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Declare victory and retreatThe minimal opening of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to haying and grazing, and the declaration by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that no land would be released early, has caused me to examine the whole relationship of the multiple entities and populations involved in the process. It has been made clear that the wildlife on your land is not yours. But now it appears the determination of what you can do with your land, in the name of agricultural production, will be influenced by non-farm interests and dictated by the courts. Any disaster requires a setup. In this case, it was weather, as the farms and ranches of the United States saw more of nature's fury in the past three years than normally occurs in a decade. Last year's rain in wheat country destroyed much of the 2007 crop. Last winter's drought in many areas did damage to prospects of making it up in 2008. In the Midwest, the cold wet winter was followed by a late and rainy spring that sent rivers out of their banks for weeks. This summer, drought continues in the arid regions of the West and Southwest. As a result, grain prices moved to record levels as the real prospect of crop failure was reacted to by the buyers of raw products and by speculators who were willing to make high risk investments in futures contracts. The livestock producer was caught in drought, flood, winter ice and snow. The price of hay moved up with the reduced supply and placed all producers in a bind. It could be expected that dairy quality hay would track with rising corn prices but even round bales of corn stalks and prairie grass went to unprecedented levels. The remedy was to open CRP land. And the USDA began the process of doing so with a declaration in May that Critical Feed Usage by haying or grazing could be accomplished on a portion of acres sitting idle and growing valuable forage. The agency appeared to venture out on this highway without consultation and without looking both ways to see if there was a truck coming. They were hit by one that had National Wildlife Federation on the side of it. The NWF found the weakness in the USDA plan and took it to a judge in Washington who first put an injunction on the program and then ruled in favor of wildlife interests. "The (Court) finds that defendants violated the National Environmental Policy Act...acting arbitrarily, capriciously, and unreasonably, when they decided, on the basis of the "Environmental Evaluation" produced, that the Critical Feed Use initiative would have no significant adversarial environmental consequences, and accordingly concluded that an EA (environmental assessment) or EIS (environmental impact statement) was not necessary." From a judge, this wording is like having your ancestry questioned on a megaphone on Main Street on Saturday afternoon. It left no doubt that the environmental card could beat the rest of the deck. The USDA appeared to be totally flat footed in their reaction to the judge's ruling. It appears they thought the need for forage by livestock producers was enough to justify the program. They assumed the authority was theirs. The judge was not unsympathetic of the needs of CRP stakeholders, as he allowed exception to his ruling to accommodate those who had signed up and paid their money, but he ruled in favor of NWF and took the environmental impact of the proposed action and whopped the USDA over the head with it. Now the Farm Service Agency is implementing the Critical Feed Use program under court order and doesn't seem to be too happy about that. State and local administrators, where I live, are mostly silent, bordering on sullen, as they go about qualifying applicants. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer signed on at USDA for a shorter term than soldiers going to Iraq. He could have taken counsel from departing Secretary Mike Johanns who has repeatedly told reporters that any action to free up the CRP would require an environmental assessment that might take longer to conduct than the length of the landowner contracts. Schafer and his advisors appear to have been naive to the ways of non-agricultural interest groups but learned quickly and painfully. The next action of the Secretary, following rejection by the Washington court, must have greatly satisfied the wildlife and environmental organizations. The long awaited decision regarding penalty free early release of CRP land was a simple news conference with Schafer, citing a downtrend in grain prices due to farmers increasing the size of the projected harvest and a declaration that no land would be released this year. I say it was a good decision as too many factors were lined up against this man and this government. In January a new administration will occupy Washington, D.C. New players will appear at all levels of government and the focus will be on policy and procedure. If food prices go up, the new president will have to determine his course of action. If alternative energy is going to come from the land, then the administration will have to determine how much money they can allocate for its development and production. If additional crop land is needed, then the administration is going to have to plot a long-term strategy to bring it into production. But no matter what is done, you can bet they'll have a sign up at USDA that says: "It's the Environment, Stupid!" Editor's Note: This is Ken Root's 34th year as an agricultural reporter. He grew up on a small farm in central Oklahoma and started his career as a vocational agriculture teacher. He worked in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri as a broadcaster and was the original host of AgriTalk. He has also been the executive director of the National AgriChemical Retailers Association in Washington, D.C. and the National Association of Farm Broadcasters in Kansas City. Ken is now the lead farm broadcaster at WHO and WMT Radio based in Des Moines, Iowa. He has been a columnist for HPJ and Midwest Ag Journal for seven years. 8/11/08 Date: 8/7/08 Advertisement
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