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2/27/04
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1. Take Action: Last Chance To Comment on CSP
2.
Dairy Checkoff Declared Unconstitutional
3. Plans Plow
Ahead for Nation's Largest Egg Factory
4. U.N Study Finds
Global Trade Benefits Uneven
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1. TAKE ACTION: LAST CHANCE TO COMMENT ON
CSP!
Comments
on the NRCS's proposed rule for implementing the Conservation
Security Program are due this Tuesday, March 2! If you have not
made your voice heard, we urge you to do so. NRCS needs to hear
loud and clear that farmers, environmentalists and rural
advocates want a CSP program that complies with the law and
provides real incentives for good stewards.
You can send
comments via email to david.mckay@usda.gov.
The most important points to make are the following: 1) CSP
should be a national, uncapped entitlement program, not confined
to priority watersheds and a limited number of producers; 2) CSP
should allow farmers more flexibility to address local resource
concerns, instead of dictating resources and practices on a
national scale; and 3) NRCS must revise the base payment and
practice payments in order to provide real incentives. Get
more
information on the program.
2. DAIRY CHECKOFF DECLARED UNCONSTITUTIONAL
A great
deception is beginning to unfold in agricultural areas.
First, it was the pork checkoff, then the beef checkoff and now
it's the dairy
checkoff.
Producers are striking out
against the commodity groups that purport to represent their
interests but instead advance the interests of consolidated
agribusiness. The courts have become effective tools in
this change. Tuesday, according to a story by AgOnline, a
panel of three circuit court judges ruled that the Dairy
checkoff is unconstitutional and violates producers first
amendment rights. The case was brought Joeseph and Brenda
Cochran, independent dairy producers from Pennsylvania who
employ a "traditional" method of dairy farming
where their cows are allowed to graze and spend time outside.
The Cochran's objected to the forced payments they made in the
form of checkoffs, saying their money went to pay for
advertising that "gave the message that milk is a generic
product and bears no distinction about where and how it is
produced." They said the checkoff forced them to
subsidize speech they disagreed with to the tune of $3,500 to
$4,000 per year. US Department of Agriculture Secretary
Ann Venneman defended checkoffs generally and said the USDA
would be reviewing the case.
3. PLANS PLOW AHEAD
FOR NATION'S LARGEST EGG FACTORY
Plans appear to be plowing
ahead for the construction of the nation's largest egg
production facility next to a national wildlife refuge that is
home to the only wild population of endangered red wolves.
Indiana-based Rose Acre Farms has proposed construction of a
facility in Hyde County, North Carolina that would house 4
million egg-laying birds. The facility would be located
adjacent to the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge and
within 30 miles of three other wildlife refuges and one
wilderness area.
Local and national observers are
concerned that the waste, odor, and air emissions from this
facility will harm the refuges as well as the quality of life
and the local economy in an already impoverished area of the
state. Bill Ross, Secretary of North Carolina's Department
of Environment and Natural Resources, is currently considering
permitting requirements for the proposed facility.
Please
contact Secretary Ross today at Bill.Ross@ncmail.net,
letting him know that you oppose the construction of this
proposed facility and asking him to carry out his obligations
under the law to ensure that no proposed facility can be
constructed until all the required permitting processes are
complied with.
4. U.N. STUDY FINDS GLOBAL TRADE BENEFITS
ARE UNEVEN
A two-year study released this week by the United
Nations' labor organization concludes that the benefits of the
global economy are distributed unevenly between rich and poor
countries, and are widening the income gap between rich and
poor. The report, titled "A Fair Globalization,"
included a finding that women in the developing world have,
overall, not been helped by globalization, because "women's
traditional livelihoods as subsistence farmers or small
producers have been undermined by foreign subsidized agriculture
or foreign imports but, as women, they face cultural barriers
when looking for alternative occupations."
On a brighter
note, the study also found a decrease in global poverty over the
past decade and singled out China and India as places where
poverty figures have improved. Among the suggestions offered to
expand the benefits of globalization were: improved
international governance, more transparency in trade laws,
better protection for people and goods crossing borders,
increased development assistance to poorer nations, and better
enforcement of the four core international labor standards: the
right to organize and bargain collectively, the elimination of
compulsory labor, the abolition of child labor and the ending of
discrimination in employment.]
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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