Craig Cox - Corn/soy systems
•Download as PPTX, PDF•
1 like•538 views
Financial incentives for better farming: high cost - questionable results
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
What's hot
What's hot (20)
Similar to Craig Cox - Corn/soy systems
Similar to Craig Cox - Corn/soy systems (20)
More from Sustainable Food Trust
More from Sustainable Food Trust (20)
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Craig Cox - Corn/soy systems
- 1. Financial Incentives for Better Farming: High Cost – Questionable Results Remarks by Craig Cox Environmental Working Group The True Cost of American Food Conference April 15, 2016 San Francisco, California USA 1
- 2. The U.S. Corn Belt 2
- 3. 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. 3
- 4. Great News: Effective and feasible solutions are readily available 4 Side-dress Fertilizers Conservation Tillage Stream Buffers Cover Crops Wetland Restoration Grassed Waterways
- 5. Financial incentives (payments) to farmers to use conservation practices • $ 7.2 billion in five years • Plus other federal and state spending 5 2010-2014 ($ MILLIONS) Environmental Quality Incentives Program $1,241 Conservation Reserve Program $4,910 Conservation Stewardship Program $1,086 TOTAL $7,237
- 6. Conservation payments vs. production subsidies 2010-2014 ($ Millions) 6
- 7. 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. 7
- 8. Stream Buffer Gain 2011-2014 EWG Fooling Ourselves 8
- 9. Stream Buffer Loss 2011-2014 EWG Fooling Ourselves 9
- 10. Grass Waterway Gain 2011-2014EWG Fooling Ourselves 10
- 11. Grassed Waterway Loss 2011-2014EWG Fooling Ourselves 11
- 12. Losses wipe out gains 12
- 13. 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. 13
- 14. Basic Standard of Care 14 Prevent ephemeral gully erosion Manage livestock access to streams No manure on frozen soil Keep buffer between cropland and streams
- 15. 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. 15
Editor's Notes
- LOOK AT ANOTHER COMPONENT OF THE TRUE COST OF AMERICAN FOOD – THE COST OF OUR TRADITIONAL – AND FAILING – APPROACH TO REDUCING EXTERNALITIES – THE DAMAGE TO PUBLIC HEALTH AND THE ENVIRONMENT. TOUCH ON THE EVEN HIGHER COST OF FEDERAL SUBSIDIES THAT ENCOURAGE AND SUPPORT FARMING IN WAYS THAT LEAD TO THOSE EXTERNALITIES. CONCLUDE THAT A MAJOR REBOOT OF OUR CONSERVATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY RELATED TO FARMING IS URGENTLY NEEDED. FOCUS ON THE U.S. CORN BELT – A LANDSCAPE UTTERLY TRANSFORMED BY INTENSIVE ROW CROP AND LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION.
- THE US CORN BELT. CORN AND SOYBEANS FROM HORIZON TO HORIZON. DARKEST RED = OVER THREE QUARTERS OF ALL THE LAND IN THOSE COUNTIES IS DEVOTED TO CROPLAND GROWING EITHER CORN OR SOY IN 2015. NEXT DARKEST = BETWEEN HALF AND THREE QUARTERS OF ALL THE LAND IN THOSE COUNTIES.
- WHAT THE CORN BELT LOOKS LIKE -- WHY AGRICULTURE IN THE CORN BELT HAS SUCH PROFOUND EFFECTS ON THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH ON THE LEFT WHAT THE GRAIN BELT LOOKS LIKE AROUND 4 MONTHS OF THE YEAR. TO THE RIGHT WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE MOST OF YEAR – IN MOST CASES DEVOID OF LIVING PLANTS – WAY TOO OFTEN WITH VERY LITTLE PROTECTIVE COVER FROM CROP RESIDUES. THIS BIZARRE ECOLOGICAL CONDITION IS WHY THESE SYSTEMS ARE SO PRONE TO BLEEDING SOIL AND A HOST OF OTHER POLLUTANTS. CHANGING THE PICTURES ON THE RIGHT IS PRIMARY CHALLENGE FOR CONSERVATION ON ROW CROP LANDSCAPES.
- GOOD NEWS IS THAT SOLUTIONS ARE READILY AVAILABLE. JUST A FEW EXAMPLES SHOWN HERE THAT ARE PARTICULARLY RELEVANT IN THE CORN BELT.
- OUR TRADITIONAL – DECADES OLD – APPROACH IS TO PAY FARMERS TO USE ONE OR MORE CONSERVATION PRACTICES. APPROACH IS COSTLY – FIVE YEARS -- $7.2 BILLION IN PAYMENTS TO CORN BELT FARMERS AND LANDOWNERS. MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION – GIVEN THIS LEVEL OF SPENDING, WHY ARE PROBLEMS ESCALATING? MOST COMMON ANSWER IS WE NEED MORE MONEY TO PAY MORE FARMERS TO DO MORE. I THINK THAT’S THE WRONG ANSWER AND HERE’S WHY.
