Debate continues in the Senate on Fast Track trade authority language. The Fast Track bill, which passed in the House last December by a single vote, would grant President Bush the ability to negotiate trade deals that Congress would be unable to amend even if they fail to protect workers, the environment, or American farmers and businesses. Please take action TODAY on two matters relating to Fast Track: (1) Call your Senators and ask them to support John Kerry's amendment, which would remove bad the bad provisions like those in Chapter 11 of NAFTA (the provision that allows foreign companies to sue U.S. states and localities if they pass laws that reduce that company's profits, even if those laws are vital to protect human health and the environment). (2) If you live in the district of one of the following Congressmen, please ask them to "stand tough and continue to oppose Fast Track":

Representatives Marion Berry (D- 1st/AR), Leonard Boswell (D-3rd/IA), Chet Edwards (D-11th/TX), Ron Kind (D-3rd/WI), Rick Larsen (D-2nd/WA), Earl Pomeroy (D-At Large/ND), and Mike Thompson (D-1st/CA). These Representatives opposed Fast Track last December, but the Administration is pressuring them to support the bill when the House votes later this year after the House-Senate conference committee. They need to hear from you to hold the line! The AFL-CIO is providing a toll-free number for you to call your legislators on Fast Track: 877-611-0063.

For more information and action about the Fast Track bill, please visit: http://www.citizen.org/trade

At 7:46 AM on Monday, May 13, President Bush signed into law the Farm Security and Investment Act of 2002 better known as the Farm Bill. The occasion, broadcast live by Farm Radio, was a bittersweet one for many activists. Under the weight of pressure from agribusiness, Congress missed many opportunities to craft real reform (like the packer ownership ban and measures to improve prices). But we had many victories as well, particularly in conservation, rural development, and nutrition most of which would never have been realized without the sustained pressure from rural activists and family farm advocates. The process is far from over, however. The next, and even more challenging step is to implement the programs in the Farm Bill to effect real conservation and benefits for rural America. Stay tuned to familyfarmer.org over the coming months as we work to put the best of the Farm Bill into practice!

The Environmental Protection Agency this week settled a lawsuit with environmentalists by agreeing to end a California factory farm exemption from the Clean Air Act. The lawsuit, brought last January by Earthjustice, the Center for Race, Poverty and the Environment and others, charged that emissions from large confined dairy farms and agricultural machinery are impairing air quality and causing childhood asthma rates to increase. The American Lung Association has documented particularly poor air quality in the San Joaquin Valley, where many of California's agricultural operations are located. The EPA plans to develop and implement and air quality program over several years. Initially, the plan will require permits for "sources of harmful emissions," and environmentalists and rural advocates hope that the end of the exemption will eventually lead to emissions reduction requirements for the largest polluters. http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/15/national/15CALI.html

Anyone who has ever grown crops or eaten a piece of fruit knows the importance of pollination the process in plants that leads to the development of fruits and seeds. Some pollination is accomplished by wind, but many species, including 800 varieties of cultivated plants worth $1.25 billion per year, rely on a wide range of organisms bees, wasps, moths, beetles, flies, birds and bats.

The bad news is that many of these organisms have suffered severe declines in recent years, due to habitat destruction, broad-scale application of pesticides and introduced diseases. The Convention on Biological Diversity is an international treaty dedicated to helping nations conserve and sustainably use their biological resources. One of the CBD's recent projects is the International Initiative for the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Pollinators, which seeks to monitor pollinator decline and document its impacts; learn more about the biology, taxonomy and economic impacts of pollinators; and promote the conservation and the restoration and sustainable use of pollinator diversity in agriculture and related ecosystems. This initiative has been undertaken by the agricultural biodiversity section of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which has been ratified by all nations of the world except Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzigovina, Brunei, Kuwait, Somalia, Thailand, Tuvalu, the Vatican, Iraq and the United States.

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