1.  GROUPS CHARGE NEW EQIP RULE ILLEGAL 

The NRCS's release of its final rule on administration of the Environmental Quality Incentives Program has already provoked a firestorm of criticism. An alliance of family farm, conservation and humane groups have charged that the new EQIP rule violates the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Magna Carta of U.S. environmental law.  Under NEPA, a federal agency proposing a significant action like distributing huge sums of taxpayer dollars for manure management on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) needs to evaluate whether there could be negative environmental consequences of that action. Instead, the Environmental Assessment that accompanied the release of the new EQIP rule analyzed only whether using an allocation formula would yield more environmental benefit than allocating dollars equally between states or not implementing the program at all. Defenders and ten other organizations responded with a letter pointing out that, by law, the Natural Resource Conservation Service needs to take a much closer look at the potential negative impacts of some of the practices EQIP could fund, such manure management at new or expanding CAFOs, manure management at CAFOs located in floodplains, and the conversion of wetlands to deep irrigation ponds.  For a copy of the letter explaining that the final EQIP rule is released in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), visit www.familyfarmer.org. 

2.   NRCS IGNORES PUBLIC COMMENTS ON EQIP 

Upon release of its proposed EQIP rule in February, the NRCS acknowledged it has broad discretion in how it addresses issues including how to distribute EQIP funds to livestock operators and whether it should distribute any funds to CAFOs.  The proposed rule, however, took the unfortunate steps of shunting important decisions regarding the use of EQIP funds to the local level.  It further decimated sound conservation planning requirements that measured guidelines and benchmarks to ensure environmental gains. A broad alliance of family farm and conservation groups cried foul during the public comment period. According to NRCS documents, one-third of the 1,250 respondents "...expressed concern that proposed rule removed the conservation planning requirement from EQIP [and], provided for unrestricted cost-share assistance to new and expanding animal operations and CAFOs in flood plains." In the end, the NRCS dismissed these concerns, failing utterly to respond in any meaningful way.  View the NRCS's EQIP rule.

3.  REWRITE OF THE GRASSLANDS RESERVE PROGRAM DRAWS IRE 

The NRCS is having a bad run in Washington.  Last week they announced they will begin implementing the Grasslands Reserve Program this year without issuing a rule detailing how it will be administered, or seeking public comment.  

Key Senate and House staffers lashed out at NRCS Chief Bruce Knight in a recent meeting. GRP supporters in Congress complain that, without authority, the NRCS has rewritten this national program into one that provides benefits for few states. They fault NRCS for creating two new purposes for the program - water conservation and drought relief - even though the 2002 farm bill provided other programs to address these very issues.  

They also criticize NRCS for excluding tall grass prairies and restored grasslands from GRP. Under the current NRCS guidance, GRP program  implementation will be limited to four areas in 2002: the Klamath River basin in California and Oregon; the Rio Grande Watershed in New Mexico and Texas; lesser prairie-chicken habitat in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas; and certain drought-afflicted areas of Colorado, eastern Idaho, Montana, northern Utah and Wyoming. Producers interested in protecting prairie lands in Illinois, Iowa and elsewhere will  have to wait until next year at the earliest. View a map of GRP eligible areas. 

4.  MAD COW IN NORTH AMERICA 

The Canadian Minister of Agriculture announced on May 20 the confirmation of a case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE, also known as mad cow disease) in an 8-year old cow in Alberta.  

Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) is a degenerative, irreversible, invariably fatal neurological disease that was first identified in British cattle in 1986. Since then, cases of the disease have been diagnosed in cattle in over a dozen European countries, including France, Germany and Italy and over 100 people have been diagnosed with the human form of BSE.  

This is the first case of Mad Cow disease reported in North America since the U.S. and Canada adopted measures to prevent the introduction or spread of the disease here. While the U.S. Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman concurred that the threat to public health appeared minimal, the National Cattleman's Beef Association has commended "the swift action taken by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to comply with existing BSE regulations and stop all cattle, beef, sheep and goat imports from Canada until further notice." Read more.

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