Prairie Wanderings: The future of the prairie
By PAUL G. JANTZEN
Contributing writer
"Prairie as Agricultural Resource" was discussed by Jim French of the Kansas Rural Center in the series commemorating 20 years of prairie reconstruction at the Kaufman Museum. He stressed the point that "if agriculture, rural communities, and the prairie have any hope of continuing to thrive in the Great Plains, they will need to provide a broad range of goods and services beyond food and fiber." Farmers and ranchers will need to produce and gain compensation for benefits like clean air, water quality and quantity, wildlife habitat, carbon sequestration, soil quality, and food security. These elements will be as important as the production of wheat, corn, or beef.
French continued with a whirlwind summary of Plains land-use and settlement. The earliest human populations relied for protein on mixed species of grazers that moved across the landscape in high density populations. Low fat, red meat was provided by bison, elk, pronghorn, and deer. Plants eaten were both cultivated and wild crops. This pattern of land use was sustained for 15 to 20 thousand years.
Meanwhile, we have become an increasingly urban, industrialized, and densely populated society. Since 1980, Kansas' rural population has dropped from 1,066,719 to 1,023,725. Urban areas have increased by about 350,000. In less than 20 years, the national farm population has dwindled from about seven percent to about two percent. And rural poverty rates have remained there to four percent higher than urban rates. Rural per capita income is almost $8,000 less than urban income. The current subsidy system does not provide profit; it merely helps the operator meet expenses and pay interest.
As the 2002 Farm Bill suggests, American taxpayers are becoming less willing to pay into this subsidy system. They are becoming more aware that the farm bill program allows money to pass "from the farmer's wallet to large, highly profitable, processing and shipping firms that handle the world's wheat, soybeans, rice, and red meat." And the urban population feels less and less connected to the land and agriculture.
However, new polices and rural-urban partnerships can put grain and meat production and the prairie on a more sustainable path.
One ray of hope: a small portion of the 2002 Farm Bill, the Conservation Security Program, links payments to farmers not to production (which leads to over-production, lower prices, and soil depletion) but to practices that protect and enhance soil, air, and water quality, and increase rangeland health and wildlife habitat.
Even now, programs are already in place that will benefit both rural and city dwellers. In 1992, the City of Wichita began a joint venture with farmers and ranchers in the North Ninnescah watershed to improve the water quality of Cheney Lake which provides 60 percent of Wichita's drinking water. Recurrent algae blooms due to excess phosphorus in the lake cause odor problems. But the city is concerned not only about fertilizer run-off from local farms. It also is concerned about the useful life of the reservoir.
However, instead of building expensive filtration plants and digging another reservoir, the city, with area farmers, devised a water purification system of green grass, buffer and filter strips, and better nutrient management on cropland. The city saves millions of dollars by working with farmers. And there are state and federal cost-share programs to encourage their efforts.
French also mentioned that range managers are beginning to understand the prairie that has sustained plants and animals for millennia. A prominent feature of plant and animal life in the prairie was diversity.
During the last 20 years, Kansas farms have grown from an average of 400 acres of diversified operations to 750 acres specializing in either grains or livestock. In the early 1900s, apples, peaches, and grapes were produced in abundance in south central Kansas. Even lettuce, onions, and other vegetables were once sold to cattlemen who were driving their herds northward.
Now, the average grocery item travels about 1,700 miles before arriving on the shelf. The growth of farmers' markets and direct-from-the-farm sales of produce are a welcome sign of increased diversification. And this can be done without expanding the farm.
French closed with these predictions: he sees agriculture beginning to mimic prairie land-use before Columbus. Range and farmground will be managed to maintain sustainable systems that enhance our water, soil, air, and both human and non-human communities. Bottomland will be increasingly devoted to a diversity of fruits and vegetables making for good health and more local food use. Our task is to devise "policies, research agendas, living and eating habits that will allow prairie agriculture to sustain and support us for the millennia ahead."
