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6/30/05
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1. Farm Bill Conservation Program Action Needed
2. Second
Case of Mad Cow Reported in the U.S.
3. Illinois Farm Bureau Mulls Greener Farm Bill
4. Groups
Petition USDA to Tighten Organic Standards
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FARM BILL CONSERVATION PROGRAM ACTION NEEDED
The Senate appropriations committee last week reported the FY
2006 appropriations bill for agriculture. The bill contained
good and bad news for conservation.
On the positive side, the
Senate bill fully funds the Conservation Security Program,
unlike the House bill, which funds the program $86 million less,
and also fully funds the Farm and Ranchland Protection Program
at $100 million.
However, other important conservation
priorities are still being shortchanged in the Senate's bill:
the Wetlands Reserve Program is allocated fewer acres than in
either 2004 or 2005, and 50,000 fewer acres than requested by
the President in his budget -- all told, WRP is funded at $153
million less than was promised for next year in the 2002 farm
bill. The Wildlife Habitat Incentives Program receives $38
million less than the promised $85 million (and 13 million less
than the President's request) -- a percentage cut as large as
the one faced by WRP. The Senate appropriations bill calls for
the Environmental Quality Incentives Program to receive $17 million more than the President's request, but $183
million less than promised by the Farm Bill.
Please call the
Capitol at 202-224-3121 and ask your senators to fully fund Farm Bill
conservation programs when the agriculture appropriations bill
goes to the Senate floor!
SECOND CASE OF MAD COW CONFIRMED IN U.S.
This past Friday, USDA Secretary Mike Johanns announced the
confirmation of the second ever case of mad cow disease in the
U.S. The cow appears to have been born in the U.S., potentially
making it the first case originating from a U.S. herd. Initial
testing of the animal in November was inconclusive, prompting
the USDA to run a second scan, which turned out negative.
Suspicious that something was awry, the USDA ordered samples
sent to England where a different testing process is used. This
final scan showed positive confirming the presence of the
disease. As a result of the failure of the U.S. testing system,
Johanns announced Friday that officials will now expand U.S.
testing methods. Adding the U.S.
beef supply was "safe," Johanns boasted that the
U.S. screens 1,000 cattle a day. He didn't mention that the USDA
had been considering scaling back tests prior to this incident.
By comparison, Europe screens approximately 30,000 cattle a day
and Japan tests every head. Risking other potential sources of
contamination, the U.S. also still allows cattle blood as a
supplement for calves and permits ground up cattle remains to be
fed to chickens, whose waste can then be fed back to cows.
Read the full
story, the USDA press
release and read more on the USDA's failure to regulate
feed.
ILLINOIS FARM BUREAU MULLS GREENER FARM BILL
"Amid fears that farmers could be boxed in by global
reforms and shifting social priorities," the Illinois Farm
Bureau Farm Policy Task Force (FPTF) is proposing that the 2007
Farm Bill "significantly expand farm bill conservation
initiatives and incentives."
The proposal, which will be
voted on in July, stems from World Trade Organization (WTO)
pressures to shift agriculture support "from loan
deficiency and other commodity payments" programs that are
"doubly green" in that they improve environmental
quality and also fall under the WTO's "green box"
category of permissible, non-trade-distorting support.
Specifically, the Task Force proposal recommends expanding the
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program, increasing enrollment
of filter strips in the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP), and
opposing incentives that encourage farmers to bring wetlands and
"fragile" grasslands into production. The task force also recommends
expanding rural development and agriculture research programs.
GROUPS PETITION USDA TO TIGHTEN ORGANIC STANDARDS
Six agriculture, retail, and food safety groups petitioned
the USDA to update the rules governing the labeling of organic
products following the ruling in the case of Harvey v. Johanns.
This past January, the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled in favor of
Maine blueberry farmer Arthur Harvey in a suit against the USDA
claiming that the agency's regulations of organic foods violated
the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990. The ruling impacts the
use of synthetic substances for processing organic foods, the
use of non-organic feed in dairy herds converting to organic,
and will require that the use of non-organic products be
approved by the National Organic Standards Board. The
petitioners are asking for a number of regulatory changes
designed to bring the current National Organic Program (NOP)
into compliance with the court ruling without compromising the
long-term integrity of the organic label. "Our petition to
USDA is intended to resolve inconsistencies between the law and
the organic program regulations without opening up the law to
wholesale changes", said Joseph Mendelson of the Center for
Food Safety. The petitioners are asking USDA to tighten the
standards within a year.
Read more about the case, sign on to the petition, and get
more information at: http://www.agmatters.net/Organic.php
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Scotty Johnson and Aimee Delach
National Rural Community Outreach Campaign
sjohnson@defenders.org
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