- $25.3 BILLION IN PRODUCTION SUBSIDIES -- $7.2 BILLION IN CONSERVATION PAYMENTS. IF I HAD ANOTHER 12 MINUTES I’D SAY MORE ABOUT JUST HOW DESTRUCTIVE THESE PRODUCTION SUBSIDIES ARE. BUT SUFFICE IT HERE TO SAY THE FUNDAMENTAL REFORM OF AND IN MOST CASES ELIMINATION OR DRASTIC CUTS TO THESE PRODUCTION SUBSIDIES SHOULD BE AT THE TOP OF THE LIST OF POLICY OBJECTIVES TO LOWER THE TRUE COST OF AMERICAN FOOD.
- RELYING ON PAYING FARMERS WHO VOLUNTEER TO CHANGE HAS NOT AND IS FAILING TO SECURE THE CHANGE WE SO URGENTLY NEED. INHERENT WEAKNESSES IN THAT APPROACH. REFORMERS HAVE CONFRONTED THESE WEAKNESS FOR YEARS – WITH LIMITED SUCCESS. BUT HAVEN’T OVERCOME THE FATAL FLAW – VOLUNTARILY START USING A CONSERVATION PRACTICE -- CAN ALSO VOLUNTARILY STOP. APPEARS TO BE EXACTLY WHAT IS HAPPENING ACROSS THE CORN BELT -- PRIMARY REASON WE AREN’T MAKING THE PROGRESS WE DESPERATELY NEED DESPITE SPENDING BILLIONS.
- USED REMOTE SENSING TO TRACK TWO IMPORTANT CONSERVATION PRACTICES IN 8 IOWA WATERSHEDS BETWEEN 2011 AND 2014. GOOD NEWS: SOME LANDOWNERS ADDED STREAM BUFFERS BAD NEWS: SAME TIME OTHER LANDOWNERS – SOMETIMES JUST DOWN THE ROAD -- PLOWED OUT STREAM BUFFERS.
- UPSHOT – NET LOSS OF STREAM BUFFERS GAINS IN GRASSED WATERWAYS MOSTLY WIPED OUT BY LOSSES TAYPAYERS HAD PREVIOUSLY PAID LANDONWERS TO INSTALL 80 PERCENT OF THE LOST STREAM BUFFER ACRES. SPINNING OUR WHEELS. MORE MONEY FOR BUSINESS AS USUAL WON’T HELP UNLESS WE OVERCOME THIS FATAL FLAW.
- WHAT WE NEED ARE MANDATORY STANDARDS – PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS WE EXPECT FARMERS AND LANDOWNERS TO MEET. A BASIC SET OF POLLUTION PREVENTION PRACTICES THAT END DISPROPORTIONALLY DAMAGING ACTIVITIES. ACTIVITIES THAT MANY, IF NOT MOST FARMERS WOULD AGREE ARE JUST BAD BUSINESS PRACTICE AND BAD FOR AGRICULTURE’S BRAND. OF COURSE TAILORED TO FARMING SYSTEMS AND LANDSCAPES. NEW SLIDE
- HERE’S MY BIG FOUR FOR THE HEART OF THE CORN BELT IMPLEMENT THROUGH: FARM BILL CONSERVATION COMPLIANCE PROVISIONS STATE OR COUNTY LAWS AND REGULATIONS. LEVEL PLAYING FIELD FOR CONSERVATION – MINDED LANDOWNERS AND OPERATORS. LANDOWNERS AND OPERATORS WHO CAN SHOW THEY WILL SUFFER UNDUE ECONOMIC HARM SHOULD BE ELIGIBLE FOR FINANCIAL HELP. PLENTY OF SUPPORT FOR THOSE WHO GO WELL BEYOND THESE BASIC STANDARDS. WON’T SOLVE EVERYTHING, BUT WOULD MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE.
- HERE’S WHAT I THINK A MORE EFFECTIVE APPROACH LOOKS LIKE. FOUNDATION IS A BASIC STANDARD OF CARE ON WHICH OTHER CRITICAL COMPONENTS OF DURABLE CONSERVATION REST. EACH OF THESE COMPONENTS ARE CRITICALLY IMPORTANT – EACH ONE COULD BE A PRESENTAATION OF ITS OWN. BUT BEFORE I LEAVE THIS SLIDE I WANT TO POINT OUT THAT OUR CURRENT APPROACH—MEASURED BY DOLLARS INVESTED—TURNS THIS PYRAMID UPSIDE DOWN.