"Grain prices are tempting farmers to plow up protected land, even as conservation subsidies shrink."
"ZUMBROTA, MIN. -- The Indian grass that Larry Thomforde planted 15 years ago is up to his chin now -- tall gold spikes that sway in the sun as his dog, Gwynie, crashes through the field.
A year from now it might all be gold of another kind.
Thomforde, like thousands of other Minnesota farmers, is looking a painful decision square in the eye: cleaner water or the irresistible temptation of corn at stratospheric prices of $6 to $8 a bushel.
Next fall, Thomforde's 50 acres of native grassland, idled under the federal Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), could go under the plow. Renting it out or planting corn would pay him much more than the government pays him to keep it in grasses.
"I don't necessarily need the money," said Thomforde, 75, who farms 240 acres near Zumbrota. "But my personality is such that I am not going to leave it in CRP if I am losing $200 per acre.""
Josephine Marcotty reports for the Minneapolis Star Tribune November 28, 2011.
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