Using the land to fuel our appetite for gasoline and diesel

Much of America’s heartland has suffered from transitional agriculture, a see-saw change in land use driven largely by federal social and farm policy. The current change in land use driven by federal energy and farm policy might surpass earlier policy driven change in terms of land area, rapidity, and environmental consequences. If the current level of federal subsidy continues or increases, waves of natural resource degradation could dwarf resource degradation observed from earlier transitions including the original plow-out of the North American prairie.  The first wave, conversion of set-aside to row crops (for example, expiration of land enrolled in the Conservation Reserve Program) and wide-scale loss of crop rotation (for example, corn-on-corn rather than corn-soybean rotation) will reverse environmental benefits achieved in the previous two decades. A second wave, widely predicted to occur in the next five years, will utilize much of those lands unsuited to cultivation. Biomass produced from rangeland and other lands dominated by native vegetation added to biomass produced on marginal cropland will be called on to meet the nation’s goal for cellulosic ethanol. This paper will summarize others in this session and provide conclusions relative to the practicalities and ecological consequences of attempting to meet the nation’s ever increasing demand for transportation energy.