*[Enwl-eng] Prairie Grasslands Being Converted to Biofuel Crops AtA Dangerous Rate
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Mar 2, 2013, 4:41:17 PM3/2/13
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*Biofuels Converting U.S. Prairielands at Dust Bowl Rates*
By Joe Hitchon
Illustration Omitted:
A soybean harvest in the state of Michigan. Between 2006 and 2011,
U.S. farmers converted more than 1.3 million acres of grassland into
corn and soybean fields. Credit: public domain
WASHINGTON, Feb 23 2013 (IPS) - The rush for biofuels in the United
States has seen farmers converting the United States' prairie lands to
farms at rates comparable with deforestation levels in Brazil, Malaysia
and Indonesia -- rates not seen here since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
A new study finds that, between 2006 and 2011, U.S. farmers converted
more than 1.3 million acres of grassland into corn and soybean fields.
Driven by high crop prices, biofuel subsidies and a confluence of other
factors, states like Iowa and South Dakota have been turning some five
percent of prairie into cropland each year, according to the report's
authors, Christopher Wright and Michael Wimberly of South Dakota State
University.
The researchers suggest that farmers are growing crops on increasingly
marginal land, in part because the federal government offers subsidised
crop insurance in case of failure. In Nebraska, North Dakota and South
Dakota, for instance, corn and soy are planted in areas that are
especially vulnerable to drought.
Numerous incentives have encouraged the ploughing of grasslands. The
federal system of financial payments to grain farmers has long
encouraged conversion of grasslands to farms, but in recent years new
subsidies for corn ethanol and other biofuel production have
significantly stepped up this inducement.
The resulting increase in crop prices encourages the owners of livestock
to plough prairieland in order to grow crops in favour of using that
land for grazing. This has lead to the growth of industrial farms and
industrial confinement methods for meat production, while genetically
modified seeds now allow corn and soy production in semiarid regions
that before were suitable only for ranching.
According to the new research, farmers are increasingly willing to take
that risk because corn and soy have become so lucrative. Further, the
study finds evidence that many farmers are no longer enticed by federal
conservation programmes that pay for grassland cover.
"The big drivers that are often overlooked are the federally subsidised
crop insurance and commodity support programmes in play," Greg Fogel,
policy associate at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, an
advocacy group, told IPS.
"If a lot of farmers didn't have this support, they wouldn't choose to
produce on this land, because it is quite marginal and risky for them.
But when they're getting a 65 to 80 percent subsidy on their crop
insurance premium, the risk is dramatically reduced because it has
already a built-in revenue guarantee subsidised by the American taxpayer."
While recent years have subsequently seen a shifting of risk from
producer to taxpayer, Fogel warns that the latter will end up being
forced to pay twice, "when we later have to pay for a conservation
programme to rehabilitate and protect the destruction done to the
environment on the back end."
The loss of pasture itself could also have significant environmental
impacts. According to conservationists in the Midwest, the United
States' prairie lands should be seen as a vast "carbon ocean", with an
enormous capacity to reduce climate change by sequestering heat-trapping
carbon from the atmosphere.
"Native grasses are a stable repository of carbon, creating organic
carbon below ground, much as trees create it above," said John Davidson,
a professor emeritus of law at the University of South Dakota.
"Grasses store carbon quickly, providing an immediate mitigation against
global warming, and the carbon is stored safely underground, secure it
from catastrophic events such as fire. However, ploughing releases that
carbon, adding significantly to greenhouse gas concentrations while
eliminating habitat used by hundreds of species."
Indeed, an area covering the five northern states of the Midwest
contains thousands of shallow wetlands and is one of the continent's
largest breeding grounds for ducks and other ground-nesting birds and
waterfowl. But cornfields are now encroaching on this habitat, with
wetlands disappearing and bird populations dropping.
Davidson is urging a public discussion on whether it makes sense to
spend large amounts of money on attempts to control the release of
carbon from coal-fired power plants and the cutting of tropical forests
"while simultaneously releasing an immeasurable ocean of carbon by
ploughing up our prairie".
Further, a 2008 paper in the journal Science argued that fuels like corn
ethanol and soy biodiesel lose a portion of their carbon advantage over
gasoline if farmers are simply digging up virgin grassland to grow the
crops.
Sodsaving
Environmental groups and policymakers are currently pushing initiatives
to ensure that federal farm and crop insurance subsidies do not
exacerbate the loss of these vital natural resources. A bipartisan group
of members of the House of Representatives recently introduced
legislation that would create a nationwide "sodsaver" law that would
slash subsidies that contribute to the destruction of native grassland
and prairie.
