Parent: Commodity Policy
Commodities: Conservation
Last edited by OrangeClouds115, January 30, 2008
After years of American farmers planting "fencerow to fencerow," Congress recognized the widespread damage done to animal habitats and took action. The result was a Conservation Title added to the farm bill, beginning in 1985. Since then, future farm bills created several conservation programs - programs that are often popular and successful, but also grossly underfunded. While these are separate and distinct from commodity subsidies, also designated in the farm bill, these programs could perhaps supplant a portion of our subsidies (if properly funded).
Here are some of the conservation programs introduced since 1985:
- "Swamp Buster" and "Sod Buster" Provisions: Any farmer caught draining wetlands or plowing protected grasslands loses all federal support (1985)
- Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP): Offers technical and financial support for restoring wetlands (1990)
- Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program (WHIP): Provides technical and financial assistance for establishing and improving fish and wildlife habitats (1996)
- Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP): Pays farmers up to 75% of the cost of environmental "improvements." (1996)
- Conservation Security Program (CSP): Provides money and technical help for conservation of soil, water, air, energy, plant and animal life, and other conservation purposes (2002)
- Grassland Reserve Program (GRP): Offers technical help and financial incentives to restore and protect prairies and other grasslands (2002)
To understand why these conservation programs are crucial, look at the Conservation Security Program as an example. Piloted in 2002, it is the first conservation program aimed at working lands (as opposed to programs rewarding farmers for leaving wetlands, grasslands, or other precious habitat idle). Unlike commodity subsidies, CSP rewards farmers for genuine sustainability practices and it has low individual payment limits. This is a great deal for taxpayers, as it aligns incentives with practices that make the country a nicer place to live for everyone.
CSP provides help for farmers to create a comprehensive nutrient management plan and encourages conservation tillage and contour planting. Also important in a time like this where the temptation is to grow an endless succession of corn crops, it promotes crop rotation and sensible cover cropping.
Unfortunately, CSP is also an example of a conservation program suffering gross underfunding. In theory, farmers in each of the nation's watersheds should be eligible for the program. However, since its inception, farmers in only a handful of watersheds have been allowed to apply. Due to underfunding, CSP, which could revolutionalize American agriculture, barely scratches the surface. Recipe for America calls on Congress to fully fund all conservation programs.
In addition to fully funding conservation, the government should ensure that conservation dollars go to deserving recipients. The Environmental Quality Incentive Program (EQIP) contains an unfortunate loophole, allowing factory farms to receive up to $450,000 to construct manure lagoons. As the creation and operation of factory farms is not at all in the public's interest, factory farms should not receive government handouts. Furthermore, as factory farms are harmful to the environment, they should hardly receive a piece of the already small conservation funding pie. We at Recipe for America request Congress to close the loophole in EQIP allowing factory farms to receive payments.
More information
How EQIP Benefits Factory Farms (blog entry) Diary on La Vida Locavore, March 5, 2009.Letter from Agribusiness Groups Opposing Conservation (news piece) February 1, 2008.
Meat Wagon: Factory farms milk the government (article) Conservation title schemes, youth flee CAFO country, and a side of E. coli beef (January 14, 2008)
NRCS Conservation Programs (web site)
NYT: In the Farm Bill, a Creature From the Black Lagoon? (article) About the EQIP program. January 13, 2008.
