The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has rejected a request submitted in late March by multiple agricultural groups to ease CRP obligations in the hopes of mitigating the coming effects of food shortages projected to impact the world.
“Production on those acres would be marginal at best, and there is no realistic way to convert all CRP acres into cropland in 2022,” USDA Secretary Thomas J. Vilsack wrote in the decline letter. “It is critical to point out that if we allow the tillage of CRP acres, the marginal at best benefit to crop production will be coupled with a significant and detrimental impact on producers’ efforts to mitigate climate change and maintain the long-term health of their land.”
The letter was authored by several agricultural groups, including the American Farm Bureau Association, the National Grain and Feed Association and the American Bakers Association. It cited concerns over global food shortages brought on by the disruption of farming in Ukraine: "it provides 12% of the world’s wheat, 15% of the world’s corn, 15% of the world’s barley and 50% of the world’s sunflower oil. World stocks-to-use ratios, which are a measure of supply to demand adequacy, for wheat, corn, barley, and sunflower oil already are running low. If Ukraine’s agriculture is taken offline, these ratios will return to the extremely low levels that happened between 2006 and 2013 and led to rationing among grain end users."
The letter referenced data from 2017 that showed 26% of land enrolled in the CRP was "prime farmland". While Vilsack's response did not refute that claim, it did cite data from 2020 that showed that only 1.3% of prime farmland is controlled by the CRP.
The letter also noted how critical the Ukrainian exports are to countries in North Africa and the Middle East.
Concerns about food shortages were raised amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, considering the significant role both countries play in global food production and export market.
According to Our World in Data, in 2019 around one-quarter of global wheat exports came from Ukraine and Russia together. They also contributed one-fifth of global maize and barley, and the source of nearly two-thirds of traded sunflower oil, with Ukraine alone accounting for almost half of global exports.
Earlier this week, Reuters reported an 18% increase in food prices between February and March, citing data from the UN Food Agency. With each passing month reporting a new record in the grocery industry, most items are being impacted, including vegetable oil, whose index surged by 23%.
President Joe Biden also noted his concern about food shortages in a recent speech.
"With regard to food shortage ... it's going to be real,” Biden said.
Vilsack's response on March 31 came in the form of a letter to the National Grain and Feed Association, declining the request. He noted the small amount of farmland enrolled in the program with the ability to spring into production and that much of it was experiencing drought, and cited concerns over climate. While he didn’t refute the claim the agricultural organizations made about the prime farmland, it did cite data from 2020 that showed that only 1.3% of prime farmland is controlled by the CRP.
According to Politico, the government pays agricultural producers to keep environmentally sensitive cropland from being used in an effort to improve the health of the land, in accordance with the Conservation Reserve Program.