First DUmmy BUnny alerts to the possibility that a democrats may outlaw dusty farms, perhaps appointing a Dust Czar.
Lagomorph (113 posts) Tue Jul-14-09 10:41 PM
Original message
EPA: Farming dust should be regulated
DES MOINES, Iowa - Nothing says summer in Iowa like a cloud of dust behind a combine.
But what may be a fact of life for farmers is a cause for concern to federal regulators, who are refusing to exempt growers from new environmental regulations.
It's left some farmers feeling bemused and more than a little frustrated.
"It's such a non-commonsense idea that you can keep dust within a property line when the wind blows," said Sen. Charles Grassley, a member of the Senate Agriculture Committee who still farms in northeast Iowa.
Under rules imposed in 2006, rural areas would be kept to the same standards as urban areas for what the Environmental Protection Agency calls "coarse particulate matter" in the air.
The American Farm Bureau Federation and the National Pork Producers Council had petitioned the government to provide an exemption to farmers. They argued that evidence of harm caused by dust in rural areas hasn't been determined.
But the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington ruled Tuesday that the EPA had already provided the evidence necessary to determine farm dust "likely is not safe."
Michael Formica, a lawyer for the pork council, said this means farmers face the daunting task of proving a negative - that the dust is not harmful...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6070190DUmmy vadawg apparently does not realize that farming practices are best left to be regulated democrats inside the Beltway.
vadawg (1000+ posts) Tue Jul-14-09 10:44 PM
Response to Original message
1. what next, dust from dirt roads, i hate to break it to the EPA
but stour from fields and dust are parts of the rural experience, i wouldnt swap the dust from my farmroad for all the pollution of the DC beltway no matter what.
lindisfarne (1000+ posts) Tue Jul-14-09 10:44 PM
Response to Original message
2. No-till farming would help. Saves the earthworms, too.
Rarely in a discussion of agriculture does someone stop to think of worm welfare.
lindisfarne (1000+ posts) Tue Jul-14-09 10:57 PM
4. EPA needs to worry about the effects of manure pits, pesticides, fertilizers, and yes, dust. They
need to evaluate the negative effects of each. They need to provide advice on how to mitigate negative effects if possible, and decide when the negative effects are so serious as to merit steps to prevent (such as not allowing CAFOs, making certain pesticides illegal, and so on).
The communists in the Kenyan's administration should outlaw manure, pesticides, fertilizers, and yes, dust.
None of those things would be necessary if we converted our national diet to exclusively frozen and canned foods. There's never a speck of dust when you open a DiGiorno's pizza box. No manure in a can of barbecued pork, as far as I can tell.
DUmmy tularetom understands the reasons for American agriculture being so inefficient and unproductive. With more government regulation, American farmers may someday be able to feed most of the world and provide an affordable diet for the masses of starving Americans.
tularetom (1000+ posts) Tue Jul-14-09 11:14 PM
Response to Reply #3
9. Sometimes farmers need to be told what to do for their own good
like the guys who planted the same crops year after year after year until they leached all the nitrogen and phosphorus out of the soil.
And the guys who didn't practice contour planting and watched their hillsides erode away from wind and water.
Yep farmers always know better than them pointy headed intellectuals workin for the guvmint.
Farmers are the best in the world at shitting in their own food dish.
And before somebody gets in my face I was a farm kid and I still live on 40 acres of dry pasture out here.
It would all probably work a lot better if they would take all the land away from the kulaks, then have the peasant farmers band together in communes. History tells us that collectivization is the way to maximize agricultural output, and be good stewards to the planet. And remember the children. And the earthworms.
