. Directions to the church can be found here: http://www.severnaparkumc.org/Visitor/directions.htm .

In lieu of flowers, the Berg family requests that memorial contributions be directed to:
American Farmland Trust at 18th Street, NW, STE 800, Washington, DC 20036, via www.farmland.org, or, to the Norman and Ruth Berg Fellowship Program c/o Soil and Water Conservation Society, 945 SW Ankeny Rd., Ankeny, IA 50023.

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The Farmland Information Center (FIC) is a clearinghouse for information about farmland protection and stewardship. The FIC is a public/private partnership between the  USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) and  American Farmland Trust (AFT),
and was authorized by the federal Farmland Protection Policy Act (FPPA).
You can access the resources of the FIC at www.farmlandinfo.org .