CRP R(Evolution)
By: Becky Masterman & Bridget Mendel
In the early 1970’s, the Soviet Union experienced massive crop failures. Keep reading…
Desperate, the USSR bought billions of dollars’ worth of U.S. subsidized wheat, feed grains and soybeans, depleting world grain reserves and triggering massive price hikes. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s solution was to produce as much as possible, on every inch of farmland, whether it was productive or marginal farmland. The hedgerows and wild borders of farms deemed not worth growing crops on, were now planted with grains and other crops. Critical areas for wildlife, soil health, water filtration and pollinator habitat were now plowed under.1
All this over-producing, combined with eventually stagnating demand, led to a crisis in American farming. Moreover, we lost so many of our wild tracts of land.
So in comes the conservation reserve program (CRP), signed into law by President Ronald Reagan in 1985. CRP is a federal program meant to incentivize farmers to take environmentally sensitive farmland *out* of crop production by essentially paying them to do so.1,2,3 So that’s a good thing. CRP is now one of the largest U.S. programs for private land conservation with over 40 potential conservation plan seed mixes available, including the pollinator supporting (albeit expensive) seed mix (CP-42). As of 2022, 514,163 acres are planted in CP-42 Pollinator Habitat (Figure 1).4,5
But bear in mind that the farmers—industrial farmers with huge amounts of land in the balance—are also being incentivized by government-subsidized crop insurance *to* plant on marginal land. So those two very complicated things are at odds, but let’s stick to CRP.
The CRP programs are officially confusing and understanding them makes our head hurt, but beekeepers might want to take a deep dive anyway, because honey production, trending down per the USDA National Agricultural Statistical Services, is on the line (Figures 2 and 3). Once the programs are explored, we predict the following beekeeper questions will follow: how could this initiative be more popular and affordable, and effective for our bees?
The best way to make CRP more popular is to make it easier and more attractive for farmers business-wise. The Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources was recently awarded a $750,000 grant by Minnesota’s Environmental and Natural Resources Trust Fund to establish a grant program aimed at increasing CRP participation through one time state incentive payments. How cool is that?6 Another important support team there to help make CRP more popular is county-level NRCS representatives. These are individuals who know the specifics about eligibility, applications and requirements in their specific county and will get on the phone or in the field with you to walk you through your options.
The best way to make CRP more effective is to make it easier and more attractive to bees, habitat-wise. Based on honey bee and wild bee visits to flowers, a U.S. Geological Survey team suggested that: 1) separate honey bee and native bee mixes might be most effective based on bee forbs preference; and 2) some forbs included in USDA mixes might not be attractive to pollinators and would best be removed from the options list.7
Out of frustration with Farm Bill complexities and CRP seed mixes has come successful and simplified conservation alternatives. The Bee and Butterfly Habitat does a great job in providing an array of seed mixes for farmers, some focused on honey bees and significantly less expensive than their native pollinator mix. With over 4,700 acres of high-quality habitat for honey bees and butterflies installed, this program is growing in both acres planted and states served. They are a great model for other programs to look at as they meet farmers and their pollinator priorities where they are at.8
In 2023, the CRP program expects to see a modest increase in enrolled land. The approximately 23 million acres in the program include trees, grassland and pollinator habitat. With peak CRP enrollment at 36 million acres in 2007, enrollment has been under 25 million acres since 2014.1 Hearty government subsidies of biofuels have resulted in land being removed from CRP programs9: it’s harder to choose the right thing for the environment when the government is paying you to do the opposite.
Another thing on the line with declining habitat on farmland is the existence of thousands of native bee species that also depend on habitat restoration efforts. Beekeepers must be the leaders in pushing for habitat for all pollinators. Only when there is enough for all, will honey bees not be taking more than their share from the landscape.
Beekeepers can join scientists and other groups paying attention to and advocating for CRP improvement. The 2023 farm bill is being negotiated now, but it’s never too early or too late to badger your reps on this topic; 2028 is around the corner.
References
1.Coppess, J. and C. Laingen. (2022) Mapping the Farm Bill: Reviewing the CRP; Law, Land & History. farmdoc daily (12):39, Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
2.https://www.agweb.com/opinion/history-conservation-reserve-program
3.https://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-services/farm-bill/index
4.https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/Conservation/PDF/35_YEARS_CRP_B.pdf
5.https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/Conservation/PDF/crpstat0912.pdf
6.https://www.lccmr.mn.gov/calendar/2023/2023-01-24-mtg/attachments/item06b-work_plan_2022-299.pdf
7.https://www.beeandbutterflyfund.org/
8.Simanonok, S.C., Otto, C.R.V. and Buhl, D.A. (2021), Floral resource selection by wild bees and honey bees in the Midwest United States: implications for designing pollinator habitat. Restor Ecol, 29: e13456. https://doi.org/10.1111/rec.13456
9.https://www.farmprogress.com/management/conservation-reserve-program-changes-priorities-over-the-years
Acknowledgments and suggestions:
The authors would like to thank Dr. Marla Spivak for helpful edits and suggestions and Dr. Brad Lubben for his navigation to CRP historical data.
Becky Masterman led the UMN Bee Squad from 2013-2019. Bridget Mendel joined the Bee Squad in 2013 and has led the program since 2020. Photos of Becky (left) and Bridget (right) looking for their respective hives. If you would like to contact the authors with your CRP stories or thoguths, please send an email to
mindingyourbeesandcues@gmail.com.
Figure 1. Total CRP acres planted in CP-42 Pollinator Mix as of December 2022
numbered 514,163 acres/ Ten states have over 90%of these acres planted.
Data source: https://www.fsa.usda.gov/Assets/USDA-FSA-Public/usdafiles/
Conservation/PDF/crpstat0912.pdf
Figure 2. Total U.S. Honey Production from 1987-2021. A honey production total of 123,466,000lbs was reported in 2021. It was the lowest in the 36 years shown in this graph. Data source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
Figure 3. Average honey yield per colony from 1987-2021. The average yield per colony in 2021 was 46.9lbs and the lowest in the 36 years reported in this graph. Data Source: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service
