 |
|
NEWS RELEASE
05/08/2002
| STATEMENT OF
ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE ON FARM BILL PASSAGE |
|
8 May, 2002 -- Washington)
Environmental Defense today released the following statement from
senior attorney Tim Searchinger on expected final passage of the
farm bill conference report by the U.S. Senate.
"The farm
bill represented a rare opportunity to reward farmers, ranchers and
private forest landowners for taking steps to help the environment.
Unfortunately, Congress decided instead to reward the nation's
largest farmers for plowing up environmentally critical grasslands
and woodlands to grow ever larger surpluses of feed grains, rice and
cotton.
"Under the new law, only 18% of payments to farmers
support conservation -- down from one-third in the last farm bill.
And because Congress has failed to meet even current demand for U.S.
Department of Agriculture (USDA) conservation spending, at least
one-third of farmers and ranchers seeking USDA assistance to protect
water quality and curb sprawl will continue to be rejected in the
coming years.
"While the Senate-passed Farm bill strongly
supported the most valuable conservation programs to protect crop
and grasslands from sprawl, restore wetlands and enhance wildlife
habitat, the bill approved by the Senate today disproportionately
cuts funding for the most valuable programs. Some of the
'conservation' spending approved by the Senate today will actually
harm the environment by funding the construction of huge manure
lagoons and dams.
"The most significant environmental
problem is that the bill provides huge incentives to plow up native
grasslands, in part because a key reform to curtail these perverse
incentives was surrendered by Senate negotiators. The result will be
the loss of millions of acres of wildlife habitat and increased
runoff of pollution into our rivers, lakes and bays. The increases
in conservation spending are outweighed by the environmental threats
posed by the unprecedented incentives to overproduce feed grains,
rice and cotton. For every acre of wildlife habitat saved as a
result of this farm bill, two or more acres of habitat will be
destroyed.
"Reasonable limits on subsidies designed to
protect small farmers were also deleted. As a result, a small number
of large farmers in a handful of states will continue to receive
most farm spending, while the vast majority of farmers will continue
to receive little or no USDA assistance. Thanks to this farm bill,
large farmers will also have unprecedented funds to swallow up their
smaller neighbors."
### Environmental Defense, a leading national
nonprofit organization based in New York, represents more than
300,000 members. Since 1967 we have linked science, economics, and
law to create innovative, equitable, and cost-effective solutions to
the most urgent environmental problems. | |
|
