Should we subsidize new farmers to become water quality (and carbon) certified?

According to the 2017 Census of Agriculture, only 1% of the farms in Minnesota farm organically and only 5% sell directly to consumers. Between 1997 and 2017 the number of farms in Minnesota declined by almost 13%, nearly 10,000 farms. Since 96% of the farms in Minnesota are classified as "family farms", there's an implied loss of 10,000 farming families over a 20 year period, an average loss of 500 families per year. About 30% of Minnesota's farmers (producers) are 65 years old or more. From what we've read, not too many farmers of retirement age are willing or able to move to new styles of farming. As of early 2019, the 600th Minnesota farm received its water quality certification. That means that less than 1% of Minnesota farms have been certified. At the rate we're going, the sun may burn out before all of Minnesota's agricultural lands get certified.  We need to consider how to facilitate and accelerate transitions to water quality certified farms for newer, younger farmers.

September corn field

Photo by J. Harrington

Most of Minnesota's cropland produces corn and soybeans. (I never eat field corn but munch too many snacks made with corn products.) According to the Iowa Corn Growers Association, the following represents a breakdown of the end uses for corn:

Corn Uses: Iowa Corn Growers Association

We're still looking for comparable information for soybeans. From this quick overview, we can think of no reason why row crops should be exempt from water quality requirements. We strongly question whether American farmers are "feeding the world" (27% of corn goes to ethanol production). If some of the oil and gas production facilities are subject to stormwater discharge permits, why aren't the larger farms subject to similar requirements? For that matter, as the world moves toward eliminating subsidies for fossil fuels, the US should aggressively consider imposing more stringent water quality discharge requirements on oil and gas production facilities. It's past time we followed the basic strategy of taxing and regulating what we want less of more onerously than those things we want more of, things we depend on to provide us with clean air and water. The way we produce row crops needs transformation.

Corn Maze

By David Barber

Here is where 

You can get nowhere 

Faster than ever

As you go under

Deeper and deeper

In the fertile smother

Of another acre

Like any other

You can’t peer over

And then another

And everywhere

You veer or hare

There you are

Farther and farther

Afield than before

But on you blunder

In the verdant meander

As if   the answer

To looking for cover

Were to bewilder

Your inner minotaur

And near and far were

Neither here nor there

And where you are

Is where you were