Green Daily

Unfortunately, because of the rise in food prices, farmers also stand to make more profit by growing cash crops like wheat and corn.

Because of the food crisis, the USDA is considering waiving the costs of backing out of their CRP contracts early in order to free up to 24 million acres of land for farming. That is a whopping 68.57% of the current CRP conservation lands that could be released.

The idea? Congress and producer groups claim that this move would increase food production and thus lower prices.

Says Lisa Moore, a scientist with the Climate and Air program for the Environmental Defense Fund, the impact on the food market would be minimal, but the environmental impact would be "a tragedy."

In fact, the lands in question aren't exceptionally fertile, which is why the farmers accepted CRP payments instead of attempting to grow crops. The payments were higher than what they could get from the crop yield.

Now, with food prices so high, this is no longer true, even though the lands are simply more suited to, and valuable as, "restored wetlands, forests, and grasslands."

Moore lists the following effects that releasing these lands would have on the environment:

1. Tonnes of soil would be exposed, and could wash or blow away.
2. Greenhouse gas emissions would be increased. These habitats actually store carbon.
   
3. Valuable wildlife habitat would be destroyed.
4. The likelihood and extent of future flooding might be increased in areas.
5. Water quality would suffer.

In April, Melissa Schober noted that allegedly, CRP conservation lands prevent 450 million tonnes of soil erosion annually, and that by helping to improve our global warming situation, economic loss from droughts, floods, and other disastrous weather patterns is averted.