Currently, CRP enrollees who terminate their contract early must reimburse the federal government for the all of the payments received, plus interest, and a penalty of 25 percent of the total rental payments received. The ruling on penalty-free early opt-outs of conservation contracts by U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer will protect up to 24 million acres of fragile lands from immediate crop production. In the wake of record prices for corn, however, (ironically due in part to subsidies for biofuels and the biofuels mandate) long-term conservation of these lands seem unlikely. Already many landowners have chosen not to re-sign their lands in the CRP program, which pays landowners to keep fallow for 10-15 years lands that are highly erodible and marginal for crop production. With more than nine million acres of additional CRP lands due to expire in the next three years, and corn trading at record prices, many of these landowners are expected to decline re-enrolling their CRP lands. While steep corn prices are hurting everyone, from ranchers to the food industry and consumers, according to Sara Hopper of Environmental Defense, putting millions of acres of environmentally sensitive land back into crop production would result in the loss of billions of dollars in taxpayer investments in conservation while providing little, if any, relief from high prices.

To learn more about the Conservation Reserve Program and environmental harm that could come from  landowners  opting  out of the program in large numbers, check out this CRP fact sheet by our friends at Environmental Defense.

Background on the Conservation Reserve Program 

(from US Newswire)

CRP is a federal program designed to reward farmers who take fragile land out of production for 10 to 15 years and instead plant grasses or trees or restore wetlands. Up until now, CRP enrollees who terminated their contracts prior to the end of their 10- to 15-year terms had to reimburse - with interest - the federal government for the rental and cost-share payments they had received, plus pay a 25 percent penalty. Some members of Congress and producer groups had proposed that the USDA waive all these costs for program participants.

Lands are enrolled in CRP precisely because they are environmentally sensitive, highly erodible, and marginally productive cropland. While these lands are generally less reliable for producing row crops, they deliver significant public benefits by retaining soil and preventing erosion, cleansing polluted runoff, providing important wildlife habitat and serving as natural flood barriers. Wetland restorations on CRP lands function as an important safety valve, reducing peak flows during storm events by holding water, filtering it, and slowly releasing it into streams and groundwater.