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7/25/03
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1. Appropriations Update:
Still Time To Support Conservation
2. GRACE Study Shows Improper Manure Handling By CAFO's
3. Report Emphasizes GMO Threat To Wildlife
4. Farm To Cafeteria: Seeds of Prosperity
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1.
APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE: STILL TIME TO SUPPORT CONSERVATION
Earlier in the week,
it appeared that the Senate might take up consideration of the
agriculture appropriations bill at any moment. That scenario
seems less likely now, as Senators spent several days
deliberating on Homeland Security appropriations, and are facing
a scheduled August 4 recess date to return to their districts.
So, while the schedule is never written in stone, there is
likely still time to call your senators and ask them to support
the Grassley EQIP payment limitation amendment (learn
more). You can also tell your senators that you support
funding for conservation programs and that you hope Senate
conferees will stand firm for conservation funding when they
reconcile their bill with the House version this fall. You can
reach the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121 or get your
senators' district office
information online.
2. GRACE STUDY
SHOWS IMPROPER MANURE HANDLING BY CAFOS
One of the ways that
livestock producers deal with their animals' manure is to use it
as fertilizer on nearby farmland. A new report by the USDA
indicates that most confined animal feeding operations place
excessive amounts of manure on the lands closest to their
fields. These practices have resulted in significant cost
externalization in the form of air and water pollution. The
study also found that the cost of handling manure in accordance
with nutrient guidelines, as required under new EPA guidelines,
will be about $2 billion per year.
"CAFOs have
routinely avoided the costs of proper manure handling and
application by dumping excessive amounts of manure on fields
closest to their operations. This creates both air and water
pollution that levies real costs on the rural residents who live
around CAFOs. This study is important because it puts a number
on the costs CAFOs have been shifting to rural communities every
year by not spreading their manure on enough land," says
Dr. William J. Weida, noted rural economist and
director of the GRACE Factory Farm Project. Get
more information.
3. REPORT
EMPHASIZES GMO THREAT TO WILDLIFE
According to a new
report by the British government the most serious potential harm
of GMO crops is their effect on wildlife. The exhaustive report,
which analyzed more than 600 scientific papers, stated that the
extra-powerful weed and insect killers which crops are now
engineered to tolerate will harm wildlife by decimating insects
and plants they feed on.
The report stated
flatly: "Above all other concerns, this poses perhaps the
most serious potential harm arising from these particular crops.
We do not yet have sufficient evidence to predict what the
long-term impacts of GM herbicide-tolerant crops would be on
weed populations and the wildlife that depends on weeds for
food."
This potential
effect on farmland wildlife was why English Nature, the
Government's conservation adviser, called in 1998 for the
current moratorium on commercial growth of GM crops while
large-scale tests were run. These tests, known as the farm-scale
evaluations, have just finished and their results will be made
known in September. Read
more.
4. FARM TO
CAFETERIA: SEEDS OF PROSPERITY
Three Michigan
congressmen are co-sponsoring innovative legislation that would
break open new markets for the state's blue-ribbon growers;
supply fresher, healthier food to nearby school children; and
help communities protect land from sprawling development.
Michigan House Bill 2626, co-authored by Representative Fred
Upton (R-St. Joseph) and co-sponsored by, among others,
Representatives Mike Rogers (R-Brighton) and Vern Ehlers
(R-Grand Rapids) would provide grants of up to $100,000 for
schools to buy food from local farms. This bill and other
kinds of strategies to link economic growth with sustainable
farming and eating will be discussed at an upcoming conference
sponsored by the Michigan Land Use Institute. The Seeds of
Prosperity Conference will be held Nov. 11 - 13 in
Thompsonville, Michigan. Read
about the legislation. To learn more about the conference,
send an e-mail patty@mlui.org.
Cultivating a vision where
rural and urban communities join together
to ensure abundant family farms, healthy critters, clean water and
a wild Earth.
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Rural Updates!
Scotty Johnson and Aimee Delach
National Rural Community Outreach Campaign
sjohnson@defenders.org
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