New Action for Soil Protection

• Date: 01 January 2009

1-2009 NEWS & A NALYSIS 39 ELR 10077

When the 111th Congress convenes, a priority for envi-

ronmental policy leaders should be to ensure sustain-

able soils. T he escalating crisis in soil destruction

and nonpoint source pollution is tied to a decades-long reluc-

tance to curb the environmental impacts of agriculture.

The worldwide crisis in soil destruction receives relatively

little public attention. The United States is losing soil at 10 times

the rate of soil replenishment, while China and India’s losses

are 30 to 40 times greater. The economic losses estimated are

about $37.6 billion in lost productivity in the United States and

$400 billion a year worldwide. Over the last 40 years, 30% of

the world’s arable land has become unproductive.1

This erosion is a major component of the r unoff that bars

states from meeting the goals of the Clean Water Act (CWA).2

Getting better environmental performance from the agricul-

ture sector will f‌inally allow the U.S. Environmental Protec-

tion Agency (EPA) to address seriously the total maximum

daily load challenge of the Act.

I. Current Eorts Are Insucient

Congress and the conservation community’s approach to t his

quiet crisis over the last 25 years has been a system of subsi-

dies paying farmers to take fragile, highly erodible soils out of

production. This approach has worked to some degree, but is

not suff‌icient. The landmark legislation detailing this strategy

was the 1985 farm bill,3 which set the pattern for the suc-

ceeding farm bills. The current farm bill, the Food, Conserva-

tion, and Energy Act of 2008,4 allocates $289 billion over the

next f‌ive years. Title I offers $41.6 billion to the commodity

growers of crops such as cotton, wheat, soybeans, and corn in

order to make these crops competitive in world markets. Title

II receives a commitment of $24.1 billion to cover conserva-

tion payments to farmers who cooperate with U.S. Department

of Agr iculture (USDA) programs aimed at protecting fragile

1. David Pimentel, Soil Erosion: A Food and Environmental Threat, 8 ENV’T, DEV.

& SUSTAINABILITY 119 (2006).

2. 33 U.S.C. §§1251-1387, ELR Stat. FWPCA §§101-607.

3. Food Security Act of 1985, Pub. L. No. 99-198, 99 Stat. 1354.

4. Pub. L. No. 110-234, 122Stat.923.

lands, and Title IV on food stamps and nutrition5 receives an

authorization of $188.9 billion, more than one-half of the farm

bill commitment.6 The annual appropriation for each of the

programs is made pursuant to the budget process of that year.

American farmers have made great progress in the last 20

years in curbing soil erosion. The Natural Resources Conser-

vation Service’s (NRCS’) National Resources Inventory on soil

loss reports:

The signif‌icant gains in erosion control that were made

between 1982 and 1997 were sustained in the period between

1997 and 2001. Soil erosion on cropland declined from 3.1

billion tons per year in 1982 to 1.8 billion tons per year in

2001. Sheet and rill erosion dropped by almost 41 percent

during this time per iod, while w ind erosion dropped by 43

percent.7

Both government off‌icials and private citizens attribute this

to the economic incentives that empower the local conserva-

tion districts and the NRCS to work with farmers to improve

the land and protect water quality.

Despite the great gains since 1985, the loss of soil and the

pollution of waterways by agricultural eff‌luents remain deeply

disturbing and are unsustainable. Soil scientists have as much

reason to be as pessimistic as climate change prophets if cur-

rent trends continue.8 Indeed, the crisis in soils and the crisis

in climate are linked. Healthy soils play a major role in carbon

f‌ixing, thus softening the climate change impacts of industrial

development. Soil degradation leads to the transfer of massive

amounts of carbon f‌i xed in soil to the atmosphere, contribut-

ing to greenhouse warming. Good soil conservation programs

5. These payments that go to poorer citizens are very popular with urban represen-

tatives and help ensure that each farm bill commands broad national support.

6. David Hosansky, Farm Subsidies, CONGRESSIONAL Q. WKLY., May 17, 2002, at

435, 448.

7. NRCS, National Resources Inventory 2001, http:\\www.nrcs.usda.gov (last visited

Nov. 24, 2008).

8. COMMITTEE ON LONG RANGE SOIL AND WATER CONSERVATION BOARD ON AGRICUL-

TURE NATURAL R ESEARCH COUNCIL, SOIL AND WATER QUALITY: AN AGENDA FOR

AGRICULTURE (National Academy Press 1993).

New Action for Soil Protection

A solid understanding of the vital role of sustainable

soils is an environmental imperative

by J. William Futrell

J. William Futrell is President, Sustainable Development Law Associates