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12/12/03
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1. UN APPROVES USE OF GMO
TREES IN GLOBAL CLIMATE TREATY
2. CORN GROWERS TOUT POLICY REFORMS
3. MONTANA GROUPS SUE OF GAS EXPLORATION
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UN APPROVES USE OF GMO TREES
IN GLOBAL CLIMATE TREATY
After years of negotiating the
Kyoto Global Climate Change Treaty a U.N. conference on Tuesday
agreed to permit use of genetically modified trees in forests
planted to offset global warming, clearing a final hurdle to the
Kyoto protocol. The issue had remained the last stumbling block
in ratification particularly in the European Union where the EU
had opposed GMO’s fearing that the use of them would harm
native tree species. The final language will leave it up to each
individual country to assess for themselves the dangers involved
in use of GMO’s.
"This was the last piece of
this huge puzzle of Kyoto," said Thelma Krug of Brazil, who
led the talks, "Every part was difficult."
Even though the United States is
the biggest polluter in carbon gases, President George W. Bush
withdrew the United States from the Kyoto accord in 2001. After
finally reaching UN acceptance the protocol will need Russia
backing if it is to be ratified. Experts say Moscow is unlikely
to decide until after the March presidential election. Read
the article.
CORN GROWERS TOUT POLICY
REFORMS
American Corn Growers Association
(ACGA) has launched a four nation European tour to present the
newly released study, "Rethinking U.S. Agriculture Policy:
Changing Course to Secure Farmer Livelihoods
Worldwide."
The study, which was written by
economists at the University of Tennessee’s Agriculture Policy
Analysis Center (APAC), details how U.S. farm policy has
abandoned market stabilization tools in favor of production and
trade liberalization with disastrous results.
"This report goes
comprehensively to the heart of the ever more contentious trade
issues of farm subsidies in developed countries, low world
commodity prices, and global poverty. It concludes that
farmer-oriented policies and international cooperation are the
real solutions," said John Dittrich of ACGA. The tour,
which also features one of the study’s authors and a U.S.
farmer, hopes to raise awareness in Europe of the global effect
of subsidies and trade policies. The full
report is available in English, Spanish and French.
MONTANA GROUPS SUE OF GAS
EXPLORATION
In Montana the Bush
Administration’s push for domestic natural gas exploration is
causing environmentalists and ranchers to stand side by side to
fight the water pollution from the pumping of methane from coal
beds. The Great Falls Tribune is reporting this week that the
Northern Plains Resource Council is suing the Bureau of Land
Management over a coal-bed
methane project in southeast Montana, saying the agency
failed to involve the public in its decision, despite asking for
notice and the chance to do so.
Jack Tuholske, an attorney for
Northern Plains, said Monday the group has "bent over
backward" to try informally resolving the matter.
"Because this is the first of what will be many
environmental assessments that will affect hundreds of
landowners in Montana as they drill split estate lands, it's
absolutely important that the public be involved -- particularly
when it will involve private farming and ranching
operations," he said.
Cultivating a vision where
rural and urban communities join together
to ensure abundant family farms, healthy critters, clean water and
a wild Earth.
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Rural Updates!
Scotty Johnson and Aimee Delach
National Rural Community Outreach Campaign
sjohnson@defenders.org
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