The effects of decreasing the amount of CRP to use for grain for fuel productionIJ EVEN lOWER GRAIN PRICES! Well, you can't get the cart before the horse. There are several problems with putting CRP land into production. One, of course, is that the land is tied up for 10 to 15 years. By that time, so pretty thick brush and trees can grow on it. The cost of clearing the land can be prohibitive. Another problem is that most CRP land was put into the program because it was marginal land to begin with, so the potential yields won't be that great. Some of this land is highly erodible, which would cause water quality concerns. Another factor is opportunity costs associated with this land. Down here in the South, CRP land has become valuable for its wildlife resources. let farm land grow up for 15 years and you have perfect whitetail habitat. If you have any water, you can also hunt ducks. Much of this land is worth more in a hunting club or lodge than it ever was as farm land. Finally, simply increasing the acres of grain grown hoping it will be used for fuel will result in an increased supply and drive prices down. You can't get the cart before the horse. While I support ethanol and biodiesel production and hope that it increases, the fact is that biofuels are more expensive to manufacture than their petroleum counterparts, and are not full substitues. (Biodiesel has a shorter storage life than petro diesel. Ethanol has fewer BTU's than gasoline and therefore less efficient.) While biofuel plants have improved grain prices in some local areas, the plants still buy as much damaged and poor grade grain as they can. Now if the consumer demand for the fuels reaches the point that it starts to really drive grain prices up, then farmers will start to bring CRP back into production. But the demand and hence the price has to be there first. That would require oil to be much higher than it is now, I'm afraid. But who knowsIJ Anyway, good luck with your project.
