Water quality and the new farm policy initiatives

Excerpt

WATER quality and soil conservation policy issues were, until recent years, considered apart from major farm policy issues. Now the 1985 farm bill, for the first time, links price support and other commodity program objectives to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's commitment to reduce soil erosion. Accelerated erosion, of course, poses a threat to both soil and water resources.

Because the highest rates of soil erosion generally occur on the most erodible cropland, one provision in the new farm bill denies federal price supports to farmers who plow out or “sodbust” highly erodible soils. Participants in certain commodity programs must also begin to implement plans by 1990 for protecting “highly erodible” soils or lose program benefits. And the 1984 conservation acreage reserve, which was substituted for acreage set-aside and crop diversion programs to protect some highly erodible lands, is expanded in the new farm bill to include 40 to 45 million of those highly erodible acres. To achieve program consistency, these initiatives focus nationwide on remedies for protecting highly erodible cropland, as do the “targeting” initiatives that have become part of soil conservation policy (2, 15).

A water quality perspective …