While Congress passed the largest Conservation title in the history of farm bill legislation, the new law remains unfunded. With elections looming larger than the increasing federal deficit, no one is wagering a guess as to when there will be movement on the agriculture appropriations bill. The House and Senate last week passed another continuing resolution to fund the government until November 22. Thus, both branches are freed from the responsibility of considering appropriations bills until after the November 5th congressional elections. 

Of the thirteen appropriations bills Congress must pass, they have only completed the Defense Department and Military Construction bills. Both chambers will be operating on a pro forma basis through the elections, meaning that they will operate only on select days, or to vote on legislation that passes out of the other chamber. More information about the current status of the appropriations bills is available at: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app03.html.

2. UPCOMING CONFERENCE ON FARM BILL CONSERVATION

The National Association of Conservation Districts and the Conservation Technology Information Center are hosting a National Conference on Farm Bill Conservation Opportunities, at the Airport Hilton in St. Louis, MO on November 13 and 14, 2002. The conference will include addresses by Bruce Knight, the Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service, and Jim Moseley, Deputy Secretary of the USDA (invited). Much of the conference will be devoted to "Stakeholder Breakout Sessions" to develop and refine action plans for conservation program implementation. Registration is $175 and more information is available at http://www.nacdnet.org/FBC/.

Recently the Washington Post reported that the Bush administration "has begun a broad restructuring of the scientific advisory committees that guide federal policy in areas such as patients' rights and public health." According to the Post this "restructuring" included eliminating some committees that were coming to conclusions at odds with the president's views and in other cases replacing members with handpicked choices. 

One of these committees "at odds" with the Administration was a group of experts who recommended that the Food and Drug Administration expand its regulation of the increasingly lucrative genetic testing industry, which has so far been free of such oversight. This committee was dismissed by the Department of Health and Human Services before their committee work could be completed. If you would like a copy of the Post article emailed to you please send an email to sjohnson@defenders.org.

When it comes to genetically engineered foods, Oregon consumers are "mad-as-hell" and doing something about the fact that Monsanto and other "life science" companies don't want to put labels on genetically engineered food.

To counter the problem Oregon voters have created proposition 27 which is "a people's initiative that would require that additional information appear on food labels to allow consumers to know if a food item contains more than one tenth of one percent of genetically engineered material by weight of the product." 

The proposition will be decided in the upcoming November 5th Oregon general election. A broad alliance of citizens there say that if Monsanto and others don't want to label GE food, they "must have something sinister to hide." According to an email posted by proponents of Proposition 27, the biotechnology companies, led by Monsanto, are investing significantly in the defeat of the initiative, outspending citizens and consumers by a ratio of 60:1. 

This proposition is being watched internationally and if you would like to help out the cause contact Mel Bankoff at (541) 485.0495. Learn more about the effort at www.VoteYesOn27.com.

If you would like to subscribe or unsubscribe to this list, visit our
Rural Updates Subscriber Center