USDA is conducting a large-scale review of the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) to decide if some CRP acres should be released now that additional acreage is needed for the biofuels industry. USDA will try to determine how much of the land in CRP could be planted to corn or soybeans without environmental damage.
USDA has the authority to allow producers to take land out of CRP without penalty, but so far it has not exercised that authority. About 3-3.5 million acres of CRP land are expected to come out of the program at the end of September 2007.