Soil conservation: PIK in a poke

Excerpt

NOW that the signup period for the new PIK [Payment-in-Kind] program is over, we wanted to bring your attention to the potential for achieving a great amount of soil and water conservation through this program.”

Thus began a March 30, 1983, letter to soil conservationists from Soil Conservation Service (SCS) Chief Peter Myers and Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service (ASCS) Administrator Everett Rank. A similar letter, sent to leading environmental and wildlife organizations, seemingly marked the beginning of a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) campaign last spring to counteract bad public relations over PIK by emphasizing its conservation benefits.

Eight months later, it appears the premature effort to portray PIK as a boon to conservation and wildlife may well embarrass Secretary of Agriculture John Block. Perhaps more importantly, PIK's spotty conservation performance may also reflect unfavorably on the institutions of the voluntary system of conservation in the United States.

One can readily understand why the conservation straw was so eagerly grasped by the administration last spring, long before the facts were in. Policymakers with responsibility for commodity programs suffered a kind of political vertigo when they found themselves perched on 82 million acres of …