Corn Ethanol Is Eating Up US Conservation Land

The unintended consequences of corn ethanol, part XXV:

Farmers are dropping out of the USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) in growing numbers, choosing to put their fallow acres back to work instead of conserving them.

Why? The temptation for profits, courtesy of America's biofuels boom.

The government-run CRP pays farmers not to plow. Instead, they enroll their acres in 10- to 15-year contracts with the feds. And in exchange for payment, they plant vegetative cover that controls soil erosion and enhances wildlife habitat.

It was once a real deal. No longer.

Crop prices have hit record highs, putting dollar signs in the eyes of farmers. And since government rates for idling can no longer compete with farming, dropping out has been a no-brainer for many. And, at least for now, the feds have chosen to ix-nay any pay-out increases.

Bye-bye conservation. Hello another unfortunate upshot of America’s corn ethanol trap.

The US biofuels story goes like this. Congress established enormous mandates for ethanol. Demand for corn soared. That caused huge spikes in prices. And then it spread to other staples.

To cash in on the wealth in corn, farmers switched their fields to make room for the lucrative crop, upsetting supplies of soybean, wheat and others, and sending those prices soaring too.

Now, add corn ethanol to the mix of other factors -- high energy costs, droughts and rising demand in Asia -- and there you have food prices driven to record levels.

Naturally, US farmers want in. Asap. And the CRP's numbers are heading south as a result. That will take its toll eventually.

The 20 year-old program is the largest private-lands management effort in America. As of January ‘08, around 35 million acres were being conserved under it -- eight percent of the nation’s total cropland. And much of that has been used to spur a national wildlife boom.

Have a look at some key benefits brought by the program, courtesy of Ethanol Producer Magazine:

• Soil erosion has been reduced by 450 million tons per year.
• There’s been a marked reduction in sediment and nutrient runoff into rivers and streams.
• Long-absent prairie chickens have reappeared in Texas.
• Big game numbers are rising in Western United States.
• And, according to the NYT, America’s duck population alone has increased by two million.

And now the problem. When CRP contracts expire, farmers must renew them. And many aren’t. The NYT says that last fall, five million acres came up for renewal, and only half of them were re-entered.

That hasn't made a huge dent in the total acreage under the program, of course. But it could -- and very soon -- if non-renewal becomes the norm.

The true test will be in the next three years when 9.5 million acres of land now under contract expire.

But why wait and see? It's time to intervene. Here's the short-term fix, argues Scott McLeod of Ducks Unlimited in the Ethanol Producer piece:

"If the government believes it’s important, they’ll have to suck it up and increase those payments."

And long-term?

Well, now that America’s corn ethanol boom has been linked to global food insecurity, the growth of dead zones, and the loss of US protected lands (and so much more), can we now at least stop subsidizing it?

Please?

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