6/8/04

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1.  NRCS: Where Has All The Money Gone? 
2.  My Hero's Have Always Been Farmers 
3.  "Sowing Secrecy" Finds BioPharming Is Back! 
4.  Conrad's Beef: Veneman Should Resign Over Mad Cow

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1.  NRCS:  WHERE HAS ALL THE MONEY GONE? 

What is the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service  (NRCS) doing with hundreds of millions of dollars from the  Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)?  

Defenders of Wildlife is trying to find out.  We want to know how much EQIP money NRCS is providing to factory farms for manure- related practices, such as building manure lagoons.  We also want to know what steps the NRCS is taking to ensure that this money is being used in an environmentally responsible manner.  

On November 20, 2003 Defenders requested information under the Freedom of  Information Act (FOIA).  NRCS provided only sketchy aggregate data that makes it impossible to know how much factory farms are getting and for what purpose.  This poses a problem.  While the NRCS has acknowledged that environmental review may be needed for some EQIP contracts, with incomplete data the public has no way of knowing what proposals are being funded or whether the environmental reviews are being done in accordance with law. We have appealed the NRCS's inadequate FOIA response and will keep readers tuned into developments.  Read more about this on-going issue in the next Rural Updates! newsletter. Read a NRDC report on the environmental effects of Factory Farming. 

2.  FARM AID FEATURES STEPS TO HEALTHY FOOD 

Country Crooner Willie Nelson and the gang at Farm Aid, including Neil Young, Dave Mathews and John Mellancamp, have put out a new publication designed to inspire consumption of family farmed and sustainably grown food.  

Called "10 Ways To Ensure Healthy Food for You and Your Family", the new pamphlet is a fresh guide to right-buying for consumers.  It details steps that eaters can take to support local farmers through CSA's (Community Supported Agriculture), farmer cooperatives and farmers markets.  It outlines labels to look for to ensure the product is sustainably raised, resources and groups to connect with for the activist eater, and even has hints on how to get kids involved in growing and preparing healthy food.  

Over the years Farm Aid has worked to keep farmers on their land through public awareness and fund raising.  This new publication unites that abiding concern with a growing vision of agro-ecology that can produce delicious and nutritious food while advancing sustainable agriculture. 

3.  "SOWING SECRECY" FINDS BIOPHARMING IS BACK 

A new report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) reveals that the practice of using genetic engineering to grow drugs or industrial chemicals in food crops has enjoyed a quiet resurgence over the past year. The practice, often referred to as "biopharming," was in retreat for a while after a July 2002 incident in which the company Prodigene was fined for allowing experimental biopharm corn to contaminate a batch of soybeans intended for human food.  

However, the CSPI, in its report "Sowing Secrecy," found that companies had submitted 16 new applications for permits to plant biopharm crops, and about two- thirds of these involved food crops such as corn, rice and barley.  

According to CSPI, "virtually every other salient detail about the application—-sometimes even the name of the drug or chemical being produced—-is shielded from public view." "It is impossible to know whether these biopharmed crops present any food-safety or environmental risk, since the whole process is shrouded in secrecy," said Gregory Jaffe, director of CSPI's biotechnology project and the author of the report. "Even the Food and Drug Administration is out of the loop." 

4.  CONRADS BEEF:  VENEMAN SHOULD RESIGN OVER MAD COW 

On May 20, the Washington Post broke a story that revealed the U.S. Department of Agriculture had invoked secret permits that allowed 33 million pounds of banned Canadian Beef products into the United States over a period of six months.  

According to the Bozeman based Agri-News, "the imports began just days after Secretary of Ag, Ann Veneman's August announcement that USDA was banning those exact products out of an `abundance of caution' to protect US consumers and the U.S. cattle industry from further risk of bovine spongiform encephalopathy. (BSE)."  

In response to this, Senator Kent Conrad has written a letter to President Bush saying that "It now appears that the USDA has secretly and selectively violated its own publicly announced ban on the importation of processed beef from Canada."  Conrad continued saying, "In fact, the report is so damaging to the credibility  of the USDA that I believe you should ask the Secretary of Agriculture to resign."  The AgriNews quote Representative Earl Pomeroy as saying what Veneman allowed under her watch was "a violation of her responsibility to the American public." 

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