What is happening to agriculture—environmental degradation, an alarming loss of farmers, the impending loss of export markets, dependence on high-cost energy and rural decline—is not the inevitable result of progress. It is the result of specific policies set by our government, through laws ironically intended to help farmers.
Government subsidies for a few select crops were created some seven decades ago to stabilize prices in order to soften the normal risks of farming. Since a sure thing is always better than a risk, farmers converted many acres to the subsidized commodity crops.
The unintended consequences include overproduction, chronically low prices for targeted crops, over-payments to mega-farms and loss of diversity in farm operations, food supply and landscapes. It also encouraged increased soil erosion and over-application of chemical pesticides and fertilizers—leading to water pollution and other environmental and health risks. Meanwhile, after lobbying for years to break down trade barriers in other countries, the United States is being successfully challenged by the World Trade Organization to drastically cut trade-distorting subsidies of our own.
Fortunately, we have a chance to change policies every few years when Congress rewrites the Farm Bill. When that opportunity comes up again in 2007, it’s time to think green.
Green payments
Good policy always starts with clear goals. What taxpayers and farmers really want are profitable farms that protect the environment.
“Green Payments” support farmers without the unintended consequences of intemperate commodity production. And, significantly, conservation investments do not distort trade and are not limited by international trade agreements.
The CSP model
Green Payments have a successful working model in the Conservation Security Program, now entering its third year of revolutionizing how policy helps agriculture. Working with their local Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) office, farmers enter multi-year contracts. By performing excellent conservation, they receive appropriate payments, up to a modest limit of $45,000 a year for the best operations.
While profits rise and fall, and while farms try out new crops and markets, the Conservation Security Program is there paying for one primary product of each farm—good care of the environment.
Though farmers are embracing the new approach, the Administration and Congress have been slow to catch on. Insufficient funds and overly bureaucratic rules have not allowed the program to fully flower—despite broad support from nearly every sector of farm, conservation and environmental groups to increase CSP funding. The time is ripe for a change.
A plan for 2007
We’ve learned from past experience that sudden and complete abandonment of subsidies can cause unintended harm to American farmers. So let’s write a 2007 Farm Bill that phases out commodity payments while opening the Conservation Security Program to all farmers, up to the $45,000 limit—letting farmers earn a basic living from conservation services. Then reform the remaining subsidy program and crop insurance to provide a safety net from violent swings in markets or natural disasters.
This shift would enable farmers to use conservation investments to correct the trouble agriculture is now heading for. It would form a trade-neutral safety net for farmers and lead to landscape diversity, more farming opportunities and a healthy environment.
Sidebar: What is the Conservation Security Program?
The Conservation Security Program is a voluntary USDA program that provides financial and technical assistance to promote the conservation and improvement of soil, water, air, plant and animal life, energy and other conservation purposes on private working lands.
Why is it needed? A recent nationwide USDA survey asking farmers if they used any of nine basic conservation practices in the previous year—from soil testing to nitrogen management to crop rotation—found that 75% reported using none of these practices. Only 13% of America’s farmers had participated in USDA conservation programs in the previous year.
Therefore, CSP rewards farmers who already spend the time, learn the skills, take the risks, and ultimately invest in more and more conservation-friendly practices. And it provides real incentives for more farmers to do the same. Eligibility requires performance-based outcomes for both soil and water quality in order to earn payment for additional conservation practices.
The CSP motto is “Reward the best and motivate the rest.”
