Make time for progress

Much has changed in our society and in agriculture since 1985. That was the year that Ronald Reagan was sworn into his second term of office, the wreck of the Titanic was found and Terry Anderson was taken hostage in Beirut. It's also the year that the Conservation Reserve Program was born.

Designed primarily to prop up an ailing farm economy during the Farm Crisis, whole farms were enrolled. Some farmers, operating out of survival mode, saw that they could rent entire farms to the government for more per acre than they could get in cash rent, so they did it; even if it meant all the land was not highly erosive.

We've come a long way in 20 years. Today, no-till farming technology and minimum tillage is the norm, not the exception. What that means for Iowa farmers is that some of that land can now be farmed with much less erosion. Times have changed, technology has changed and now it's time for the program to change.

Rather than being rooted in tradition for tradition's sake, the grassroots-led Farm Bureau delegates voted to support the elimination of future general CRP enrollments, which typically are 10-year contracts that allow large tract or whole farm enrollment. Let's make that clear; Farm Bureau does not favor the elimination of the 1.9 million acres currently enrolled in CRP. After lengthy, intense debate, Farm Bureau's voting delegates decided in favor of targeting future enrollments for those site-specific locations in critical need of conservation measures through continuous signup. They voted in favor of eliminating general CRP enrollments, which involve those whole farms that could be used for new technology crop farming, or cattle pasture grazing.

CRP has played a role in reducing the cattle herds in our state, because rather than returning fragile farmland back to pasture; it took the land out of production. Many farmers who enrolled 20 years ago are now facing retirement or already in it, and frankly, find it easier to maintain the status quo than to put the land back into production by renting it to a young farmer. Restoring eligible land back into grazing livestock, delegates felt, may help young ranchers get a cow-calf herd started which is essential to growing a renewable fuels industry in the state and aid declining rural communities. Our state needs young farmers, livestock and targeted conservation.

Of course, the CRP position reached in August is just the start of a grassroots process that still needs the vote of state Farm Bureaus across the nation to be approved. But, it's an important first step that begins a much needed dialogue better suited to present-day issues and technologies. After all, it's no longer 1985.

--Laurie Groves, Public Relations Manager, Iowa Farm Bureau.

Date: 10/25/06

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