Western farmers hoping to pressure their local representatives into passing new five-year farm legislation have begun pointing out that the failure to pass a new farm bill could hurt conservation efforts, potentially endangering the future of the farm industry.
Federal conservation programs can trace their origins to the Great Depression. Generations of environmentally damaging agricultural practices across the Great Plains caused enormous amounts of soil erosion, leading to a system of massive dust storms collectively known as the Dust Bowl. The storms severely damaged the farm sector and did enormous ecological damage across the plains.
The Conservation Reserve Program, one of the most powerful and visible of federal conservation programs, is part of the legacy of the Dust Bowl. In order to prevent over farming and serious ecological damage, the federal government pays farmers not to farm land in environmentally fragile areas.
According to the head of the Utah Farmers Union, the farm bill delay may jeopardize important farm programs. “If they keep delaying, a lot of these programs will expire at the end of September. Then, they may never get the appropriations back to fund those programs, such as conservation programs.”
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Written by: Justin Ellison / Farm Plus Staff Writer