History does repeat itself. Looking at corn/bean/wheat farming, the obvious cycles are there.
The logic fails me why it is so difficult to learn from past mistakes.
1930's Dust bowl years
1956 Soil Bank
1985 CRP program initiated.
From Wikipedea's history of CRP (bold highlights added by me)
The program originally began in the 1950s as the conservation branch of the Soil Bank Program which was enacted by the Agriculture Act of 1954 [3]. The theory behind this branch of the Soil Bank Program was to focus on lands that were at high risk of erosion, remove them from agricultural production, and establish native or alternative permanent vegetative cover in an effort to counteract actual or potential erosion. This was considered by proponents to be beneficial to sustainable agriculture generally, by lessening the effects of erosion. Originally, the program called for three-year contracts in which the government would pay for land improvements that increased soil, water, forestry, or wildlife quality if the farmer would agree not to harvest or graze contracted land [4].
Although the roots of the program were established in the 1950s, advocates did not start pushing the program heavily until the 1980s, in response to more prevalent practices of the 1970s, whereby farmers increasingly began to cultivate “fence row to fence row”, and remove native habitat and vegetative stands from the fields, which was perceived as having detrimental effects on soil, water, and habitat quality [2]. Many programs would be established in the 1980s to address these issues.
The CRP has gone through many changes. Whenever there is a new proposed Farm Bill, the CRP is a large focus due to a high level of public pressure and the program's perceived benefits.
end of quote.
If a field is worked to hard, erosion will occur. Just as it has in the past. I do not fault anyone for trying to make additional money, but if buffer strips are removed, erosion will occur. It is not a maybe.
To those who enjoy pheasant hunting, the buffer strips are great. But the primary reason for the strips is to avoid a dust bowl type scenario.
