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The USDA is considering allowing farmers in Ohio, and across the country, to take lands out of the Conservation Reserve Program and put them back into food and energy crop production without having to pay a penalty.

Ferd Hoefner is with the Midwest Sustainable Agriculture Working Group and says conservation land is already in active production for the benefit of Ohio's environment.

“Conservation values that have been gained for water quality, to stop soil erosion, and create wildlife habitat, would be lost if it's just willy-nilly put back into crop reduction.”

Hoefner says the C-R-P has been very successful at improving Ohio’s water quality, preserving wildlife habitat, and especially in reducing soil erosion.

“A very large proportion of that improvement is due to the conservation reserve, because it's taken land that's highly erosive and put it under grass cover to protect it.”

The U-S-D-A hopes putting some conservation land back into production would lower some of the sky-high commodity prices that are putting a squeeze on livestock producers.

The C-R-P is the fed's biggest conservation program - it pays landowners to retire crop land for environmental reasons, like protecting wetlands which help restore wildlife populations and balance the environment.