Debate On Land Set-Aside Rules Intensifies

A coalition of environmentalists and the nation’s largest grain companies Monday launched a last-minute call for tough land set-aside rules for farmers.

Bob Peterson of the Coalition of Competitive Food and Agricultural System told a news conference that the coalition wants the federal government to pay farmers for idled land in need of environmental protection - such as stream banks, grass waterways and contour buffer strips.

The announcement was made just days before Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman is expected to announce new rules for the highly popular Conservation Reserve Program, which idles 36 million acres annually. Glickman has said that the new rules would provide protection equal to the size of the current program.

Peterson and officials with the Environmental Working Group and the Sustainable Agricultural Coalition complained that CRP wasted taxpayers money by idling poor farm land, diverting funds from important wetlands and reducing the nation’s grain supply to a harmful level.

“It’s vital that this money be well spent,” said Ken Cook of the EWG. “We’re very concerned the Clinton administration will enroll a great deal of land in the CRP program.”

However, farmers, hunters and animal lovers praise the program as a cost-effective way to preserve crop lands and replenish wildlife.

Peterson, whose group includes such giants as Cargill and General Mills Inc. - companies that stand to benefit from fewer idled acres and greater grain production - said 63 percent of the nation’s crop land may become available under new CRP rules, up from 48 percent last fall.

As of 1994, Washington farmers held 4,483 CRP contracts on 1 million acres, receiving $569 million a year. The contracts require farmers to keep fields out of production for 10 years and seed them with grass or trees.

The majority of the contracts protect wind-swept fields west and southwest of Spokane. Farmers in these areas in recent months have lobbied the USDA to provide equal protection for their wind erosive soils as those susceptible to water erosion in the Midwest.

Jonathan Schlueter, with the Portland-based Pacific Northwest Grain and Feed Association, said the program is bloated, with 60 percent of the land in the program not environmentally fragile.

“We view this as a a positive stop, long overdue,” he said of the call for tighter restrictions.

, DataTimes