U.S. SENATE PANEL MAKES CONSERVATION EXEMPTION

  The U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee
  approved a measure that would exempt farmers who planted
  alfalfa or other multiyear grasses and legumes between 1981 and
  1985 from a federal conservation requirement.
      Sen. Edward Zorinsky, D-Neb., said his bill would restore
  equity under federal sodbuster rules, which currently deny farm
  program benefits to farmers who, between 1981 and 1985, planted
  alfalfa and other multiyear grasses and legumes without
  interrupting the plantings with a row crop.
      An official from a leading conservation group, who asked
  not to be identified, said the panel's move was "an unfortunate
  first action" because it could lead to the exemption of
  potentially millions of acres from the sod buster regulations,
  established under the 1985 farm bill.
  

