craig cox - corn/soy systems
TRANSCRIPT
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Financial Incentives for Better Farming: High Cost – Questionable Results
Remarks by Craig CoxEnvironmental Working Group
The True Cost of American Food ConferenceApril 15, 2016
San Francisco, California USA
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The U.S. Corn Belt
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Very productive, very vulnerable
What the Corn Belt looks like 4 months of the year.
What the Corn Belt looks like 8 months of the year.
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Great News: Effective and feasible solutions are readily available
Side-dress Fertilizers
Conservation Tillage
Stream Buffers
Cover Crops
Wetland Restoration
Grassed Waterways
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Financial incentives (payments) to farmers to use conservation practices
• $ 7.2 billion in five years• Plus other federal and state spending
2010-2014
($ MILLIONS)
Environmental Quality Incentives Program $1,241
Conservation Reserve Program $4,910
Conservation Stewardship Program $1,086
TOTAL $7,237
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Conservation payments vs. production subsidies2010-2014 ($ Millions)
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Inherent weaknesses of voluntary programs
• Poor targeting.– Popular practices often not the most effective ones.– Political imperative for everybody and every county
to get a shot at the money.
• “Volunteers” often not the landowners that most need to improve their operations.
• FATAL FLAW: Changes in land use and management are often not lasting.
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Stream Buffer Gain 2011-2014EWG Fooling Ourselves
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Stream Buffer Loss 2011-2014 EWG Fooling Ourselves
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Grass Waterway Gain 2011-2014EWG Fooling Ourselves
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Grassed Waterway Loss 2011-2014EWG Fooling Ourselves
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Losses wipe out gains
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Basic standard of care• Don’t want every farmer to have an
EPA or state permit.
• Do want to restrict activities are disproportionally damaging – and for which conventional conservation practices can solve the problem.
• Practices many, if not most, farmers could agree are just bad business and bad for agriculture’s brand.
• Foundation on which voluntary programs and market-based approaches can rest.
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Basic Standard of Care
Prevent ephemeral gully erosion
Manage livestock access to streams
No manure on frozen soil
Keep buffer between cropland and streams
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Durable change
Re-engineered voluntary conservation programs
that drive conservation at landscape scales.
Robust scientific and technical infrastructure that drives technical assistance, planning, monitoring,
and transparency.
Local entity with the resources and authority to ignite and direct change at watershed scales and ensure effective
accountability.
Basic standard of care defines conservation responsibilities that accompany land ownership and required even if no cost-share available.
