We use cookies to provide you with a better experience. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies in accordance with our Privacy Terms and Cookie Policy
Shining Light on Farm & Food Policy for 20 Years.
Sunday, May 12, 2024
Producers have signed up in increasing numbers to protect grasslands, adding more of a “working” element to the Conservation Reserve Program, which pays farmers for employing conservation practices on their land.
The Biden administration is looking to farmers to help alleviate global food shortfalls by planting winter wheat this fall on ground that’s coming out of the Conservation Reserve Program, but much of the acreage lies in states that are suffering from prolonged drought.
The Agriculture Department announced Tuesday that it accepted about 2 million acres into the Conservation Reserve Program during this year’s general signup, well short of what could be needed to keep CRP from shrinking this year.
Senate Democrats are seeking quick confirmation of Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court this week, while U.S. agriculture and other export-minded sectors are watching what the House does with the Senate-passed Ocean Shipping Reform Act, which is intended to ease port bottlenecks.
Citing the crisis in Ukraine, the American Farm Bureau Federation and several food and feed processing groups appealed to the Biden administration to let farmers plant crops on prime farmland that’s idled under the Conservation Reserve Program.
A leading U.S. ag economist thinks the Biden administration may have to open up the Conservation Reserve Program to cropping this year because of grain shortages that could result from the crisis in Ukraine.