George Wuerthner reminding all of us that virtually all of the Federal Farm Bill (including the Conservation Reserve Program)is a giant welfare subsidy to Farmers.......................The money that temporarily pays Farmers to keep their land untilled and in its natural state "could have bought 30 million acres in eastern Montana"............................George states that it would be far better to "buy up the land and retire it forever from farming", thus ensuring enduring wildlife habitat

Rick

I have been against the CRP from its inception. It's a waste of money for exactly the reason you state. It is not permanent. We dump more money into this program than we pay to operate all our naitonal wildlife refuges annually. More than we pay to operate our parks. And it just keeps these marginal farmers in production. Frankly if existing environmental laws were actually enforced, these marginal acres would not be permitted to be cropped because they are a major source of non-point water pollution. It's just a freebie give away to farmers (who are independent people I've heard). Or as my friend who once administered the program in eastern Montana it's the "farmer retirement program".

I once calculated that at the cost of this and other subsides (CRP is only one of many)we could have bought 30 million acres in eastern Montana for the cost of subsidies in Montana at that time. I would rather see no money put into CRP and instead outright purchase of the land. That is what we did back in the 1930s (which is how we got a lot of the BLM and national grasslands in easatern Montana etc. ) Buy up the land and retire it forever from farming--plus you get public access and wildlife access to these lands.