The Washington Post’s Joel Achenbach reports that the United States Dept. of Agriculture is considering whether to plow 1.2 million acres of land previously set aside for conservation. Currently farmers are getting paid not to harvest this land in the name of nature and wildlife. But with food prices skyrocketing and ethanol all the rage, the demand for land to grow corn has rarely been higher.

It puts Agricultural Secretary Ed Schafer in quite a spot. Often political appointees can run out the clock with only a few months left to go in an administration. But Schafer must make a decision that will affect the food supply chain, the nation’s soil and animal life, and hundreds of farmers.-MB

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