This would dramatically lower the amount of money the government
provides for native grasslands that have been recently ploughed. This
doesn't mean that farmers can't keep farming, just that they won't have
as much of an incentive to convert prairieland to agricultural land.
The Protect Our Prairies Act, a provision of the 2013 Farm Bill, which
was passed by the Senate in June 2012, would prohibit federal payments
and reduce crop insurance premium subsidies by 50 percent on newly
broken native sod. The bill would also close loopholes by requiring that
newly converted prairieland be isolated from other crop acres when
calculating insurable yields.
Proponents say these two provisions are crucial to removing the
federally subsidised incentive to move agricultural operations into
native grasslands. The bill would also save an estimated 200 million
dollars over a decade, while ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not
continue to facilitate the destruction of prairielands.
Further, proponents say doing so would result in more ranching
opportunities, stronger ecosystems, increased hunting opportunities,
less soil erosion and net economic gains for rural communities.
"As the House of Representatives begins developing its version of the
Farm Bill, we will work to ensure that chamber does not make the same
deep cuts to conservation," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of
Defenders of Wildlife, in a statement.
"And we will fight to make sure the House also requires farmers who
receive subsidies to take appropriate measures to protect our lands,
water and wildlife, as the Senate has done. We simply must find a way to
provide a crop insurance safety net for farmers that doesn't also
encourage the widespread destruction of wetlands, forests, grasslands
and America's waters."
http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/02/biofuels-converting-u-s-prairielands-at-dust-bowl-rates/
*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational
purposes only. ***
From: "Yahoo Newsgroups" <vasi...@ramapo.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2013 3:59 PM
Subject: News: Prairie Grasslands Being Converted to Biofuel Crops At A
Dangerous Rate
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By Joe Hitchon
Illustration Omitted:
A soybean harvest in the state of Michigan. Between 2006 and 2011,
U.S. farmers converted more than 1.3 million acres of grassland into
corn and soybean fields. Credit: public domain
WASHINGTON, Feb 23 2013 (IPS) - The rush for biofuels in the United
States has seen farmers converting the United States' prairie lands to
farms at rates comparable with deforestation levels in Brazil, Malaysia
and Indonesia -- rates not seen here since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.
A new study finds that, between 2006 and 2011, U.S. farmers converted
more than 1.3 million acres of grassland into corn and soybean fields.
Driven by high crop prices, biofuel subsidies and a confluence of other
factors, states like Iowa and South Dakota have been turning some five
percent of prairie into cropland each year, according to the report's
authors, Christopher Wright and Michael Wimberly of South Dakota State
University.
The researchers suggest that farmers are growing crops on increasingly
marginal land, in part because the federal government offers subsidised
crop insurance in case of failure. In Nebraska, North Dakota and South
Dakota, for instance, corn and soy are planted in areas that are
especially vulnerable to drought.
Numerous incentives have encouraged the ploughing of grasslands. The
federal system of financial payments to grain farmers has long
encouraged conversion of grasslands to farms, but in recent years new
subsidies for corn ethanol and other biofuel production have
significantly stepped up this inducement.
The resulting increase in crop prices encourages the owners of livestock
to plough prairieland in order to grow crops in favour of using that
land for grazing. This has lead to the growth of industrial farms and
industrial confinement methods for meat production, while genetically
modified seeds now allow corn and soy production in semiarid regions
that before were suitable only for ranching.
According to the new research, farmers are increasingly willing to take
that risk because corn and soy have become so lucrative. Further, the
study finds evidence that many farmers are no longer enticed by federal
conservation programmes that pay for grassland cover.
"The big drivers that are often overlooked are the federally subsidised
crop insurance and commodity support programmes in play," Greg Fogel,
policy associate at the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, an
advocacy group, told IPS.
"If a lot of farmers didn't have this support, they wouldn't choose to
produce on this land, because it is quite marginal and risky for them.
But when they're getting a 65 to 80 percent subsidy on their crop
insurance premium, the risk is dramatically reduced because it has
already a built-in revenue guarantee subsidised by the American taxpayer."
While recent years have subsequently seen a shifting of risk from
producer to taxpayer, Fogel warns that the latter will end up being
forced to pay twice, "when we later have to pay for a conservation
programme to rehabilitate and protect the destruction done to the
environment on the back end."
