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2/12/04
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1. Factory Farm Arrests:
Trespass or Intimidation?
2. Organic Contamination From GMO's Worsen
3. CSP Comment Resources Available On-Line
4. American Corn Growers Ask Congress to Reject Trade Pact
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1. FACTORY FARM ARRESTS:
TRESPASS OR INTIMIDATION?
In Muncie Indiana, in a trial
that some say is meant to intimidate public participation in
regulating factory animal farms, two environmental activists are
being tried for trespassing. Able Alves, an associate
professor of history at Ball State University and his wife Carol
Blakney now face up to $5000 in fines. Two months before the
alleged trespass, the two filed a complaint against the Seldom
Rest Farm with state regulators, which resulted in the
farm being accused of housing 150 hogs in an unpermitted
structure and of allowing manure from that structure to run into
a ditch. At the time of the alleged trespass the couple
had returned to the farm with a camera to document
compliance. They were then spotted and charged with
trespassing. While the trial is expected to be decided
soon, analyst see this behavior as representing explicit
intimidation tactics meant to discourage citizen
watchdogs
A recent Water Keepers newsletter
quoted an expert saying, these "trespass charges are
similar to Strategic Lawsuits Against Pubic Participation and
are a form of 'legal harassment. Litigation is ...
increasingly utilized to intimidate people who cannot be
influenced through pressure from employers or professional
associations." According to the Water Keepers
newsletter, Seldom Rest co-owner Kaye Whitehead is chairman of
the Delaware County Republican Party and president of Delaware
County Farm Bureau. Read
more.
2. ORGANIC CONTAMINATION
FROM GMO'S WORSEN
Organic producers have long
worried that "drift" from genetically altered plants
born on the wind or via avian transport would mingle with non-GMO
organic produce and spoil their ability to market produce.
Based on new information from an upcoming study conducted in
Wales, some now think that the drift is so bad it may spell the
end of non-GMO organic produce.
In a study to be released in
April, Mark Partridge and Denis Murphy, two biotechnology
researchers at the University of Glamorgan in Pontypridd, Wales,
tested organic health food products and found that 10 in 25
products contained
traces of GMO material. The study, which confirms
previous tests by national food standards agencies in Ireland
and the UK, implies that a wide range of foodstuffs probably
contain traces of GM material. One of the researchers, Denis
Murphy said, "In another year the problem will be ten times
worse."
3. CSP COMMENT RESOURCES
AVAILABLE ON-LINE
Comments on the Proposed Rule for
implementation of the Conservation Security Program are due
March 2, 2004. The rule and its associated documentation are
lengthy and complex. To help simplify the comment process,
several organizations have produced fact sheets, program
summaries and comment suggestions. Read a sample
letter drafted by Defenders of Wildlife.
The National Campaign for
Sustainable Agriculture lists key
points and program background. The Land Stewardship Project
has also developed a fact
sheet to help guide comments on the proposed rule. IFinally,
the NRCS has been distributing a Conservation Security Program
proposed rule comment response form at listening sessions and
state technical committee meetings. The Sustainable Agriculture
Coalition has developed answers to the NRCS questions, which is
available by clicking on "Suggested
Responses to NRCS 30 Comment Questions."
4. AMERICAN CORN GROWERS ASK
CONGRESS TO REJECT TRADE PACT
Keith Dittrich, president of the American
Corn Growers (ACGA) called upon the U.S. Congress to reject
the trade agreement signed this week by the Bush Administration
with Australia. "The measure fails to provide
adequate measures to safeguard America's dairy farmers and
livestock producers from increased imports of products already
in surplus in the U.S. The result will be increased
negative economic pressure on the entire production agriculture
sector of the U.S., which is already in dire financial
turmoil." ACGA's rank and file recently passed a Special
Order of Business on Trade Agreements at its twelfth annual
convention in Reno, Nevada, which includes a statement that
"The ACGA recognizes that current and proposed free trade
agreements enhance the multinational corporations' ability to
exploit natural resources and production labor around the world
at the expense of workers and traditional industry in the U.S.,
including family farmers" and a vow to oppose any trade
agreements "which advance other sectors of the U.S. economy
at the expense of U.S. farm families."
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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