The feature article, “Prairie Conundrum” points out
that the federal government’s Conservation Reserve Program
(CRP) is providing incentives for farmers to convert native prairie
into crop monocultures. But the article praises another USDA/Farm
Bill program — the Environmental Quality Incentive Program
(EQIP). According to the article, EQIP claims to “pay farmers to
adopt conservation practices that improve water quality, wildlife
and irrigation efficiency.” In the 2002 Farm Bill, funding for EQIP
shot up from $200 million to $1 billion.
However, judging
from the special Klamath EQIP provisions of the 2002 Farm Bill,
EQIP, like CRP before it, is a giveaway to farmers disguised as a
conservation incentive.
Klamath EQIP was promoted as a
means to provide more flow in streams and in the Klamath River by
reducing irrigation demand via improvements in on-farm irrigation
efficiency. The Natural Resource Conservation Service claims that
Klamath EQIP has reduced irrigation demand in the Klamath River
Basin by 63,377 acre-feet. This water is presumably now available
to augment river flows.
But those in the conservation and
ag community who have been working to increase stream flows during
the critical late summer and fall salmon-migration season, say that
EQIP has wiped out all the water savings they worked to achieve
over the past 20 years.
There are lessens in the Klamath
EQIP experience. One is that agricultural interests can turn almost
any conservation program into a means to feather their own nest at
the expense of the environment and the American taxpayer. Another
lesson is that conservationists need to read the fine print in Farm
Bill drafts and stop supporting incentives/subsidies that sound
good but do bad.
Felice Pace
Klamath,
California
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Subsidies Strike Again.
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