1.  FARM BUREAU OPPOSES RURAL INITIATIVE

In many states over the years Farm Bureau policies have often sided with developers against farmers attempting to protect their way of life from development. In California, the issue has come up once again. A large coalition of California citizens has teamed up to advance the Sonoma County Rural Heritage Initiative in next Tuesdays elections. In predictable fashion, the California Farm Bureau, one of the most powerful forces in the state of California is opposing the legislation.

According to Charles Richard, writing in the Sonoma County Environmental Reporter, "The most visible and vocal leader of the opposition to the Rural Heritage Initiative is the Sonoma County Farm Bureau which would have us believe that the Farm Bureau is the voice of farmers and represents the best interests of agriculture." As Richards concludes in his guest editorial, "If the Farm Bureau were sincere about saving farms, it would support Measure 1 (Rural Heritage Initiatve); but, as the record shows, it is more committed to preserving "development rights" than to preserving agriculture rights." Rural Updates! will be posting the results of this election next week.

2. WISCONSIN UNVEILS FAMILY FARM PROTECTION ACT

In a piece of model legislation that deserves to be copied in many states facing pollution and loss of family farms due to mega-animal factories, Sen. Clausing (D-Mennomenie) has unveiled the Family Farm Protection Act. According to The Country Today, this legislation is "a product of 10 months of consensus-based deliberations by a coalition of environmental, religious, citizen and family farm advocate groups and public comments from recent forums." An executive summary of the act says it would "eliminate market practices that unfairly benefit large-scale operations over small farms, eliminate "Right to Farm" protection for livestock feeding operations over 1,000 animalunits, restrict property tax exemptions for large producers and eliminate the pre-emption on local governments to enact stricter siting/environmental laws than those established by the state. 

For more information on the forums, contact Sam Gieryn of Wisconsin Citizen Action at (608) 256-1250 or sgieryn@wi-citizenaction.org.

3. OHIO AND BIG PIG: THE FOX IN THE HENHOUSE?

In a long overdue move the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has decided it will start regulating Buckeye Egg Farm and large-scale feedlots as it does factories and sewage-treatment plants. According to an Oct 31 article in the Columbus Dispatch, "Federal permits will be required for farms with more than 1,000 beef cattle, 2,500 hogs or 100,000 chickens" and that "Similar permits will be required for smaller livestock farms that have failed to prevent manure spills by 2002." The Dispatch also reported that Ohio state regulators had been avoiding the issue until the U.S.

EPA "threatened to withhold $3.5 million to enforce the Clean Water Act. "Unfortunately, the Ohio state legislature may be negating the benefits of this and opening wide the henhouse door.

As the Dispatch reported in conclusion. "it's unclear whether the state EPA will be the agency issuing and enforcing the new permits. The Ohio Farm Bureau Federation is pushing a Senate- approved bill pending in the House that would transfer regulation of megafarms to the Ohio Department of Agriculture."

4. ADM GOING BIOTECH

Right in the midst of a huge consumer backlash over the discovery of the presence of unapproved biotech corn in human food sources, ADM (Archer-Daniels Midland) has announced it’s new mission statement. Based on a set of seven "core beliefs" ADM’s chairman Allen Adreas presented this mission to shareholders recently at a meeting in Decatur, Illinois. According to the Oct. 26th PR/Newswire, ADM’s new mission is "To unlock the potential of nature to improve the quality of life." Andreas adds in the article that the new mission statement "clearly articulates our obligation to try and better the living conditions of everyone on this planet."

ADM who was heavily fined a few years ago in a Lysine price fixing scandal that cost livestock producers hundreds of millions of dollars works closely with the Monsanto Corporationand is in a joint venture with the American Farm Bureau Federation.