6/13/05

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1.  Groups Protest Mad Cow Dog and Pony 
2.  Suit Says Farm Kids Imperiled by Pesticides, Ignored by EPA 
3.  Farm Groups on Opposite Sides of Trade Agreement 
4.  White House Bashes Congress on Wetlands Cuts

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GROUPS PROTEST MAD COW DOG AND PONY 

This past Thursday, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns organized a meeting in St. Paul, MN to tell the press about the `safety' of U.S. beef.  But, according to the Organic Consumers Association and the Center for Media and Democracy, the event was more of a press stunt than a press briefing.  To draw attention away from what they saw as a charade, the two groups arranged a protest across the street.  They dressed people in hazardous waste suits and symbolically dumped commercially purchased calf feed – which contains cow blood and slaughterhouse waste – on the grass to illustrate risky USDA mad cow policies.  The groups claim the USDA "policies put livestock – and, subsequently, humans – at risk for (the) fatal, brain-wasting diseases."  Meanwhile, across the street at the official gathering, the American Farm Bureau Federation and National Cattlemen's Beef Association were along side the USDA telling the media that U.S. beef is safe and trade bans should be lifted." Compare at: http://www.organicconsumers.org/madcow/MadCowRelease06060 5.htm http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/!ut/p/_s.7_0_A/7_0_1OB?content idonly=true&contentid=webcast_bse.xml 

SUIT SAYS FARM KIDS IMPERILED BY PESTICIDES, IGNORED BY EPA 

This week environmental and labor groups sued the EPA claiming the agency has failed to take the vulnerability of farm children into account when setting standards around chemical pesticide use.   Their suit alleges the agency set tolerance levels for pesticide residue on food that "has endangered hundreds of thousands of children."  According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the suite comes after more than 50 organizations asked the Environmental Protection Agency in October 1998 to base maximum residue standards on the most exposed and susceptible members of society: children living on or near farms.  The groups say that the EPA never responded to the request.   "Children of farm workers breathe pesticides that drift from the fields, and they often live, play and go to school right next to pesticide-treated orchards,'' said Erik Nicholson of the United Farm Workers, a plaintiff in the suit.  "It's common sense to protect our kids, but EPA is ignoring them.'' In the United States, more than 1 million children of farm workers live near farms, including more than 300,000 children younger than 6 years old who are especially vulnerable to pesticide exposure, the suit says See: http://sfgate.com/cgi- bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/06/08/MNGLHD52V41.DTL 

FARM GROUPS ON OPPOSITE SIDES ON TRADE AGREEMENT 

The Senate Agriculture Committee opened hearings on the Central American Free Trade Act this week and got two very different perspectives on the treaty from the nation's largest farm organizations.  American Farm Bureau Federation president Bob Stallman said the trade agreement "is overwhelmingly a positive opportunity for U.S. agriculture."  "In looking at the variety of U.S. commodities that would benefit…, one can only conclude that a `Yes' vote on CAFTA-DR is a vote for agriculture and agricultural exports," he said.  National Farmers Union vice president Tom Bius offered a very different view: "(CAFTA) is a raw deal for American farmers and ranchers." Buis pointed out that "the results of agricultural trade negotiations and the agreements that follow have consistently failed to match the promises and rhetoric of free trade proponents." "Not only does CAFTA encourage a race to the bottom for producer prices, it ignores major issues that distort fair trade such as labor, environmental regulations and currency," says NFU.  For more information, see: http://www.nfu.org/newsroom_news_release.cfm?id=1312 http://www.fb.org/news/nr/nr2005/nr0607b.html  

WHITE HOUSE BASHES CONGRESS ON WETLAND CUTS 

In a statement issued on Tuesday, the White House praised Congress for moving forward with the agriculture appropriations bill, but took a strong stance against the bill's limits on wetlands acreage: "The Administration strongly opposes the Section 734 limitation on the number of acres that USDA may enroll into the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) during 2006.  The WRP is USDA's primary conservation program for restoring and protecting priority wetland acreage, and is a major contributor to the President's goal to restore, improve, and protect three million acres of wetlands over five years.  Over the last year, WRP has helped restore or create 123,300 wetland acres.  The President's 2006 Budget anticipates enrolling 200,000 acres into WRP and, at this level of enrollment, USDA estimates it will restore or create another 123,300 acres next year.  This section limits the Department's ability to contribute to this goal, and the Administration urges the Congress to eliminate the provision." Unfortunately, the White House failed to stand up for full funding of the rest of the farm bill conservation programs, and even its request to increase WRP acreage still falls short of the 250,000 acres promised in 2006 by the farm bill. The Statement of Administration Policy is available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/legislative/sap/109-1/hr2744sap- h.pdf

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Scotty Johnson and Aimee Delach
National Rural Community Outreach Campaign
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