2/11/05

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1. Bush Shortchanges Conservation, Axes Rural Development 
2. Human Rights Watch Criticizes Meat Packers 
3. US at Bottom Third of Global Sustainability Index
4. Wine Country Goes GMO Free

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BUSH SHORTCHANGES CONSERVATION, AXES RURAL DEVELOPMENT 

President Bush released his plan for an "austere" FY 06 agriculture budget this week, amid much news chatter about the budget's plan to cut $5.7 billion from the commodity programs over 10 years. Yet for FY2006 alone, the President's budget request for conservation programs is $700 million less than what was promised by the 2002 Farm Bill. 

The largest cut -- 58 percent -- falls on the Conservation Security Program, and might limit to 60 or 70 the  number of watersheds the program can protect in 2006. The Wildlife Habitat Incentive Program, which provides cost-share assistance to producers to improve and protect wildlife habitat, is funded at 29% below promised Farm Bill levels. Other cuts  include a 17% cut to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP); a 16% cut to the Farmland Protection Program; and a 20% cut to the Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP). 

Rural development and renewable energy programs fared even worse: the Value-Added Producer Grants and On-Farm Renewable Energy  programs see cuts of 61% and 47% respectively; and two rural investment programs were cut entirely.

View the FY2006 budget proposal and read more about this issue. 

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH CRITICIZES MEATPACKERS 

Human Rights Watch has published a report criticizing human rights violations in the U.S. meat packing and poultry industry. The report, "Blood, Sweat and Fear," is the organization's first report to target one specific industry. 

They found that "many workers face a real danger of losing a limb, or even their lives, in unsafe work conditions." Further, the report found that "the companies employing them often use illegal tactics to crush union organizing efforts." 

The report is based on interviews with workers of Nebraska Beef in Omaha, Smithfield Foods in Tar Heel, NC (pork), and Tyson Foods in northwest Arkansas (poultry). 

In particular, violations allegedly occur in the following areas: 1) workplace health and safety and workers compensation 2) freedom of association 3) protection of rights of immigrant workers. 

U.S. AT BOTTOM THIRD IN GLOBAL SUSTAINABLITY INDEX

In a recent assessment of 146 countries' ability to protect the environment, the United States ranked an abysmal 45th. 

The embarrassing rating came in a report called the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index compiled in a joint effort by researchers at the Yale at Columbia Universities in collaboration with the World Economic Forum in Geneva and the European Commission's Joint Research Center in Ispra, Italy. The index gauges countries' ability to sustain for future generations, based on natural resources, pollution levels, environmental management efforts, and capacity for improving environmental performance. 

According to the 2005 Environmental Sustainability Index, Finland ranks first in environmental sustainability with a score of 75.1, followed by Norway (73.4), Uruguay (71.8), Sweden (71.7), and Iceland (70.8). "We are at the bottom of the top," said Yale researcher Melissa Goodall referring to the U.S. score placing just at the bottom third of the countries indexed.

WINE COUNTRY GOES GMO FREE

North of San Francisco, in the heart of wine country, a measure to ban genetically modified crops has qualified for a local ballot. As reported by the "Planet Ark" online, the measure that would impose a ten year moratorium on raising genetically engineered crops and is now eligible for the Sonoma county ballot. Local activists are calling the campaign a "symbolic victory" for the skeptics of biotech. This effort is another in the string of regional defensive political strategies that local producers and consumers are undertaking to block the widespread proliferation of GMO crops. Activists gathered 9,000 signatures -- more than needed to qualify the measure -- which county supervisors now may enact or put to voters in a special election as soon as May or June. If the measure is approved, Sonoma would become the fourth California county to ban raising genetically engineered foods.

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Scotty Johnson and Aimee Delach
National Rural Community Outreach Campaign
sjohnson@defenders.org