Excerpt
THOUGH I recently asked the Congress to consider a proposed supplemental appropriation for the Agricultural Conservation Program, I wanted you to know that I did so with reservation,” President Carter wrote in a memorandum to Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland in August 1977. “I am concerned that our soil conservation programs, and this program in particular, are not as effective as they could or should be. I fear that we have about 3,000 [sic] separate conservation programs with little national guidance or problem-solving orientation, and, consequently, that the emphasis is on yield enhancing practices rather than the more enduring conservation measures.”
The president concluded the memorandum with a request that “a thorough evaluation of the ACP” be included in the full-scale review of all U.S. Department of Agriculture conservation programs that was then underway, and he asked to be “closely advised of its progress.”
The president's memorandum resulted in the first attempt to evaluate the ACP in its 44-year history.1 As of early December 1980, the report had been under “review” in the secretary's office for over a year, but it had yet to reach Secretary Bergland's desk, let alone Mr …
Footnotes
Kenneth A. Cook, 1760 U Street, N.W., Washington. D.C. 20009. writes on agricultural and conservation topics.
- Copyright 1981 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
This article requires a subscription to view the full text. If you have a subscription you may use the login form below to view the article. Access to this article can also be purchased.