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June
2004
Defenders seeks information
regarding Funds To Factory Farms.
Read our Freedom of Information Act
Request.
May
21, 2003
Read a letter to the USDA regarding the
legality of the EQIP Rule.
Support
the Conservation Security Program!
Thanks to
the efforts of rural activists around the
country, the Conservation Security Program
became law with the passage of the 2002
Farm Bill. Now begins the process of
ensuring that the Agriculture Department
implements the CSP in a way that will help
both the environment and farmers. On
February 18, 2003, the USDA’s Natural
Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has
asked for general public input on the
program, in the form of an Advanced Notice
of Proposed Rulemaking. The deadline for
receipt of comments is March 20th.
The Notice seeks input on 15 fairly
specific issues relating to the CSP, but
the NRCS will also accept comments on any
aspect of the program. This is a
significant opportunity for supporters of
the CSP to send the message loud and
clear: We want a full and quickly
implemented Conservation Security Program!
CSP holds great promise for rewarding
farmers based on how they are protecting
and improving the environment.
What you
can do: Send the NRCS a letter expressing
your strong support for CSP as a full,
nationwide entitlement program that
rewards actual conservation benefits
produced by farmers on their farms and
provides incentives for farmers to address
and solve critical resource problems.
Comments are due by March 20, 2003 and can
be sent via email to FarmBillRules@usda.gov.
In subject line write "Attn:
Conservation Security Program." You
can base your comments on this sample
letter. The Sustainable
Agriculture Coalition has also prepared a
full, detailed
set of comments on the Advance Notice.
Protect
Endangered Wildlife from Harmful
Pesticides
The Bush
Administration announced last week that it
is planning to amend regulations under the
Endangered Species Act protecting
endangered and threatened species from the
harmful effects of pesticides. The
proposed changes would affect one of the
bedrock provisions of the ESA, called
"Section 7," which requires that
all federal agencies consult with either
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service or
National Marine Fisheries Service to
ensure that any action they undertake is
not likely jeopardize the continued
existence of any endangered or threatened
species.
Several of
the changes under consideration would
significantly weaken existing protections
for endangered and threatened species at
risk from pesticides and are entirely
inconsistent with regulations that have
been in place protecting our nation's most
imperiled wildlife for more than 15 years.
The most dangerous changes under
consideration include:
1. Allowing
EPA to unilaterally decide that use or
registration of a pesticide is not likely
to adversely affect listed species and
therefore, that section 7 consultation is
not required.
2.
Requiring the Services to defer to EPA in
evaluating the effects of a pesticide on
listed species.
3. A
possible effort to undermine the ESA by
changing the definition of "best
scientific and commercial data
available" and "cumulative
impacts."
Such
sweeping proposed changes should not be
made without full public input and
comment. But officials have only provided
a 45-day comment period in their advance
notice of proposed rulemaking. Please sign
your group on to a
letter seeking an extension of the comment
period by an additional 45 days.
You can sign on by sending an email to adelach@defenders.org
indicating your group name, your name and
title, and the number of members and
supporters in your group.
Read
the full text of the Advance Notice.
Send NRCS your comments on the EQIP rule!
On February
10, 2003, the Natural Resources
Conservation Service (NRCS) issued its
proposed rule for implementation of the
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
The 2002 Farm Bill gave a huge boost to
funding for EQIP, but opened the door for
huge sums of money to go to the largest
animal feeding operations to construct
waste facilities that could actually
degrade, rather than improve,
environmental quality. It is very
important, therefore, that the Rule, which
describes how the NRCS plans to implement
the program, contain strong language that
prevents EQIP from becoming a giveaway to
the largest and most damaging operations.
Unfortunately, such language is lacking in
the proposed rule.
What you
can do: Please write to the NRCS and tell
them that the EQIP rule should give
priority to those proposals that offer the
best and most cost-effective solutions to
natural resource concerns, rather than to
the facilities that have the biggest
problems. EQIP also should not fund new
potential problems, such as new and
expanding confined animal feeding
operations that would increase the danger
of a manure-related environmental
catastrophe. NRCS should also reinstate
the conservation planning rule that was
present throughout the history of the
program, and should encourage states to
prioritize management practices that
reduce conflicts between wildlife and
agriculture.
You can
base your comments on this
sample letter, which also contains
the contact information for sending
comments. Since NRCS is anxious to get the
program running soon, they have allowed
for only a 30-day comment period, so
comments are due March 12, 2003. Read
the full text of the rule.
Groups
Take Action on the
Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
August
28, 2002
Read
Recommendations to Bruce Knight Chief of
the Natural Resource Conservation Service
Oppose
the Appointment of Thomas Dorr
Two weeks
ago the Senate Agriculture committee
firmly rejected President
Bush's appointment of Thomas Dorr to the
position of the
USDA's Undersecretary for Rural
Development. Last week as the Senate was
away on vacation, President Bush.confirmed
the nomination in direct defiance of the
Senates year long investigation of Dorr's
connections to corporate agribusiness,
manipulation of farm subsidy programs and racist
statements. The National Family Farm
Coalition is asking groups and
organizations to sign on in protest. Read
the letter and sign on here.
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