Perspectives on the role of biofuels and the Conservation Reserve Program in the 2008 Farm Bill
Date
2010
Authors
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The expiration of the Farm Security and Rural Investment Act of 2002
provided an opportunity to specifically address the role of agriculture as a bioenergy
producer in the newly enacted 2008 Farm Bill. The reauthorization process sought to
address the growing need for energy resources, the potential of agriculture to supply
bioenergy and biofuels, and whether idle and retired land can and should be
reallocated to bioenergy production. Proposals suggested targeting part of the large
amount of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) – a landretirement
program that contains over 36 million acres of land – and transforming it
into a biomass reserve program that meets the multiple objectives of conservation,
energy security, and agricultural growth.
This research utilized the E3 Framework (Energy-Environment-Economy)
to evaluate various proposals for modifying the CRP to allow contracted acres to be
used for bioenergy feedstock production. A land utilization model based on profit
maximization was developed to analyze if CRP participants would convert contracted
acres to alternate uses and model how farmer income, program cost, biofuel feedstock
potential, and cropland usage were affected by four possible CRP program structures
between 2007 and 2016. A multi-perspective analysis was employed to judge the
results based on environmental and energy implications as well as economic
efficiency and recommend an optimum policy solution that balances the conservation
mandate of the CRP with the growing demands for land to grow biofuel feedstocks. The optimum policy proposal recommends incorporating sustainable
bioenergy production on contracted acres as a primary goal of the Conservation
Reserve Program. Landowners would be permitted to submit applications to the Farm
Service Agency (FSA) to convert up to 25% of contracted acres to sustainably grow
and harvest bioenergy feedstocks. Model results indicate that the optimum policy
proposal increases net farm income over a 10-year period, reduces program
administration costs, preserves the environmental integrity of the CRP, and expands
the availability of biofuel feedstocks. In comparison, actual legislation implemented
as part of the 2008 Farm Bill provides substantial support for the development of
sustainable 2nd generation domestic biofuel production systems on existing cropland,
but fails to capitalize on the available land resources contained within the
Conservation Reserve Program.