Release protected land for farming?

The fact that food prices around the world are rising is not news. In April, we reported that fewer and fewer farmers are accepting payments from the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to “take land out of production and use it to restore valuable ecosystems.”

Intended as a way to create more habitat, prevent soil erosion, and improve water quality, there are roughly 35 million acres of conservation lands that would be farmland, whether not for the CRP’s efforts.

Currently, whether landowners wish to back out of their contract for no-planting early, they face not only a penalty, but reimbursement for payments already received.

Unfortunately, considering of the rise in food prices, farmers plus stand to produce more profit by growing cash crops like wheat and corn.

Because of the food crisis, the USDA is considering waiving the costs of backing out of their CRP contracts early in order to free up to 24 million acres of land for farming. That is a whopping 68.57% of the current CRP conservation lands that could be released.

The concept? Congress and producer groups claim that that move would increase food production and thus lower prices.

Says Lisa Moore, a

scientist with the Climate and Air program for the Environmental Defense Fund, the impact on the food market would be minimal, but the environmental impact would be “a tragedy.”

In fact, the lands in question aren’t exceptionally fertile, which is why the farmers accepted CRP payments instead of attempting to grow crops. The payments were higher than what they could get from the crop yield.

Now, with food prices so high, that is no longer true, even though the lands are simply more suited to, and valuable as, “restored wetlands, forests, and grasslands.”

Moore lists the following effects that releasing these lands would have on the environment:

1. Tonnes of soil would be exposed, and could wash or blow away.
2. Greenhouse gas emissions would be increased. These habitats actually store carbon.
3. Valuable wildlife habitat would be destroyed.
4. The likelihood and extent of future flooding might be increased in areas.
5. Water quality would suffer.

In April, Melissa Schober noted that allegedly, CRP conservation lands prevent 450 million tonnes of soil erosion annually, and that by helping to improve our global warming situation, economic loss from droughts, floods, and other disastrous weather patterns is averted.

[Source] Amanda Miller

earth day peak oil popular science natural resources photovoltaic solar panels department of energy nature consequences of global warming waste management tankless water heaters polar bears recycling wind energy water heaters planet earth go green solar panel free energy earth science magazine carbon footprint solar dryer thermal energy endangered species water conservation conservation fuel cells causes of global warming mother earth news effects of global warming greenhouse effect solar power electric cars kyoto protocol wildlife organic food earth science human nature al gore climate map price of oil epa solar cell environment solar water heater renewable energy science news geothermal energy environmental issues hybrid cars fossil fuels water pollution an inconvenient truth genetically modified food solar cells hybrid vehicles noise pollution mother earth tankless water heater green building cause of global warming alternative energy wind power bottled water global warming facts green solar energy planet composting land pollution solar ocean pollution energy conservation what is global warming energy star recycling facts solar powered cars deforestation ecology recycle electronic waste earth science dictionary green guy carbon dioxide national wildlife federation water organic climate graphs air pollution endangered species list sustainability greenhouse gases oil prices climate change hybrid car compost going green pollution global warming