WASHINGTON – The Alliance for Agricultural Growth and Competitiveness (AAGC) has called on U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer to allow penalty-free, early release of cropland from the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).

The organization, which included the American Meat Institute among its members, said Wednesday that because basic crops for the year are coming under higher demand pressures, an early-out CRP option is becoming more of a necessity.

The AAGC said in a letter to Schafer said that while a recent decision of allowing haying and grazing on some land in the CRP is a step in the right direction, it will not be enough to relieve pressure on the livestock industry or feed costs for other parts of agriculture and food industries.

The AMI has joined two similar letters in the past two years requesting authority from U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to allow farmers to respond to market signals and ease the adverse feed grains situation that many producers are currently. AMI said it has also been supportive of waiving the corn-ethanol mandate as a means of easing unnecessary demand for feed grains.  

Source: American Meat Institute