The Latest from AgMag

Watchdog Group, Dean Slam Congress For Proposed Conservation Cuts

Friday, September 18, 2009

Mitchell Daily Republic, Seth Tupper

Published September 10, 2008

An environmental watchdog group and a South Dakota outdoorsman slammed Congress Tuesday for proposing legislation that would purportedly slash millions from conservation programs in the recently adopted farm bill.

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Ag Groups Want Water Allocation Change

Friday, September 18, 2009

Capital Press Agricultural Weekly, Chip Power

A handful of the Central Valley’s influential agricultural interests pleaded with a congressional panel to roll back portions of a 14-year-old federal law that elevated environmental uses of water to the same priority as crops. The law in question, known as the Central Valley Project Improvement Act, was amended in 1992 to give environmental uses of water more emphasis.

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Demand Already Exceeds Funding for Conservation Program That Could Suffer Cuts

Friday, September 18, 2009

Mitchell Daily Republic, Seth Tupper

Published September 12, 2008

Hundreds of South Dakotans already are being turned away from a conservation program that could see a pledged funding increase rescinded by Congress and the president.

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Environment

Biofuels, Agriculture and the Environment

Friday, September 18, 2009

A slideshow on several key environmental issues.

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Conservation Cuts in Spending Bills Grab Attention of Environmental Groups

Friday, September 18, 2009

Hoosier Ag Today, Gary Truitt

Published September 12, 2008

Environmental groups are not happy to see the Senate is already trying to cut spending levels for some of the conservation programs included in the 2008 Farm Bill. The Environmental Quality Incentives Program - or EQIP - would reportedly get just over one-billion dollars in 2009 under a Senate appropriations measure.

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Environment

Midwest Floods Bring New Opposition to Ethanol

Friday, September 18, 2009

Devastating floods and bad weather in the Midwest are raising the tide of opposition against the renewable fuels standard. Groups that have been pressing lawmakers to reconsider federal supports for ethanol are now pointing to flooded fields in the nation’s cornbelt as further evidence the United States may struggle to meet the standard.

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Revamp policy: Stress sustainability

Friday, September 18, 2009

Des Moines Register, Craig Cox

Published November 3, 2008

Two recent reports in the Register make it clear that we need to overhaul our biofuels policy.

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Ethanol Positions Affected Rural Vote

Friday, September 18, 2009

Corn grower Tim Recker says Barack Obama’s relatively strong showing in rural Iowa should provide a warning to both parties: Attack ethanol subsidies at your peril.

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Westland's Water Subsidies More Corporate Welfare

Friday, September 18, 2009

Bakersfield Californian, Bill Walker

Published October 29, 2005

In his recent Community Voices column, the president of Westlands Water District blasted Environmental Working Group's investigation of the district's proposed federal water subsidies contract.

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Water

Environmental group: Target U.S. aid at most polluted waters in Iowa

Friday, September 18, 2009

Des Moines Register , PHILIP BRASHER

Published May 29, 2009

Washington, D.C. - Government conservation money in Iowa should be targeted to farms in areas that pollute the Mississippi River basin and cause a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental group says.

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Congress Not Done With Farm Bill

Friday, September 18, 2009

The 2008 Farm Bill has barely left the lot and Congress has pulled it back into the garage for some tinkering. The U.S. Senate has proposed $331 million in cuts to a series of conservation programs designed to leave some land in its natural state rather than plowing every square inch under for crops. Last week, the Environmental Working Group — those folks who publish how much every farmer gets in Farm Bill subsidies — held a conference call to protest.

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Cotton and Accountability

Friday, September 18, 2009

With first compliance deadline in WTO cotton decision looming, Brazil explores a novel trade retaliation: suspension of intellectual property rights for U.S. products.

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Consumer Products

EWG and Allies Urge Defeat of Biofuels Green House Gas Analysis Exemption

Friday, September 18, 2009

On behalf of our millions of members and activists, we strongly urge you to oppose the Emerson Amendment (#019) and any other attempts to sidestep the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) process to assess the full lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions of biofuels (including emissions from indirect land-use change).

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After Two Decades of Agricultural Disaster Aid A Chronic Dependency Takes Root

Friday, September 18, 2009

September 2006

Pressure is building in Congress for pre-election enactment of the most expensive emergency agricultural disaster aid bill in history.

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Senate Cuts Would Shave $5 Million From S.D. EQIP Funds, Group Says

Friday, September 18, 2009

Daily Republic, Seth Tupper

Published September 24, 2008

South Dakota stands to lose $5.268 million of federal funding that was pledged by the farm bill toward a popular conservation program, according to new estimates from an environmental watchdog group.

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New Law Lets Black Farmers Seek Claims

Friday, September 18, 2009

Gannett News Service (Detroit Free Press), Doug Abrahms

Published June 4, 2008

Robert Harrold missed the 2000 deadline for filing a benefit discrimination claim against the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

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Time's running out to comment on water contract negotiations

Friday, September 18, 2009

Federal regulators are negotiating an agricultural water contract in the Central Valley, the latest of several dozen deals that could tie up water resources for the next 50 years. Thursday is the public's last day to comment on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation's proposal to renew its long-term contract with Westlands Water District, which provides water to some 800 farms in Fresno and Kings counties.

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Water

Environmental group: Target U.S. aid at most polluted waters in Iowa

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Des Moines Register, Philip Brasher

Published May 29, 2009

Government conservation money in Iowa should be targeted to farms in areas that pollute the Mississippi River basin and cause a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental group says.

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Water

Group Calls for 'Greener' Gas

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Ft. Collins Coloradoan, David Young

Published March 11, 2009

A group of America's ethanol producers dedicated to furthering the nation's economy through cleaner, "greener" energy has called upon the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to raise the limit on ethanol blended in gasoline.

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