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Farm Bill
As High as an Elephant’s Eye

Despite a few ups and downs, corn prices over the past 20 years have been so low that it made sense for many farmers in the Midwest to let the federal government pay them to be conservationists. Instead of being planted in uneconomical row crops, millions of acres were turned into much-needed wildlife habitat. Those days may be over. In the past year surging production of ethanol has nearly doubled the value of corn—to more than $3 a bushel. At that price, net income of more that $200 per acre for Iowa farmers begins looking good in comparison with the $100 per acre typically paid through the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP). Now, says Brian Moore, Audubon’s assistant director of government relations, “farmers have to decide whether they should jump on the corn bandwagon.”

What they decide will be greatly influenced by what happens this summer, as Congress wrangles over the next farm bill, which will replace the current bill, set to expire on September 30. The legislation, which controls agricultural policy and is rewritten every five years or so, includes up to $20 billion a year in crop subsidies, a practice many critics call wasteful and even irrational.

There are currently 37 million acres enrolled in the CRP, which pays farmers to take land out of production and instead plant grasses or trees. That’s more than twice the combined area of all national wildlife refuges in the lower 48 states. The problem is that during the next three years—2008 through 2010—CRP contracts are due to expire on more than 12 million acres. Farmers throughout the Corn Belt will look at crop prices before deciding whether to reenroll in the CRP.

The stakes are huge for wildlife, especially imperiled prairie birds. In the past 40 years populations of northern pintails, which need both wetlands and grassy uplands, are down 77 percent. The eastern meadowlark, once a common emblem of grasslands and open woodlands, has declined 72 percent. (For more, see Audubon’s State of the Birds Report). Northern bobwhites, loggerhead shrikes, and grasshopper and lark sparrows are in similar trouble. Even populations of game birds, such as native prairie chickens and exotic pheasants, depend heavily on the grassland habitat provided by the CRP.

Wildlife advocates will be prodding Congress and the White House to raise CRP rental rates to compete with high corn prices. “My biggest concern is that we make those programs competitive and viable,” says Dave Nomsen, vice-president of governmental affairs for Pheasants Forever. “I think conservation dollars spent through the farm bills are some of the most efficient conservation dollars that we spend through the federal government.”

In the long run, however, the best bet may be to look for alternatives to ethanol made from corn, a fertilizer-intensive crop that is not wildlife friendly. New incentives in the proposed farm bill would encourage research on and production of cellulosic ethanol—which is much better for the environment. But fuel made from perennial grasses and agricultural waste is probably far in the future.

If so, environmentalists would like to see much more funding in the new farm bill for studies that make corn-based ethanol less dependent on fossil fuels, by using, for example, corn “stover” (stalks and other residue) to power ethanol plants. Says Audubon’s Moore, “There’s probably research that could be done to make corn ethanol a greener fuel.” (To follow the progress of the farm bill, click here).—Greg Breining
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