12/3/04

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1. Victory: Bad Riders Kept Out of Omnibus!
2. President Bush Nominates New Agriculture Secretary
3. Land Trust Alliance Releases Conservation Census
4. U.S. Outlaws Seed Saving In Iraq

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1. VICTORY: BAD RIDERS KEPT OUT OF OMNIBUS!

Two weeks ago, Senator Larry Craig (ID) attempted to include an amendment in the
FY05 Omnibus Appropriations bill that would have exempted CAFOs (and other major
agricultural emitters of pollution) from the requirement under the Superfund law
and the Community- Right-to-Know-Act to report hazardous
emissions and substances from their operations. There was also an attempt to use
the Omnibus bill to replace mandatory country of origin labelling (COOL) with a
voluntary labeling system. Thanks to the hard work of activists across the
country, neither of these bad provisions made it into the final bill.

2. PRESIDENT BUSH NOMINATES NEW AGRICULTURE SECRETARY

President Bush this week nominated Nebraska Governor Mike Johanns to replace Ann
Veneman as Secretary of the U. S. Department of Agriculture. Mike Johanns was
born in Iowa and raised on a dairy farm. He has been Governor of Nebraska since
1999. According to his online biography, "As Governor, he has promoted an agenda
of tax relief, less government, building the economy, protecting families, and
ensuring the health, safety, and success of Nebraska's children." Johanns also
serves as Chairman of the Governors' Biotechnology Partnership and continues to
serve as the state government representative on the advisory committee to the
Export-Import Bank of the United States. For his complete biography, see:
http://gov.nol.org/biography/index.html. For a summary on Governor Johanns'
stances on an array of issues, see: http://www.issues2000.org/Mike_Johanns.htm.

3. LAND TRUST ALLIANCE RELEASES CONSERVATION CENSUS

On November 18, the Land Trust Alliance, a national association representing
land trusts, released its census of lands conserved through the nation's land
trusts. The nation's local and regional land trusts have conserved over 9
million acres as of December 31, 2003, doubling the acreage protected just 5
years ago and creating an "everlasting legacy on the land," according to the
Land Trust Alliance's President Rand Wentworth. Indicating their growing
popularity at the local level, new land trusts are being formed at the rate of 2
per week, with the fastest-growing region being the West. Said Wentworth, "The
mission of land trusts is not just to save land, but to protect the traditional
lifestyles of a community, a way of life that remains connected to that land. 
This can mean saving the family farm, setting up a community garden or urban
park, ensuring the sustainability of a Southeastern forest, or conserving
ranchland in the American West." 

For more information, see:
http://www.lta.org/newsroom/pr_111804.htm

4. U.S. OUTLAWS SEED-SAVING IN IRAQ

GRAIN, a Spain-based NGO established in the1990s to slow genetic erosion among
food crops, last month released a scathing critique of agriculture-related
provisions put in place by the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq. Order 81
on "Patent, Industrial Design, Undisclosed Information, Integrated Circuits and
Plant Variety," overturns a long tradition of farm-saved seed in that country.
According to GRAIN's report, "This has been made illegal under the new law. The
seeds farmers are now allowed to plant - "protected" crop varieties brought into
Iraq by transnational corporations in the name of agricultural reconstruction -
will be the property of the corporations." "The new law is presented as being
necessary to ensure the supply of good quality seeds in Iraq and to facilitate
Iraq's accession to the WTO. What it will actually do is facilitate the
penetration of Iraqi agriculture by the likes of Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer and
Dow Chemical - the corporate giants that control seed trade across the glob
e."
The full report is available at: http://www.grain.org/articles/?id=6.

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Rural Updates!
Scotty Johnson and Aimee Delach
National Rural Community Outreach Campaign
sjohnson@defenders.org