Program Cuts to Hurt Farmers, Environment

In response to the American farm crisis of the 1980s -- caused by cascading commodity and land prices after the farm boom of the 1970s -- the USDA created the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in 1985 to encourage farmers to take marginal, and highly erodible, farmland out of production.

For leaving their land fallow, farmers that chose to enroll in the CRP were eligible to receive annual rental payments from the USDA for the length of their contract period (either 10 or 15 years).  The idea is that taking marginal farmland out of production would help increase land and commodity prices while also helping to reduce erosion and increase wildlife habitat.

Now, even though many view the CRP as the most effective conservation program in the United States, millions of acres across the country are going to be taken out of the program, and many will be put back into production.

In between September and October of 2009 alone, contracts on more than 2.7 million acres of American farmland enrolled in the CRP expired.  Many of these contracts were not renewed in order to meet the new cap, authorized in the 2008 Farm Bill, of 32 million acres allowed in the program at any one time.

Environmentalists argue that the CRP has been a boon for wildlife populations, especially in the Mid-Western states where many CRP contracts are held.  According to one staff member from The Nature Conservancy, "What CRP clearly does is take out highly erodible land, often near streams and ponds, and give it more value by providing tremendous habitat, for example, for grassland birds."

Unfortunately now that these contracts are expiring, and rental payments are drying up, farmers may have no choice but the start working the land again -- even with the potential negative impacts on animal habitat and the environment.

One positive thing about changes to the CRP is that a new provision, also authorized in the most recent Farm Bill, allows farmers with land coming out of the CRP to lease or sell their land to beginning or disadvantaged farmers who use sustainable or organic land management practices.

Anyone need some land to farm?

(Photo credit: Robb North on Flickr)