1. IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED - Stop Big Ag From Hijacking Agriculture Conservation Funding

The Clean Water Network (CWN) needs your help. Calls are urgently needed to Congress to let elected officials know that the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) funding in the next farm bill SHOULD NOT be dolled out to factory farms (CAFO's) to build mega-manure lagoons. Agribusiness front groups like the Farm Bureau, the National Pork Producers Council and the National Cattleman's Beef Association are claiming huge federal welfare should be directed to subsidize factory farms waste management. This only subsidizes a portion of Big Ag's production costs and leverages unfairly against family livestock producers. Such a scenario will increase air and water pollution, consolidation and the loss of family farm agriculture. Don't let the government subsidize Big Ag. Make these hog and chicken farm corporations pay their own way. Contact your Senators today. To learn more about the issue go to: http://www.familyfarmer.org/alerts/stopag.html

2. FARM BUREAU TESTIFIES TO ELIMINATE EQIP REQUIREMENTS

When it comes to promoting large corporate farms to the detriment of the family farmer, the Farm Bureau has no equal. In recent testimony before the House of Representatives, the American Farm Bureau argued for eliminating the size restriction for eligibility for EQIP cost-share funds. (http://agriculture.house.gov/hearings/h10523we.pdf) If this Farm Bureau position becomes policy the largest factory operators will get massive federal handouts underwriting the cost of manure management. In addition to this federal push, the Farm Bureau has aggressively fought state regulations for large factory farms at the state level. See: http://www.thegleaner.com/daily/2001-07-22/news7.html

An article by entomologist John J Obrycki and colleagues, published in the journal "BioScience" and reprinted in "CropChoice News," examines the role of Bt corn in the food web, and discusses how potential impacts were overlooked in the testing of this genetically engineered crop. The Bacillus thuringiensis genes can affect not only the European corn borer that the technology targets, but also other organisms that feed on the corn plant or its pollen (which can land on other plants up to 3km away). Organisms that prey on corn-eating insects may also be impacted, and so on up the food chain to birds, amphibians, bats and other animals. These important potential problems, unfortunately remain virtually uninvestigated by the authorities granting permits of Bt corn and other transgenic crops. The authors of the article also "examined the Web sites of EPA and APHIS (Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, US Department of Agriculture) and found no indication that potential ecological interactions had been analyzed during the registration process for transgenic corn."

The newest data on income levels in each of the nation's 3,110 counties has been tabulate by the US Department of Commerce and the picture is bleak. Of the fifty poorest counties only one is a metropolitan county; the rest are largely rural, agriculturally dependent counties. For the fourth year in a row (1996 to 1999 data), the rural Midwest can lay claim to being the poorest region in the nation and Nebraska the state with the poorest counties. The U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis data shows that Nebraska has six of the poorest 20 counties, including the two poorest. South Dakota and North Dakota are home to another five of the poorest 20 counties. In all, over half of the poorest 20 counties are located in Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Earlier this year President Bush cut funding for the USDA Rural Development program by 12%. See Hey, we voted for you at: http://www.familyfarmer.org/updates/april1701.html