The Good Earth May Get Even Harder to Till

Environmentalists have launched an all-out effort to impose stricter rules on US farmers as a 5-year, $50-billion farm bill is considered by congressional committees. Environmentalists are demanding that Congress not only preserve existing wetlands protection and soil conservation programs, but adopt new plans to protect groundwater and guard against pesticide pollution. They say that changes in farm practices to protect the land and reduce chemical use are not sufficiently widespread. Legislators from urban areas want some of the $10 billion spent annually on farm supports to be spent on other programs, while free-market-oriented conservatives are trying to eliminate subsidy programs completely. Farmers note that insecticide use is down by more than 50% from 1976 and resent the idea that they use agricultural chemicals indiscriminately. Farmers are lobbying most heavily against the strict wetlands program and are particularly upset about the penalty for the first planting violation, which cuts off all benefits.