A Farm Bill for the Environment

Policymakers don't necessarily associate the farm bill with the environment. This year, however, they should be prepared to pass a bill that reflects the U.S. public's growing concern over global warming.

This increased concern, which can be attributed to an explosive increase in media coverage and a broad scientific consensus on humanity's contribution to climate change, has already generated significant discussion in key congressional committees and corporate boardrooms. Most importantly, it has generated discussion at the kitchen tables of voters, who increasingly demand that their representatives pass legislation to address their environmental concerns.

The farm bill is a multi-title bill, meaning that individual sections (titles) address different portions of the U.S. agricultural sector. These titles include commodity programs, conservation, agricultural trade and aid, nutrition programs, farm credit, rural development, research, forestry and energy.

Opportunities to enhance environmental benefits can be found under many titles of the bill, but some of the more significant lie within the conservation title --for things such as protection of wetlands, wildlife habitats, freshwater reserves and, potentially, the global climate system. These are in high demand, but are also drastically under-funded. In 2004 and 2005, farm bill conservation programs accounted for roughly 12 percent of total United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) support payments. By comparison, the share of USDA awards for support of commodities like wheat, corn and dairy was approximately 77 percent.

Conservation programs could play a pivotal role in the fight against global warming by potentially offering excellent opportunities for the U.S. agricultural sector to decrease greenhouse gas emissions. That is no small matter. The agricultural sector of the U.S. economy is responsible for 85 percent of total U.S. emissions of nitrous oxide and 32 percent of total U.S. methane emissions.

While they are emitted in lower quantities than carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas responsible for most human-induced warming, these gases are far more potent. One ton of nitrous oxide, for example, warms as much as 310 tons of carbon dioxide does. Conservation practices such as no-till agriculture, manure management and general crop management can decrease these dangerous greenhouse gases, but only if the farm bill capitalizes on their ability to do so.

Policymakers can do four things to make conservation programs more able to combat global warming while benefiting farmers.

Increase the budgets of farm bill conservation programs. Due to the limited budget of conservation programs, many conservation title applicants are left out in the cold. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), for example, has only awarded grants to an average of 43 percent of applicants over the last several years. The same is true for other programs in the title. The Conservation Reserve Program did not even have a general signup period in 2005, and the Grassland Reserve Program, Wetland Reserve Program and Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program together only funded an average of 32 percent of total program applications in the same year.

Concentrate payments on environmental services instead of commodities. Environmental services are the benefits land can provide in addition to crop production, such as the inherent ability to clean our water and air through nutrient cycling and carbon dioxide storage.

There is virtually no potential for commodity support payments to benefit the environment, but the potential is great for conservation projects. By re-allocating funds from commodity to conservation programs, policymakers increase the incentive for farmers to implement projects that provide environmental services. Also, commodity payments are generally allocated according to historical market trends, while conservation program payments are awarded in advance for their anticipated services -- therefore, their environmental effectiveness has the potential to be assessed.