Photo: "Dirt-drifts" in South Dakota, caused by corn farming on unsuitable and marginal lands. Shades of the Dust Bowl. That mean old Law of Unintended Consequences will get you every time: first we see corn prices rising so high that Mexicans cannot afford to make tortillas, and now this mess. Plus it's a political scam anyway.
The full report on land conversion in the northern plains is here. The Ducks Unlimited press summary below:
From Ducks Unlimited:
BISMARCK, ND, April 12, 2007 - Home, home on the range where the deer,
antelope and ducks play may become a thing of the past if the rapid loss of America's prairie grasslands isn't stopped. Ducks Unlimited (DU) believes a new Congressional report will help Congress focus on solutions to the loss as it writes the new 2007 federal farm bill.
The report says the country's few remaining native grasslands in the Great Plains are being plowed under. The Prairie Pothole Region of the Great Plains is the world's most productive duck breeding habitat.
"It is encouraging to see that the issue of grassland conversion in the
Northern Plains has the attention of Congress as it prepares to write the
2007 farm bill," said Scott McLeod, DU's farm bill lead for the Great Plains
Region. "This issue has greatly concerned conservation groups, hunters and ranchers across the country for several years.
DU has identified the loss of native prairie grasslands as a critical issue
affecting waterfowl and other wildlife. Many other hunting, fishing,
conservation, environmental and agriculture groups list a solution to
grassland loss as essential for their organizational success in the next
farm bill.
DU says the report released by the Congressional Research Services (CRS) on grassland conversion in the Northern Great Plains should help Congress in efforts to reduce the conversion of native grassland into cropland. The
report (available at www.ducks.org/crsreport) drew on research conducted by DU and its conservation partners in North and South Dakota.
According to DU Director of Conservation Planning for the Great Plains,
Scott Stephens, the recent trends in conversion of native prairie to
cropland are clear. The practice is increasing. Stephens led DU's research
efforts cited in the CRS report.
"Those trends were evident even before the recent jump in crop prices driven by demand for ethanol," said Stephens.
Stephens says native grasslands provide critical breeding habitat for many
of the continent's ducks, shorebirds and songbirds, as well as being the
primary food source for cattle on many ranches.
In 2006, the chief of the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, Bruce Knight, testified before Congress. Knight told Congress, "The grasslands look to be probably the most endangered ecosystem in North America, when you put the tall grass, mid-grass and short grass prairies together."
DU's answer to fix the conversion problem is adding what it calls a
"Sodsaver" provision to the next farm bill. The Sodsaver provision was
recently included in the USDA farm bill proposal. Sodsaver would remove all federal incentives on land with no previous cropping history.
"The conversion of grassland to cropland in this part of the world only
works economically if you have the federal supports," said Wendi Reinhart, a South Dakota rancher. "Removing all federal payments on newly broken lands would retard if not stop the escalation of farming practices coming into soils that are totally unsuitable. The best commodity we have on this
prairie is the grass itself, and it's time not only the politicians but our
nation in general, wake up and pay attention to what's happening to our
vanishing prairie."
DU recognizes the important role of government support for agricultural
production on high-quality cropland. But offering federal support to convert drought- and disaster-prone land to cropland is poor policy that costs taxpayers in both federal payments and the lost environmental benefits that grasslands provide.
Re our post on ethanol subsidies earlier today:
Tracked: Apr 15, 12:44