Hillarysworld

New forests would spread across the American landscape, replacing both pasture and farm fields, under a congressional plan to confront climate change, an Environmental Protection Agency analysis shows.

About 18 million acres of new trees — roughly the size of West Virginia — would be planted by 2020, according to an EPA analysis of a climate bill passed by the House of Representatives in June.

That's because the House bill gives financial incentives to farmers and ranchers to plant trees, which suck in large amounts of the key global-warming gas: carbon dioxide.

The environmental benefits are clear. More trees would not only lower carbon dioxide levels, but they would improve water quality, because they need lower levels of pesticides and fertilizers, says agricultural economist Bruce McCarl of Texas A&M University, who contributed to the EPA analysis.

The plan would, however, be hard on ranchers and farmers and potentially food prices, says American Farm Bureau chief economist Bob Young.

In the Senate, which is likely to consider a similar bill this fall, there are some who worry the loss of farmland would lead to increases in food prices worse than those seen in mid-2007, when costs spiked 7% to 8% above 2006 levels.

If those food prices seemed high, "wait till you start moving agricultural acres into climate-change areas," warns Sen. Mike Johanns, R-Neb., Agriculture secretary for President George W. Bush.

McCarl says food costs would stay roughly the same.

The latest EPA analysis does not say where the
farmland would be lost. However, an EPA study done in 2005 that
analyzed climate-change policies similar to the House bill found that
trees would overgrow farms primarily in three areas:

•Great Lake states: Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

•The Southeast: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

•The Corn Belt: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri and Ohio.

Read more at:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/environment/2009-08-19-forest_N.htm






-- Edited by Calico on Wednesday 19th of August 2009 10:24:28 PM

-- Edited by Calico on Wednesday 19th of August 2009 10:25:07 PM