The United States government generally tries to protect valuable natural resources  But one resource has been ignored for too long  In the United States, each bushel of corn produced might result in the loss of as much as two bushels of topsoil  Moreover, in the last 100 years, the topsoil in many states, which once was about fourteen inches thick, has been eroded to only six or eight inches  Nonetheless, federal expenditures for nationwide soil conservation programs have remained at ridiculously low levels
Total federal expenditures for nationwide soil conservation programs have been less than the allocations of some individual states
The federal government should spend much more on soil conservation than it has been spending.