Commentary: Proposed CAFO rules ‘significantly flawed’ are designed and ran federal policy under the 2004 so as not to have any presidential directive “Defense of ... many of today’s discharges. As no-disUnited States Agriculture and charge facilities, they merit such a livestock and poultry Food” and the 2007 National presumption under Section 308 Infrastructure Protection Plan farms are designed and should not be required to that treats livestock and poultry and ran so as not to report unless information applicafacilities as critical infrastructure have any discharges. to be protected from terrorist acts. ble specifically to them indicates otherwise. Lastly, “when people come onto Second, these two options would effectively create our members’ farms unauthorized (even without a publicly available “national registry” of the approx- malicious intent) and fail to follow their animal imately 20,000 farms the EPA says would be subject health protocols, the risk of disease and death for to this rule. This greatly raises the risk that these their animals increases exponentially. Contact with farms and many farm families will experience mali- people not following these practices is one of the top cious acts of violence and intimidation by extremists. methods for the transmission of animal disease Two such unlawful and violent incidents took place from farm to farm.” in California recently. Paap also said that the EPA’s third approach Third, such a national registry also creates unac- would use information already publicly available. ceptable national biosecurity risks inconsistent with The MFBF does not oppose this approach, but would oppose the EPA compiling that information into some kind of central registry because it to raises security and privacy concerns. Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation representing tural professionals. It is also the reason that the new farmers, families, food is comprised of 78 local Farm agricultural research discoveries that solve problems Bureau associations across Minnesota. Members for farmers are so important today. make their views known to political leaders, state govNational Agriculture Day is a day to celebrate the ernment officials, special interest groups and the gensuccess of American agriculture and reflect on what eral public. will be needed in the future. The University of MinPrograms for young farmers and ranchers develop nesota is committed to providing the research-based leadership skills and improve farm management. information farmers need to succeed — on National Promotion and Education Committee members Agriculture Day as well as the other 364 days of the work with programs such as Ag in the Classroom year. and safety education. Join Farm Bureau today and For more information on how University of Min- support our efforts to serve as an advocate for rural nesota Extension supports agriculture, log on to Minnesota, www.fbmn.org. ❖ www.extension.umn.edu/Agriculture. This commentary was submitted by Bev Durgan, The Trailers We dean of University of Minnesota Extension. ❖
OPINION
THE LAND, MARCH 9, 2012
The Minnesota Farm Bureau Federation submitted comments on behalf of Farm Bureau members from Minnesota to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on the proposed Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation reporting rule. In the comments, MFBF President Kevin Paap said that the proposed rule’s two primary options are significantly flawed because they exceed the EPA’s authority under the Clean Water Act while creating intense security, safety and privacy concerns for farmers. There is ample public information already available that the EPA can gather for CWA purposes. “We urge the EPA to pursue that approach instead.” Paap also said that the MFBF objects to the proposed rule’s two primary options for the following four reasons. First, many of today’s livestock and poultry farms
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Missions not just a one-day affair
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DURGAN, from pg. 2A Not only do we need to teach consumers about farming, but those of us who work in agriculture need to continually upgrade our knowledge. Food production is a technology business today. Guidance and GPS tools help put the crop in the field and micro-controllers move food safely from the field to the plate. One reason new agricultural graduates are in such high demand is they have science smarts and technology skills. They will learn that skill development does not stop at graduation. Agricultural careers require continual updating of skills and knowledge. That is one reason why we see such high participation in Extension programs that bring the latest knowledge to farmers and agricul-
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