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More than 100 organizations and companies have urged Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack to modify rules governing the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to provide increased flexibility for producers to remove non-highly environmentally sensitive land prior to contract expiration when crop supply disruptions and growing market demand warrant.

In a statement to Vilsack submitted by the Alliance for Agricultural Growth and Competitiveness (AAGC), 105 national and state agricultural trade associations and private-sector firms said there is a pressing need to change rigid CRP rules that currently make it economically prohibitive for enrolled U.S. producers to respond to market conditions. This year’s weather-delayed corn and soybean harvest, which is expected to reduce projected yields and crop quality, is yet another example of why more CRP flexibility is needed. Under current rules, producers wishing to bring CRP land into production prior to contract expiration are required to repay 100 percent of the CRP rental payments received over the life of their contracts, plus interest and liquidated damages.

The AAGC called on USDA to create a new, more flexible long-term framework for the CRP under which the most environmentally sensitive lands would continue to be ineligible for early contract termination. But the groups said USDA should lift restrictions on producing crops on other, less-environmentally sensitive CRP lands to give producers the option to respond to periods of low supplies, as well as growing and shifting demand “in an intensely competitive global environment.” The groups urged USDA to continuously monitor supply/demand relationships and stocks-to-use ratios for major grains and oilseeds.

The AAGC statement was submitted in response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) request for comments as it prepares a new environmental impact assessment on the CRP and considers potential changes in its operation under the 2008 farm law. AAGC is a consortium of national and state organizations, as well as private-sector companies, representing a broad cross-section of meat, livestock and poultry production; agricultural input; grain marketing, handling and processing; feed manufacturing; and exporting interests.

The AAGC stressed the precariousness of idling millions of acres of farmland under 10- to 15-year CRP contracts given that global grain and oilseed stocks remain relatively tight -- production has fallen short of global usage in seven of the last 10 years. Many of the approximately 32 million acres currently idled under the CRP -- representing nearly 15 percent of available U.S. farmland -- could be cropped in an environmentally sustainable way, the AAGC said.

“A fundamental question is whether the United States should continue to idle and lock up CRP land resources…when key U.S. agricultural demand sectors (every year) are faced with potential supply shortfalls and price volatility” to meet supply needs for food, feed, biofuels and exports, as well as potentially as carbon offsets if climate-change legislation is enacted, the AAGC said. “[E]ven with very reasonable assumptions about crop acreage and normal trend yields, analysis shows that we could return to rationing of the corn crop among livestock and poultry production, exports and biofuels use….Any measurable decline in trend yields could easily result in moderate to severe shortages.”

The AAGC also noted that during the past eight years, total U.S. grain and oilseed plantings have declined by 6 million acres, while other countries expanded production of those crops by approximately 153 million acres -- more than 50 percent of total U.S. crop acreage. Ironically, the AAGC said, this foreign production is not subject to the same environmental regulations and conservation practices employed in the United States.

The complete text of the letter and signatories are available at nationalchickencouncil.com by clicking here.