The end of conservation in the Farm Belt

Good story in the NYT on the how conservation land has been placed under the plow as crop prices rise. The Conservation Reserve Program represents 8% of cropland or 35 million acres at a cost of $1.1 billion. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/09/business/09conserve.html

Once again, the law of unintended consequences exists. In an effort to save the environment, we have pushed the issue of renewable green fuels like ethanol. This created a growing, consistent and subsidized, demand for corn. The ethanol demand for corm is growing to be above one-fifth of the entire crop. The response should be as expected, higher prices. But once there was a supply shock to the system and a increases demand for grain-feed beef in developed countries, the response of farmers was natural. They wanted to plant more. The only land left was the acreage put aside or conservation. Farmers were made to leave this land alone but at some point the price difference is too great. So much for conservation. Of course, the unintended consequence of leaving cropland fallow as a conservation effort is also having an impact on the cost of bread. The effort for green energy destroys conservation land. Now that is environmental story that we never thought would happen.