The loss of pasture itself could also have significant environmental
impacts. According to conservationists in the Midwest, the United
States' prairie lands should be seen as a vast "carbon ocean", with an
enormous capacity to reduce climate change by sequestering heat-trapping
carbon from the atmosphere.
"Native grasses are a stable repository of carbon, creating organic
carbon below ground, much as trees create it above," said John Davidson,
a professor emeritus of law at the University of South Dakota.
"Grasses store carbon quickly, providing an immediate mitigation against
global warming, and the carbon is stored safely underground, secure it
from catastrophic events such as fire. However, ploughing releases that
carbon, adding significantly to greenhouse gas concentrations while
eliminating habitat used by hundreds of species."
Indeed, an area covering the five northern states of the Midwest
contains thousands of shallow wetlands and is one of the continent's
largest breeding grounds for ducks and other ground-nesting birds and
waterfowl. But cornfields are now encroaching on this habitat, with
wetlands disappearing and bird populations dropping.
Davidson is urging a public discussion on whether it makes sense to
spend large amounts of money on attempts to control the release of
carbon from coal-fired power plants and the cutting of tropical forests
"while simultaneously releasing an immeasurable ocean of carbon by
ploughing up our prairie".
Further, a 2008 paper in the journal Science argued that fuels like corn
ethanol and soy biodiesel lose a portion of their carbon advantage over
gasoline if farmers are simply digging up virgin grassland to grow the
crops.
Sodsaving
Environmental groups and policymakers are currently pushing initiatives
to ensure that federal farm and crop insurance subsidies do not
exacerbate the loss of these vital natural resources. A bipartisan group
of members of the House of Representatives recently introduced
legislation that would create a nationwide "sodsaver" law that would
slash subsidies that contribute to the destruction of native grassland
and prairie.
This would dramatically lower the amount of money the government
provides for native grasslands that have been recently ploughed. This
doesn't mean that farmers can't keep farming, just that they won't have
as much of an incentive to convert prairieland to agricultural land.
The Protect Our Prairies Act, a provision of the 2013 Farm Bill, which
was passed by the Senate in June 2012, would prohibit federal payments
and reduce crop insurance premium subsidies by 50 percent on newly
broken native sod. The bill would also close loopholes by requiring that
newly converted prairieland be isolated from other crop acres when
calculating insurable yields.
Proponents say these two provisions are crucial to removing the
federally subsidised incentive to move agricultural operations into
native grasslands. The bill would also save an estimated 200 million
dollars over a decade, while ensuring that taxpayer dollars do not
continue to facilitate the destruction of prairielands.
Further, proponents say doing so would result in more ranching
opportunities, stronger ecosystems, increased hunting opportunities,
less soil erosion and net economic gains for rural communities.
"As the House of Representatives begins developing its version of the
Farm Bill, we will work to ensure that chamber does not make the same
deep cuts to conservation," said Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of
Defenders of Wildlife, in a statement.
"And we will fight to make sure the House also requires farmers who
receive subsidies to take appropriate measures to protect our lands,
water and wildlife, as the Senate has done. We simply must find a way to
provide a crop insurance safety net for farmers that doesn't also
encourage the widespread destruction of wetlands, forests, grasslands
and America's waters."
http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/02/biofuels-converting-u-s-prairielands-at-dust-bowl-rates/
*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this
material is distributed, without profit, for research and educational
purposes only. ***
From: "Yahoo Newsgroups" <vasi...@ramapo.edu>
Sent: Tuesday, February 26, 2013 3:59 PM
Subject: News: Prairie Grasslands Being Converted to Biofuel Crops At A
Dangerous Rate
------------- * ENWL * ------------
Ecological North West Line * St. Petersburg, Russia
Independent Environmental Net Service: http://www.bellona.ru/enwl/
Russian: ENWL(discussions), ENWL-inf(FSU information), ENWL-misc(any topics)
English: ENWL-eng (world information)
en...@lew.spb.org, enwl...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org, en...@lew.spb.org
Subscription, Moderator: vf...@lew.spb.org or en...@enw.net.ru
Archive: http://enwl.bellona.ru/pipermail/
and http://groups.google.com/group/enwl/
SEE ALSO: http://www.bellona.org (English)and http://www.bellona.ru
(Russian)
RSS: http://groups.google.ru/group/enwl/feeds?hl=ru
(C) Please refer to exclusive articles of ENWL
-------------------------------------
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Enwl-eng mailing list
Enwl...@enwl.bellona.ru
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