The Latest on Farming
A coalition of environmental groups including the Gulf Restoration Network, Prairie Rivers Network and the Iowa Environmental Council are suing the federal Environmental Protection Agency to force it to set state water quality standards and tighten pollution limits on wastewater treatment plants.
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More than 1 million Americans are now on record demanding mandatory labeling of genetically engineered (GE) foods so that consumers will know what they’re buying. The Just Label It campaign has submitted the signatures on a petition calling on the Food and Drug Administration to require labeling. Today (Tuesday) is the deadline for the FDA to respond.
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The Argus Leader of Sioux Falls, S.D reported this morning that Sens. Tim Johnson (D-S.D.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa.) are making legislative efforts to curb government subsidies distributed inequitably to highly profitable mega farms. An excerpt: Sen. Tim Johnson’s bill to limit federal farm subsidy payments might be the prelude to a far more ambitious effort to impose similar caps on the popular federal crop and revenue insurance programs.
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The most troubling news this week was a report from Stephanie Paige Obgurn of High Country News, which took a comprehensive look at the alarming conversion of native prairie grassland to intensive row cropping (subscription required).
Read MoreSenators Tim Johnson (D-SoDak.) and Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) continue their quest to steer farm program money into the hands of struggling ranchers and farmers who actually need government support. Yesterday they introduced new legislation to place hard caps on farm subsidy payments and close loopholes.
Read MoreYesterday, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, proposed to cut $30 billion from federal farm subsidy programs, targeting the discredited direct payment program that sends checks out every year regardless of need.
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“You learn something every day if you pay attention.” ~Ray LeBlond
And that happened this morning, when in an online dialogue, a farming friend popped in, talking about his trip to DC for the “Corn Congress.”
“What’s a ‘Corn Congress’?” I asked, never having heard the term.
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The chairman of the House Budget Committee Chairman, Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), is proposing to cut $5 billion a year from the farm subsidies commonly referred to as “direct payments” and an additional $30 billion over 10 years from the heavily subsidized federal crop insurance programs.
Read MoreThe Marin Independent Journal has published an in-depth interview with Environmental Working Group president Ken Cook about the upcoming farm bill.
Read MoreThe Environment Working Group today released startling new research showing that companies owned by foreign insurance companies are paid billions in tax dollars through the U.S. crop insurance program. Most of the testimony from farm groups in yesterday’s Senate farm bill hearing centered on the heavily subsidized crop insurance program.
Read MoreThe highlight of the Senate Agriculture committee’s hearing on farm subsidies and crop insurance was when Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) asked Michael Scuse, the Acting Undersecretary For Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services at the U.S. Department of Agriculture whether he considered people who participate in only two farming-related conference calls per year to be actively-engaged farmers.
Read MoreYesterday the Congressional Budget Office released its estimates of farm bill program spending over the next ten years. The Hagstrom Report, a by-subscription news service, caught up with Jim Miller, a top aide to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who said the rising cost of crop insurance – $11 billion over ten years –was due to “both to the value of crops and timing shifts stemming from decisions made in the 2008 farm bill.”
Read MoreCritics of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (previously known as food stamps) have been using recent news stories of lottery winners getting SNAP benefits to demonize the program, despite its very low instance of fraud. These attacks come when more than 40 million Americans – half of them children – rely on food stamps to get through a brutal recession.
Read MoreAnimal waste and fertilizer from farming operations in California’s Salinas Valley and Tulare Lake Basin are the source of 96 percent of the nitrate contamination in the area’s groundwater, a new study commissioned by the State Water Resources Control Board found.
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Critics of the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP (previously known as food stamps) claim some recipients are wrongly receiving benefits after winning lottery jackpots. SNAP fraud is serious. Those who are not in need and improperly receive benefits are taking precious resources from people desperate to feed their families in our slowly healing economy. Thankfully, according to the US Department of Agriculture, SNAP fraud is limited.
Read MoreNews on conservation problems that we currently face.
Read MoreThis week, a handful of big city mayors sent a letter to the House and Senate Agriculture Committee leaders urging them to support healthy and local food initiatives.
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The National Farmers Union just voted at its annual meeting to support asking farmers to limit soil erosion and protect wetlands in return for generous premium subsidies. Those subsidies cost taxpayers $7.4 billion in 2011.
Read MoreAt today’s hearing of the Senate Agriculture Committee, devoted to Healthy Food Initiatives, Local Production, and Nutrition, Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) said: "Whether a Kansas farmer is growing wheat that will be made into bread in a Kansas bakery, or selling Georgia peaches to schools through a food hub in Atlanta, local food systems mean a win-win for agriculture and the local economy."
Read MoreFarmers can produce far more than the world’s food and fiber — they can also contribute to the enormous task of keeping our drinking water clean and our streams healthy.
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