Excerpt
WHILE the first Reagan conservation budget was not exactly good news, conservationists in Washington reacted as though things could have been worse. After all, the administration proposed massive cuts in traditional farm programs (including elimination of target prices for wheat, feed grain, and cotton farmers), in the loan authority of the Farmer's Home Administration, and in food stamp and child nutrition programs. Cuts in these areas traditionally have been proposed only after reductions in discretionary U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) budget areas, such as research and conservation (see/SWC, July-August 1978, pp. 199-201).
But Secretary of Agriculture John Block somehow managed to increase funds for agricultural research in his first budget, and relative to other USD A agencies, conservation seemingly got off rather easily. The Soil Conservation Service (SCS) budget was reduced some $36 million from that proposed by the outgoing Carter Administration, with most of the loss in the watershed planning (− $4 million) and operations (− $25 million) programs. There was a slight increase in the agency's main program, conservation operations (up from $310 million to $317.6 million).
As usual, the Agricultural Conservation Program (ACP …
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
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