Sodbuster was a program created by Title 12 of the
Food Security Act of 1985
The Food Security Act of 1985 (P.L. 99–198, also known as the 1985 U.S. Farm Bill), a 5-year omnibus farm bill, allowed lower commodity price and income supports and established a dairy herd buyout program. This 1985 farm bill made changes in a ...
designed to discourage the plowing up of erosion-prone grasslands for use as cropland. If such is used for crop production without proper conservation measures as laid out in a conservation plan, a producer may lose eligibility to participate in farm programs. In the
1990 Farm Bill
The Food, Agriculture, Conservation, and Trade (FACT) Act of 1990 — P.L. 101-624 (November 28, 1990) was a 5-year omnibus farm bill that passed Congress and was signed into law.
This bill, also known as the 1990 farm bill, continued to move ag ...
, it was amended and became the super sodbuster, such that producers became ineligible for specified farm program benefits on all their land if they cultivated
highly erodible land In United States agricultural policy, Highly erodible land (HEL) refers to land that is very susceptible to erosion, including fields that have at least 1/3 or of soils with a natural erosion potential of at least 8 times their T value. About of ...
that was idle. The super sodbuster was repealed by the
1996 Farm Bill.
References
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Law of the United States
Nature conservation in the United States
Soil in the United States
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