Abstract
The 1972 deal to sell US surplus grain to the Soviet Union— and the subsequent commodity crop price spike—set off a decadelong fury of borrowing, speculation, and agricultural expansion (followed by the inevitable overproduction and price collapse). Particularly caught up in the euphoria were farmers in the Prairie Pothole Region, which spans parts of Iowa and Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, northeastern Montana, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. The Pothole Region—rolling hills and grasslands pocked by wetlands—is also called North America’s duck factory, because up to 60 percent of waterfowl are hatched in this habitat.1 The region is also important for storing water, filtering water, and storing carbon in soils.
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Notes
- 1.
Natural Resources Conservation Service, “USDA to Invest in Prairie Pothole Landscape Effort,” US Department of Agriculture,accessed June 2017, https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/national/home/?cid=STELPRDB1245728.
- 2.
“Cover Crops and CAFOS: An Analysis of 2016 EQIP Spending,” January 12, 2017, National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/eqip-fy2016-analysis/.
- 3.
Steve Davies, “Senators from Drought-Ridden States Seek More Help from USDA,” July 5, 2017, Agri-Pulse, https://www.agri-pulse.com/articles/9497-senators-from-drought-ridden-states-seek-more-help-from-usda.
- 4.
Davies, “Senators from Drought-Ridden States.”
- 5.
Ronald Reynolds, “The Conservation Reserve Program and Duck Production in the U.S. Prairie Pothole Region,” in Fish and Wildlife Benefits of Farm Bill Conservation Programs, 2000–2005 Update, US Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service and Farm Service Agency, 35.
- 6.
The 2002 Farm Bill provided funding for an additional 1 million acres of wetland set-asides and restoration, mostly in the southeastern bottomland forests that should never have been farmed in the first place.
- 7.
“The lower 48 states had an estimated 220 million acres of wetlands and streams in precolonial times, but 115 million acres of them had been destroyed by 1997.” In John Heilprin, “U.S. Reports Increase in Wetland Acreage: Bush Administration Figures Are Disputed as Being Misleading,” Associated Press, San Francisco Chronicle, March 31, 2006, A2.
- 8.
More than 80 percent of species use aquatic habitats at some point in their life cycle. Creek corridors are probably the single most important wildlife linkages because they connect all other habitats and lie at the heart of an ecosystem.
- 9.
Natural Resources Conservation Service, “Restoring America’s Wetlands: A Private Lands Conservation Success Story,” US Department of Agriculture, https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb1045079.pdf.
- 10.
Representative Ron Kind’s “Healthy Farms, Foods, and Fuels Act of 2006” called for a doubling of water protection incentives to $2 billion per year and a restoration of 3 million acres of wetlands.
- 11.
Sixty percent of EQIP funds were committed to livestock operations.
- 12.
Natural Resources Conservation Service, “Wetlands Reserve Program,” accessed June 2017, https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/main/national/programs/easements/wetlands/.
- 13.
Megan Stubbs, “Agricultural Conservation: A Guide to Programs,” CRS Report for Congress R40763, Congressional Research Service, April 17, 2018, https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R40763.pdf.
- 14.
“2014 Farm Bill Drill Down: The Bill by the Numbers,” National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, February 4, 2014, http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/2014-farm-bill-by-numbers/.
- 15.
“Environmental Quality Incentives Program,” Environmental Working Group, updated 2017, https://conservation.ewg.org/about_eqip.php.
- 16.
National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, “What Is in the 2014 Farm Bill for Sustainable Farms and Food Systems?,” January 2014, http://sustainableagriculture.net/blog/2014-farm-bill-outcomes/#LRFS.
- 17.
Martha Noble, “Paying the Polluters,” in The CAFO Reader: The Tragedy of Industrial Animal Factories, ed. Dan Imhoff (Healdsburg, CA: Watershed Media, 2010), 222.
- 18.
Suzie Greenlaugh, Mindy Selman, and Jenny Guiling of the World Resources Institute quote the following sources for conservation program spending: (1) Environmental Quality Incentives Program funding allocation; Edward Brzostek, USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service, personal communication, June 2006; (2) Conservation Reserve Program funding allocation 29th signup; (3) Grassland Reserve Program funding allocation; (4) Wetlands Reserve Program funding allocation; (5) Wildlife Habitat Incentives program funding allocation; and Albert Cerna, USDA NRCS, personal communication, June 2006.
- 19.
“Environmental Quality Incentives Program in the United States,” Environmental Working Group, updated 2017.
- 20.
“Restoring the Balance to Michigan’s Farming Landscape,” Sierra Club, Michigan Chapter, February 15, 2013.
- 21.
“CAFOs and Cover Crops: A Closer Look at 2015 EQIP Dollars,” National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, November 20, 2015.
- 22.
Suzie Greenlaugh, Mindy Selman, and Jenny Guiling, “Paying for Environmental Performance: Investing in Farmers and the Environment,” World Resources Institute, July 2006.
- 23.
FAO Newsroom, “Livestock a Major Threat to Environment: Remedies Urgently Needed,” November 29, 2006, web edition.
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© 2019 Daniel Imhoff
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Imhoff, D., Badaracco, C. (2019). The Conservation Era. In: The Farm Bill. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-975-3_8
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