Washington Report

Twenty six Congressmen urged President Obama in a letter earlier this month to take action to allow more acres of cropland to be planted to grains, oilseeds, and other crops to help curtail the likelihood of more severe grain shortages and to dampen further increases in food prices.  Representative Devin Nunes (R-CA, 21^st District) and 25 of his congressional colleagues explained that contract holders in USDA’s Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) who are willing and who have non-environmentally-sensitive cropland should be permitted to opt out of the program prior to the expiration date of their multi-year contracts.  “Americans deserve a government that plans for the future.  That means responding to threats of grain shortages, not just predicting them.  Releasing some land from CRP contracts will provide an infusion of additional production that is desperately needed.  It’s a decision the President can make and one he should act upon as quickly as possible,” said Congressman Nunes.

The letter to the president said that of the 32 million acres in the CRP a “significant amount” of this acreage is good, arable acres that could be cropped with very little or no impact on the environment.  To prevent a crisis, USDA must act to provide immediate relief to the distressed market by releasing CRP land as appropriate to produce again, the letter stated.

In addition to Congressman Nunes, others that signed the letter were: