Environmental conservation in the farm bill: A research roundup
In this second of our three-part series, we look at the effectiveness of environmental conservation programs in the farm bill.
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In this second of our three-part series, we look at the effectiveness of environmental conservation programs in the farm bill.
By Brandon Chew Conventional farming practices have eroded much of the topsoil from a region of the Midwest known as the corn belt, according to a recent study. The corn belt, which stretches from western Illinois to the Dakotas, produces billions of bushels of corn, soybeans and other grains annually. The University of Massachusetts Amherst study used satellite imagery and data from soil samples collected from 28 locations. Most of the soil was collected from Iowa and Minnesota. “The main result was that a third of the landscape of the cultivated area no longer has any A-horizon (soil),”...